Southern Biscuit Recipe (3 Ingredients Only)
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Crafted with a mere trio of essential ingredients, this timeless Southern biscuit recipe stands as an enduring cornerstone of Southern culinary tradition. These biscuits, embodying a perfect fusion of simplicity and flavor, hold a cherished place in Southern households. Soft, fluffy, and undeniably delectable, they transcend the boundaries of mealtime, seamlessly transitioning from a morning indulgence to a savory accompaniment for dinner.
Each bite carries with it a taste of Southern heritage, a testament to the art of Southern comfort food. The simplicity of the ingredients belies the rich and comforting flavors that emerge from the oven. Tender and buttery, they exude a warmth that envelopes the senses. Slathered with butter or adorned with gravy, these biscuits become a canvas for a multitude of culinary delights, adapting effortlessly to various accompaniments. These flaky butter biscuits go perfect so many types of soups like Creamy Vegetable Soup, Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe, Vegan Butternut Squash Soup, and Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Ingredients To Make Homemade Biscuits
- (self-rising)
- Shortening
- Milk or buttermilk
Helpful Kitchen Tools
How to Make This Classic Southern Biscuit Recipe
Place the flour into a medium bowl and add the shortening. Cut in with a fork or pastry cutter.
It will look like this when you are done.
Not incredibly different but you won’t be able to really see the shortening anymore once it is incorporated into the flour.
Most recipes will tell you to cut the shortening into the flour until it resembles peas. I’ve never, in my life, seen peas that look like this, or a flour/shortening mixture that looked like peas. It must have been a high imagination day when that analogy was thought up.
Add in your milk.
Stir that milk in until your dough starts to stick together good.
Sprinkle flour onto a surface. I like to lay out a piece of parchment paper and sprinkle it on top of that for easy clean-up later.
Dump your biscuit dough out onto the floured surface.
Now you need to knead it.
However, you don’t want to over-knead it or you’ll end up with my Daddy’s hockey pucks.
I tell my kids “In biscuits, as in relationships, it’s never good to be too kneady.” LOL
Then, I cut your Southern biscuits.
Cut your biscuits with a biscuit cutter or small glass that has been dipped into flour to keep the cut biscuits from sticking to it.
Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and place your cut biscuits in it, making sure the sides touch. This helps them to rise because they support each other as they bake and rise up.
I tell my kids “You want them touching because biscuits are like good friends, they help each other rise up.”
Bake these at 500 for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
Remove from oven and brush tops of these classic southern biscuits with melted butter, if you’d like. Enjoy all the delicious .
How To Store Homemade Biscuits
- Store leftover biscuits in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Reheat in a low oven or in the air fryer.
- You can also freeze the baked biscuits or unbaked for up to 3 months. Thaw both the and overnight in the fridge before reheating as above or following the instructions.
Recipe FAQs
Why does the recipe have such a large range for how much milk to use?
Sometimes, your flour will need a little more, sometimes a little less. I could have used a little more in this tutorial but it’ll turn out just fine. Biscuits are really hard to mess up, so if yours end up a little dry, no worries, they’ll still be delicious! They’ll actually absorb honey and butter a little better. My daddy used to make hockey puck biscuits on Sunday morning but they still tasted good and we gobbled ’em all down! What’s even better, if there were any left we could use them as weapons on each other out in the backyard. Always a plus side!
How do I avoid over-kneading my Southern biscuit dough?
To avoid over-kneading, I press my dough into a ball and then press it out flat. I do this no more than two or three times. The dough should still stretch. If it rips or tears then it’s probably over kneaded. So once the dough is soft and springs back a little, it’s done.
Can I Create Any Variations With This Recipe?
Here are some fun variations to make with this Southern biscuit recipe:
-
- For a savory alternative, add shredded cheddar cheese, chopped chives, or chopped bacon to your dough.
- For sweet, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar into your dough.
- To make a scone-like biscuit, add dried fruits.
What Can I Serve With These Biscuits?
These pair best with your favorite Southern . This might be fried chicken, , pimento cheese dip, or bacon, egg, and cheese for the ultimate breakfast sandwich.
You may also enjoy these other Southern biscuit recipes:
- Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits
- Pimento Cheese Biscuits
- Easy Chicken and Dumplings (With Canned Biscuit)
- Biscuit Pretzels
- Drop Biscuits Recipe
- Homemade Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups White Lily self-rising flour see notes if using all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 2/3-3/4 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees and lightly spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Place flour into a medium bowl and cut in the shortening until well incorporated. Stir in just enough milk until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl.2 cups White Lily self-rising flour, 1/4 cup shortening, 2/3-3/4 cup milk
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead two or three times. Roll dough out to 1/2-inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter or small glass that has been dipped in flour. Place the biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Who taught you how to make biscuits? Who made the biscuits in your family? Maybe you’ve never had a biscuit or to you, a “biscuit” is what we think of like a cookie – that’s just fine, too.
I will be trying this recipe and maybe they will be much better than the can biscuits I use now. My husband will be so happy. He loves biscuits. IF I do not win this giveaway (LOL) will White Lily sell me one of the “Save The Biscuit” t-shirts. I would really love to have one.
Thanks!
I have been making biscuits for 61 years. My mother taught me. She made biscuits every day twice a day for breakfast and supper. My uncle once came home as a young man and my grandma had saved him a pan of biscuits for supper but that was all. He ate 32 biscuits because he counted the spaces where they had been! I won blue ribbons in 40H club for my biscuits when I was 12. Still love biscuits especially with chocolate gravy.
I am an Alabama native and my great-grandmother made biscuits every morning in a large wooden bowl that was her “biscuit bowl”. It lived in the flour bin and was never used for anything else. I can remember her making those biscuits and I am so happy that I have inherited that bowl for my own biscuit making. Biscuits and gravy is one of my all time favorites. This brings back a lot of memories.
In my home, growing up in Alabama, I do not remember a SINGLE day of my childhood that there wasn’t a pan of biscuits made at least once a day. When I went away to college, that was the one food I could make really well…maybe too well. My roommate’s boyfriend bragged about my biscuits and (oops) asked me to teach Beth how to make them my way…that almost ruined both a wonderful friendship and their relationship. Thankfully, I handled the situation diplomatically — I claimed no special skill of my own. It was just the White Lily flour that I used! She began using White Lily flour, too, and her biscuits became a success, too. 🙂
I remember watching my mama make biscuits when I was a little girl. We’d climb up on the counter and be covered in flour. Ironically she used White Lily for all her baking needs. She never trusted any other flour. When my girls were little they watched and helped me make biscuits and I’ve followed suit with the boys as they have gotten older. They love playing in flour and helping nanny make any kind of baked goodies.
When I was small, we would go to Lewisburg, TN and spend the weekends with my mother’s aunt and uncle on the farm. Aunt Orlean made the most wonderful biscuits and she never measured anything, just threw ingredients into a bowl and they came out perfect every time! My daddy called them “cat head biscuits” because they were so big! My mom tried but never could duplicate those biscuits; poor thing, her biscuits always came out (as she herself said) “flat as a flitter”. I think she over-kneaded the dough, so we always had canned biscuits at home. But I remember those huge, fluffy biscuits with sorgham molasses down in Marshall County TN.
I grew up at home with my precious Mama making the biscuits. Daddy passed on when I was 7, and my older sis got married when I was 6 (I’m the youngest of 9 children and it was just the 2 of us still at home by the time my grandparents adopted me). Mama always made her biscuits with this recipe, making a large one to put in the middle of the pan (she used a pie plate and put the regular biscuits around it) that she called the pone. That was saved for her breakfast the next morning after I left for school with bacon grease gravy over it. However, it was my older sister, Susie, who taught me to make the biscuits. They were served at every supper and most breakfasts. We make them the same as your recipe, except we don’t use a pastry cutter, but put our White Lily Self-Rising Flour in the large Pyrex bowl (the only way to make them is with these 2 specific name brands!), then we make a well in the flour and add our buttermilk. Then we work our shortening into the buttermilk with our fingers, and slowly work the flour into the buttermilk mixture in a circular motion, going around the bowl and drawing the flour into it. This mixes it all just enough and kneads it at the same time (yes, it takes a bit of practice not to overwork it the dough this way) and then we form the biscuits with our hands and put them in a greased pie plate and bake them off. So light and airy and fluffy!!!! I’m in my 50’s now and still make them this same way and am teaching my grandchildren to make them now. Yummmm….thank you for this post showcasing not only a quintessential food in my home, but also the only brand of flour I use (and yes, I use the self-rising for all of my other recipes, too). 🙂