Easy Buttermilk Biscuits
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One dough, two sweet and savory variations of the most perfectly flaky Buttermilk Biscuits – savory cheddar chive, and sweet honey butter!
Looking for more sides to accompany your favorite meal? Try Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan and Balsamic, Crispy Parmesan Green Beans, and Best Simple Tossed Salad.
Whether you save buttermilk biscuit making for holidays (like I used to) or whether you feel like you don’t need to save the deliciousness that is homemade biscuits for special occasions (how I am now), you’ll want to add these cheddar chive and honey butter biscuits to your recipe routine ASAP.
Here’s How You Make It
- First, preheat the oven to 450 degrees and then put down parchment paper onto a baking sheet. (not pictured)
- Next, take out a large bowl and in it, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder). Take out two of the cups of this mixture and put them into another large bowl. (photo 1)
- Add garlic powder, cheese, and chives to the first flour bowl and stir to combine. Use a box grater to grate 6 tablespoons of cold butter right into the flour and cheese mixture. Add half of the buttermilk and stir till you have a nice, soft dough. (Alternately you can use a food processor for this step.) (photo 2)
- Now take the dough and move it to a lightly floured surface and knead it for 1-2 minutes or until it comes together nicely. Then, using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a nice, thick rectangle (about 1-inch-thickness) and use a 2 ½-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter to cut the dough into 6 biscuits. Place them next to each other (sides touching) on the baking sheet. (photos 5-6, 8-9)
- Next, move on to the sweet biscuits. In the second bowl of the flour mixture, whisk in 2 teaspoons of sugar, grate the butter, and stir it all together. Then add the buttermilk and stir again until a soft dough forms. (photos 3-4)
- Knead the sweet dough on a lightly floured surface for about 1-2 minutes, or until the dough just comes together. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into 1 inch thick, and then use the same cookie cutter to cut out another 6 biscuits. Place these side by side on a different baking sheet or the same one that has the savory biscuits — up to you, but make sure the sides of the biscuits are touching. (photo 7)
- Brush the tops of the buttermilk biscuits all with leftover or extra buttermilk and pop them in the oven to bake for 15-18 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. (photo 10)
- While the biscuits are baking, make the honey butter by creaming together the butter, honey, and cinnamon. (not pictured)
- Let the homemade biscuits cool for 2-3 minutes and then add the honey butter to the tops of the sweet biscuits and serve right away. (not pictured)
Why This Recipe Works
Two-for-one — With just one simple buttermilk biscuit dough and one pan, you are getting two varieties of biscuits after baking – cheddar and chive for the savory biscuit fans and golden honey butter for those who just can’t resist that hint of cinnamon honey sweetness.
Simple ingredients — I stick to easy-to-find ingredients like flour, butter, cheese, honey, and spices you already have in your spice cabinet.
Easily doubles — Got a crowd? These will have you covered. This recipe makes 12 (6 sweet and six savory) but you can easily double (or triple) for those special occasions…or when you just need all the leftovers.
Done in 40 minutes — If you don’t have a lot of time, that’s okay, these flaky biscuits only take 20 minutes to prep and about 20 to cook, so you can have these hot and on the table in no time!
Expert Tips
- Don’t separate these easy buttermilk biscuits on the baking sheet. Biscuits should be touching on the sides – this helps them to rise high and develop those deliciously flaky layers we love!
- For easier cutting-in of the butter for the biscuits, use a box grater to shave the butter into the flour mixture rather than using a fork or pastry cutter. Once you try it this way, you’ll never go back!
- Although I like to spread the honey butter on top of the buttermilk biscuits right out of the oven, there’s nothing that says you shouldn’t make a little extra honey butter and serve it on the side. A little on top, a little inside…a whole lotta delicious.
- When cutting out the biscuits, be sure to only press down and pull back up — do not twist the cutter as it will seal the edges of the biscuits and not allow them to rise to their full potential!
- Want to make a cheddar and rosemary variation? Simply omit the chives and add 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary.
More Simple and Delicious Side Dish Recipes
- Best Baked Potato Wedges
- Creamy Parmesan Spinach Orzo
- Honey Brown Sugar Roasted Carrots
- One Hour Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
- Olive Garden Breadsticks
- Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Did you make these easy homemade buttermilk biscuits? YAY! Please rate the recipe below!
Flaky Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 12 tablespoons cold butter, (¾ cup), divided
- 1 ¾ cup cold buttermilk, divided
- 4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated
- ¼ cup finely chopped chives, see note for rosemary variation
- 2 teaspoons sugar
honey butter
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Transfer two cups of the flour mixture into a second large bowl and set aside.
- Add garlic powder, cheese, and chives to the first flour bowl and stir to combine. Use a box grater to grate 6 tablespoons of the cold butter and stir into the flour and cheese mixture. Add half of the buttermilk and stir until a soft dough forms.
- Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for 1-2 minutes until it comes together. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1 inch thick. Use a 2 1/2-inch round biscuit or cookie cutter to cut out 6 biscuits. Place side by side on prepared baking sheet so that the sides are touching.
- Move on to the second bowl of reserved flour mixture. Whisk in 2 teaspoons sugar. Grate butter and stir into flour mixture. Stir in buttermilk until a soft dough forms.
- Knead on floured surface 1-2 minutes until the dough comes together. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1 inch thick. Use a 2 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter or cookie cutter to cut out 6 biscuits. Place side by side on prepared baking sheet (same baking sheet as the cheddar chive biscuits) so that the sides are touching.
- Brush all of the biscuits with a bit of extra buttermilk and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown. While biscuits are baking, cream together butter, honey, and cinnamon. Allow biscuits to cool for 2-3 minutes, then top the non cheddar and chive biscuits with honey butter. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi. Thanks for putting the work into providing us with these beautiful recipes. I was looking for a new cornbread recipe which led me to your page. I’ll be making that this evening. Then I saw a link for these biscuits and I am so excited to make them. I have one question. In the instructions, you mentioned a couple of times to make sure the sides of the biscuits are touching when placed on the cookie sheet, but I noticed the biscuits are not touching in the pictures or the video. Can you please clarify if I should have the biscuits touching, or if I should leave space – or if it will make a difference? Thank you <3
Sorry for the confusion! Yes, you want them touching as this helps them rise and not spread and flatten 🙂
These came out great! Savoury biscuits to have with our chowder and sweet biscuits with tea later on. I added orange zest and dried cranberries to the sweet batch. Very versatile and quick to make.
This recipe is a little confusing. I would rather see it as two separate recipes so I could make one or the other rather than assuming I use half of the flour mixture and proceed from there to make either recipe.
I’m sorry about the confusion. You can double the amount of ingredients of one or the other and make a whole recipe of the biscuits of your choice. I think watching the video may help as well 🙂
Delicious!!! I added bacon grease into the buttermilk and crispy bacon into batter with the cheese…. my church family ate them up….
I made the savory and could have eaten every one of these. It was so good! I will need to make the sweet next.
Is there any way to easily convert this to the metric system? I’m not american, so I’ve never used cups, but your recipes sound amazing! It’s dreadful to convert every ingredient one by one. Thank yoU for sharing your recipes 🙂
I wish I knew an easy way, so sorry!! I typically rely on google to help me convert measurements like that 😉
Finally…a recipe for biscuits that comes out perfect. I made both versions and was not disapPointeD. I look forward to trying out more recipes from this site.
So thrilled to hear that!! Thank you, Carmen!