Perfecting outrageously flaky buttermilk biscuits has been on my culinary bucket list for years. Finally conquering this southern classic, I want to show you how easy it is to do the same!

These buttermilk biscuits are flakier than a millennial showing up to work a minimum wage job. OK, nothing is that flaky, but these are still close. Lately, I've been absolutely obsessed with biscuits, making them once a week or so. I'm happy to say I have the recipe nailed, and I am excited to share it with you.

I have been trying to perfect the classic southern buttermilk biscuit for years, but no recipe or method I tried gave me the towering, flaky biscuit I desired. Sure, a lot of recipes out there will yield delicious biscuits, but I want them to reach the sky and be a light as air! If you want the same, read on...

The problem with baking is the method is as important as the recipe. So, to execute the recipe perfectly, let me help you understand the method.

How to Make Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

Butter: Butter is the key to towering flaky biscuits. The most important part of this recipe is to keep the butter as cold as possible so it does not melt in the dough before it goes in the oven. That is why I recommend freezing the butter and working the dough with your hands as little as possible. 

Ideally, the butter will be in solid little pieces within the dough that melt during baking, creating little air pockets. Adding baking powder and baking soda to the recipe helps make these air pockets larger as they give the biscuits rise.

It is for this same reason we cut the dough in half and stack it on itself four times in this recipe. Just like making croissants, this technique creates layer upon layer of butter pockets. 

Finally, cutting the dough is as important as the layering you just created. You need a nice clean cut that doesn't squish the vertical edges of the biscuit. You need these edges to be able to expand and rise without restriction. If the side of your biscuit round is pressed or squished, it is like having an anchor on it.

How to Cut Biscuits

You can cut your biscuits into rectangles if you wish to maximize your dough, I recommend using a sharp knife for this. However, I like to make mine into classic rounds. For this, I use a thin round cookie cutter.

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If you are making flaky buttermilk biscuits it would be an unforgivable sin (seriously, I think it is in the Bible, check Leviticus) not to make a hearty batch of Sawmill Gravy to slather over it. Check out my recipe!

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