Southern {LOVE} Biscuits
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Southern “Love” Biscuits made with bread flour — and cut with a heart-shaped biscuit cutter — are deliciously light and flaky homemade buttermilk biscuits with a buttery crust.
Weekend breakfasts are my favorite. It doesn’t matter if we have homemade waffles or pancakes, omelets, or a full country breakfast with homemade biscuits, the best part is enjoying the leisurely morning coffee and conversation.
When I was asked to participate in National Hot Breakfast Month, featuring homemade buttermilk biscuits was a no-brainer. I’m a born and bred Southern girl, after all!
Homemade buttermilk biscuits
I don’t bake biscuits every weekend, but when I do, I’m reminded of how I learned biscuit baking basics from my Dad.
That’s right, my tough and gruff Dad made the best biscuits and red-eye gravy. For city folks, red-eye gravy is made by adding brewed coffee to country ham pan drippings.
This year for Valentine’s Day, I made what I’m calling Southern LOVE Biscuits for my hubby. All homemade biscuits are made with LOVE, of course, but I used a heart-shaped cutter for a little extra biscuit LOVE. Cheesy, I know!
I made these for the second time today and they were even better than the first time! Flaky and light, great with my homemade raspberry jam!
— Joyce Ellen
Instructions
- Sift flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and sugar into a large bowl. Drop in 3 heaping forkfuls of shortening and blend into the flour mixture with the fork (or pastry blender) until it becomes coarse crumbs.
- Add buttermilk all at once and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened, or you have a shaggy dough.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 4 to 5 times, patting into a disc. (DO NOT over knead.) Roll to about 1/2 inch thick.
- Cut with a biscuit cutter dipped in flour and place onto a baking sheet. Brush gently with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse ground black pepper.
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Brush the tops again with melted butter while the biscuits are still hot from the oven.
tips
- Use COLD fat in your recipe. No matter if it’s Crisco shortening or butter, be sure to keep it refrigerated until you are ready to add to your dough. I use about 3 forkfuls of shortening (approximately 1/3 cup) in my biscuits and instead of using a pastry blender, I use the same fork to incorporate it into the flour.
- Don’t overwork the dough. Once you add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir only until the dry ingredients are barely moistened. No need to beat that dough to death!
- Don’t over-knead the dough. Are you seeing a pattern here? Kneading on a lightly floured surface 4 to 5 times should be sufficient. More than that will result in tough biscuits.
- Use bread flour. Although I grew up baking with self-rising flour, I’ve learned that using bread flour results in really flaky biscuit layers.
FAQs
All-purpose flour may be substituted in the biscuit recipe below, but the texture of the biscuits will be firmer.
Besides adding great flavor, buttermilk adds acidity and fat to biscuits, helping the dough rise.
Pour a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into a one cup measure. Pour enough milk into the cup to finish filling it up. Whisk together, then leave it along for 5 minutes. Use as you would buttermilk in any recipe.
Overworking the biscuit dough may result in the fat melting before the biscuits make it to the oven. Using cold fat (both the shortening and the buttermilk) forms small pockets in the dough so that as the fat melts in the oven, the leavening agent has room to rise in its place.
Related recipes
- Savory Ricotta Scones
- Bacon Cheddar Scones
- Pimento Cheese Muffins
- And a bonus recipe… Homemade Blueberry Jam!
Southern Love Biscuits recipe
To get a beautiful crust on my biscuits, I brush them with melted butter and sprinkle with a little black pepper before baking. When the biscuits come out of the oven, I brush them again with melted butter which results in a nice crispy, buttery crust.
Even though we usually have sausage or bacon, eggs, and gravy with our biscuits, I ALWAYS end my country breakfast meal with a hot biscuit smothered in honey. I call this my breakfast dessert.
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Southern {LOVE} Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups sifted bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Sift flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and sugar into a large bowl.
- Drop in 3 heaping forkfuls of shortening and blend into the flour mixture with the fork (or pastry blender) until it becomes coarse crumbs.
- Add buttermilk all at once and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened, or you have a shaggy dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead 4 to 5 times, patting into a disc. (DO NOT over knead.)
- Roll to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter dipped in flour and place onto a baking sheet. Brush gently with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse ground black pepper.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and brush again with melted butter.
Notes
- Use COLD fat . No matter if it’s Crisco shortening or butter, be sure to keep it refrigerated until you are ready to add to your dough.
- Don’t overwork the dough. Once you add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir only until the dry ingredients are barely moistened.
- Don’t over-knead the dough. Kneading on a lightly floured surface 4 to 5 times should be sufficient. More than that will result in tough biscuits.
Nutrition
Life Love and Good Food does not claim to be a registered dietician or nutritionist. Nutritional information shared on this site is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
The following companies generously sponsored various #hotforbreakfast month projects. I may not have used all of them in my recipes, but this project is in no small part thanks to them and their incredible contributions: Bee Raw, Bob’s Red Mill, Made in Nature, Maple Valley Syrup Cooperative, Now Foods, Pacific Foods, & Woodstock.
Hello! I am about to make your recipe but I only have margarine and I have bacon grease, as long as these are cold may I use them interchangeably since they are both a fat? I know the margarine is heart breaking but unfortunately or fortunately however one looks at it, I am on a food stamps income and have 2 days before I can buy real butter if I don’t have a comment before I start I’ll comment how it goes!
Hi, Amanda. You may certainly use melted margarine to brush the tops of the biscuits, but I wouldn’t use it in the dough because it has a high water content and your results may not be as expected. My recipe actually used vegetable shortening, do you have that in your pantry? Also, if you want to try a bacon grease biscuit recipe, take a look at this one from Bensa Bacon Lovers Society. It uses a combo of bacon fat and butter, so the amount of butter you’d need would be less than substituting butter for the vegetable shortening in my recipe. Good Luck!
Thank you!
These biscuits are awesome, easy and most of all delicious served with honey butter.
This is the recipe that taught me to make biscuits 5 years ago and it’s the only one I use. It’s so yummy, so easy to follow, that my 7 year old regularly says, “I could really go for some homemade biscuits, Mama!” Also, I might now be a little judgemental on biscuits and my mother isn’t allowed to make them since she over kneads her dough…
Oh, how nice to hear that! Glad to have helped you become a pro biscuit maker!
I made this recipe, and I love it the best biscuits I’ve every tried. I will keep this and hand it down to my grandkids and great grandchildren. Thanks for sharing this recipe I will be looking for some more of your recipes.
Doshie, you just made my day! Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter to keep up with all the good stuff coming up! Have a blessed day!
I’ve been on a mission to find the fluffiest, softest, and buttery-ist biscuit recipe and I have finally found the perfect one!! I have made a lot of biscuits in my quest. I am so happy that I thought to look for a biscuit recipe that uses bread flour and so lucky to have have found your recipe — I want to thank your Dad for showing you the way. I will make these always and forever, and if you do too, then you’ll have amazing biscuits that are to die for!!!
I made these for the second time today and they were even better than the first time! Flaky and light, great with my homemade raspberry jam! The only thing I did different this time is put in 1 tsp salt, rather than 1/2. And so easy to make, didn’t take more than a half hour or so.
Made these “dough gods” today. They are the closest thing to my dear mama’s biscuits. I’ll be making them again. Sent the recipe to my sister. I only had 2% milk and I added the vinegar like the recipe called for if you did not have buttermilk. Delicious!
Could unbaked biscuits be frozen and baked from frozen later? Only 2 of us around my house 🙂 If so, what oven temperature and time would you suggest? Thank you!
Erica, yes, I believe freezing the biscuits before baking would work just fine. To bake from frozen, increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake for a couple minutes longer. Let me know how they turn out for you!
Hi! Just wanted to chime in and say that this recipe is fantastic. The bread flour makes them perfect, too. I keep a tub of Crisco in the freezer just so I can make these on a whim. As a daughter of Southerners, I can say that you had me when I saw that beautiful vintage sifter and biscuit cutter in the photo–just like I remember my mom using.
Cicely, what a nice review! Thanks so much for sharing—that sifter is indeed a treasure 🙂
I have tried soo many biscuit recipes over my 18 years as a wife and mother. Every biscuit turning out different from the rest. I also tried my grandma’s homemade biscuits, but still not that right recipe I was looking for. But today, looking at what i had to use in the pantry to make biscuits this time, i only had bread flour, never used that before, but searched for recipes using the flour, I found yours! What can I say! Thank you so much! I will never have to seek another recipe for that biscuit I have been looking for for so long! I love them and family also!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! And God bless you.
Angela, there’s nothing like finding the right recipe for the ingredients you have on hand! So glad you like this version 🙂
How many biscuits do you get from this recipe?
Jessica, that will depend on the size of your biscuit cutter – typically you will get 12 to 16 biscuits.
Thank you so much! I’m making them for dinner tonight! 🙂 Happy cooking!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I am currently living in Japan, and biscuits don’t exist here (not even at KFC; instead, they sell some biscuit-like bread-looking concoction). The results were fantastic! Soft, flaky, and flavorful. Thanks so much!
Oh, my! Thanks so much, Damon! Glad you liked the recipe and it’s so cool that you are reading my blog from Japan! Share some of those biscuits with your neighbors and show them what they’ve been missing 🙂
I’ve tried soooo many biscuit recipes, but honestly, this is the best one ever, so I’m going to stop looking for others. I love the texture bread flour gives the biscuits. I’ve never used sugar in biscuits before and didn’t think 1/2 tsp would make enough difference to even tell, but it did and they were perfect. I pat my dough out into a square, then use a knife to cut the dough into 9 squares. This is my easy way and prevents having to re-roll the scraps, although I love the look of your heart-shaped biscuits!
In fact, the recipe is so good, that I used it as the base for strawberry shortcakes. Same exact recipe, but I added 1/4 cup sugar and a tiny bit more milk to make the dough a drop biscuit consistency, and spread into a 9″ cake pan. Baked, then cut into wedges and served with strawberries and whipped cream. Everyone loved it and asked for my recipe. 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
Trina, I am so happy to hear that you tried AND loved my Southern biscuits! I’m with you — this recipe is definitely a keeper!
I’ve been looking for a recipe to put the pieces in place. My adjustments were 1 tsp sugar, just because. 3 tbsp grated cold butter and 2 forkfulls of shortening. We had ran out of milk but I had heavy cream, so I went with half cup cream, 1/2 c water, tbsp of vinegar. Made a fabulous buttermilk. They turned out phenomenal. Thanks for the recipe!
Katie, sounds like your adjustments worked just perfectly for you! I often have to make my own “buttermilk” as that’s not something that is always found in my fridge.
These are the awesome! I made them for Valentine’s Day to go with sausage gravy and they were so, so good. Thank god I had a few left that I could slather with butter and honey. So flaky and light – beyond delicious. The best biscuits I have ever made!
Stephanie, thanks so much for sharing that comment with me! I’m thrilled that you like the “LOVE” biscuits – Happy Valentine’s Day! Sheila
I made these on a whim last night and they turned out perfectly. I used butter and coconut oil since I didn’t have shortening on hand, but that was the only change I made. We topped them with Grandma’s homemade apple butter. So good!
Sorry – I meant bread flour!
Thanks, Rhonda! Please let me know what you think once you get that bread flour 🙂
I missed this post somehow, but will try the biscuit recipe as soon as I can get to the store for the cake flour! Love that they are so flaky! Looks delish! I’m sure hubby appreciated the heart shape! 🙂
I love these! I need to get a thick heart shaped cutter; my little one would especially like it. Thanks for sharing what red eye gravy is, I’ve heard of it but didn’t know.
Well aren’t they just the cutest little biscuits ever! Love them Sheila!
Thank you, Lynda! They were fun to make and totally a last minute idea…seeing as how it was Valentine’s Day after all 😉