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.
My Mama was famous for her “catshead” biscuits. A lot of the relatives (especially the male ones) would just rave about them .Every once in a while someone will mention Aunt Bertha’s biscuits. I sure miss her and those biscuits that I can’t make like hers. And, yes, White Lilly was the only flour in the cabinet…
Oh, my gosh! I was telling a friend this story just the other day! My mother had a flour bin in the cabinet. For folks that are not familiar with a flour bin, it looked like a door, but you pulled it out and dumped your flour (that came in a flour sack) into it. She also kept her little aluminum biscuit pan in there, along with a sheet of newspaper that also had a piece of waxed paper on top of it which was folded up together; she re-used this several times before it got messy and had to be tossed. She didn’t waste anything.) When it was time to make the biscuits, she took out the paper (her version of a pastry sheet nowadays) and her biscuit pan, with some flour in it. She then made a little well in the middle where the lard and buttermilk were placed. Then with very little motion, using her pointed four fingers (she didn’t use her thumb) she combined the ingredients – NEVER touching the side of the pan with the milk and lard, or combined dough. I never could figure that out, even though I watched her many times. Then she removed the dough, laid it on her homemade pastry sheet that was dusted with flour (remember it had most likely already been used before, but was still clean), proceeded to knead the dough, roll it out, and cut the biscuits. Oh my goodness. Waking up to a breakfast of those biscuits, with gravy, bacon or sausage that my daddy had “processed”, with home grown tomatoes in the summer, or sometimes fried potatoes, or occasionally a special treat of chocolate gravy! Oh, if I could only be transported back in time. That beat any Cracker Barrel breakfast I have ever eaten. Sweet, sweet memories. People worked hard for what they had, and lived off the land. That was truly the good ole days.
Wow. I had utterly forgotten that my nannie, Emma Elizabeth Lawrence Faust, used her four fingers also. You have triggered the memory of those small tapered fingers drawing the flour into the center like a little hoe with the handle flat with the blade. I think I left her married name off my original post, but there are too many now to go back through to know!
My grandmother made these biscuits in her wood cook stove. I remember smelling the wood every morning then smelling the biscuits. We always had sorghum to go along with them. The leftover biscuits were always stored in the warmer on top of the stove. We could eat on them all day. My mother made the same biscuits. She had my grandmothers old rolling pin,flour cloth and wood cutting board that she rolled the dough on. She even had grandmothers biscuit cutter. I now have that same rolling pin,cutting board and biscuit cutter and I use them to make the same biscuits. Took me a while to get it right but I finally mastered the art of making a good biscuit. Hope my daughters and granddaughters do the same.
I remember my grandma, Millie loved to cook and she always made a pot of soup or a platter of fried chicken and a home made cake with fudge icing and she would get on the phone and call as many of her seven children and their families to come eat. Loved my ol praying grandma.
I learned to make biscuits from several wonderful cooks. My Mom, both grands and my mother in law. They all made wonderful biscuits and each one had their own special way. I learing different techniques from each of them. All of them are now deceased but their memoires live on in the way I cook as well as in our hearts. I could make great cornbread by the time I was seven but biscuits took me a bit longer to perfect for some reason.
Oh the wonderful biscuits that my sweet Mother made every morning at 4:30 before she had to go to work at the cotton mill. She had asthma and hay fever and the dust from sifting the flour made her sick, so I would get up with her at 4:30 and sift the flour for her so that she would not get sick. It took me many years to realize that I could do this before I went to bed and I would not have to get up so early. As I look back and reflect, I wish I had never realized that as when I was 15, she was taken from me in a car accident. I cherish the time I got to spend with her and only wish that I had much more than I got. Those wonderful biscuit will forever be in my memories and they were so delicious. That is my memory of biscuits at home growing up.
I cannot honestly say I have a memory of who taught me to make biscuits. I know we had them usually on Saturday mornings with bacon and eggs. I do remember very distinctly who taught me to make homemade bread and that was my daddy’s mother, my sweet 4’8″ Grandma! She made bread at least twice a week when I was a child but I’m sure she made it more often when she was raising 6 children. I can still see her standing at her kitchen table with her flowered apron covering the front of her dress. She would have her sleeves rolled up past her elbows and her hands deep into the bread dough. She knead into her dough around two more cups of flour until she had the right elasticity. She would divide the dough into 3 or 4 loaves and knead each portion awhile longer. Her baking pans were dark with many years of oils having been baked in and I believe this was part of the secret to the wonderful crusts that her loaves of bread had. We kids could hardly wait for the baking process to finish and then we would fight over who got the heal end of the loaf with mostly crust although we were still very happy with a slice that was very soft and savory. The only reason I can think of for wanting the crusty end, other than it tasted good, was being a little more hardy it would hold more butter and homemade jam than the softer slices…lol!
Having made bread for more than 60 years my grandma’s little hands were like steel grips. I witnessed, more than once, a gentleman shaking her hand as they were leaving church, wince and then rub his hand as he walked away. : )
I was four years old when she started teaching me the art of bread making for which I will always cherish.