It doesn’t matter what kind of bread it is…whether it’s a yeast bread with a long rise, a flat bread, a quick bread, a sweet bread, or whether the bread is soft and fluffy, chewy, crunchy, sweet, or salty. As long as it’s bread, I’m sure to love both making it and nibbling on it.
I’m always trying a new bread recipe, but there are few recipes I make over and over again because they’re so delicious and satisfying. My grandmother’s melt-in-your-mouth buttermilk biscuits falls into that “make again and again” category.
My grandmother taught my mother how to make them, and now I’ll teach you. Keep in mind, my grandmother never measured the ingredients, and neither does my mom or me, but it’s still really easy so don’t worry about it. Okay…you ready? Here we go.
Nana’s Incredibly Easy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients:
- self-rising flour
- buttermilk
- vegetable oil
Instructions for making the dough:
- Set your buttermilk out on the counter for about 30 minutes so it warms up. You don’t have to do this step, but I always do because I mix the biscuits with my hands and fingers. If I don’t set the buttermilk on the counter for just a bit, my fingers get too cold!
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
- Grease your baking pan with oil
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl by hand. (My grandmother and mother always make a “well” for the buttermilk and oil, but for some reason, I never got the hang of that, so I just skip it and instead just mix it all together without worrying about a “well.”)
- You want to end up with a dough that’s not too dry and not too sticky. If the dough’s too sticky, just add more flour. If it’s too dry, just add more buttermilk.
Note: How much flour, buttermilk, and oil you use really depends on you. I typically have one quart of buttermilk in my fridge, and most generally I use the entire quart (or a little less) when making biscuits so I end up with a large pan of biscuits. If you want to do the same, start off with about 2 cups of flour in your bowl and then add about 3/4 of the quart of buttermilk, along with about 1/3 cup of oil. (I’m just guessing on the amount of oil I use. If you want to use a little less or a little more, that’s fine.)
Your dough is probably going to be very wet and sticky if you start out with 2 cups of flour and 3/4 of the quart of buttermilk. That’s fine. Just keep adding more flour until you get the desired consistency. I’ll show you a picture in just a second, but before I do, let’s go to the next step:
Instructions for Shaping Your Biscuits and Preparing Them for the Oven:
- Knead the dough just for a few minutes. If you’re not familiar with kneading, basically all you’re doing is pressing the dough with the heel and/or palm of your hands. You don’t have to do it long..just enough so the dough is in a ball.
- Your hands are going to be all doughy, so you want to wash and dry your hands at this point.
- Now, sprinkle a little flour over the top of the dough ball
- Generously put flour all over your hands.
- Pinch off some dough to make your biscuits. How much depends on how large you want your biscuits to be.
- Put them in the pan, side-by-side, so they’re touching each other.
- When all the biscuits are in the pan, take a spoon and pour a little vegetable oil in it. Then take the spoon and press down on a biscuit. The spoon will make an indention in the biscuit, and the indention will hold a little puddle of oil. Here’s a picture of this step:
Sorry about the glare on the spoon. : ( I didn’t have time to set my studio up today since I was rushing to get the biscuits done before going to work. I only had time for a few quick snaps of the biscuits on my counter. Anyway, there’s oil in the spoon. If you look at the biscuit on the left, you’ll see how the biscuit looks with the oil in it after pressing it with the spoon of oil.
Here’s another picture after all the biscuits were pressed with the spoon of oil. Hopefully you can see the consistency of the dough.
The dough is a little wet, but not too wet. If it’s too wet, it’ll be gooey which you don’t want.
Baking the biscuits
Okay, your biscuits are now ready to be put in the oven and baked. Put the pan in and cook them until they’re golden brown. I like mine a little extra brown so I cook mine a little longer. To tell if they’re done, take a toothpick or a knife and insert it into the biscuit. If it comes out clean, they’re done. I never really paid attention to how I bake them, but they’ll take at least 30 minutes to cook…maybe longer. You can also cook on a little lower heat (400 or 375 degrees) if your biscuits are really big.
I hope you know that the aroma of the biscuits baking in your house will drive you and your neighbors crazy. Your mouth will water, and your appetite will go up just smelling them. I love to have one right out of the oven smothered in butter. Yummmmmmm!!!!!
I love the combination of the chewy crust and soft middle. Another way I enjoy these biscuits is to crumble a couple of cold biscuits up in a glass and then pour milk over them. Oh man, that’s so good! There’s also fantastic with jam or honey! They’re absolutely the best biscuits I’ve ever had, and I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do!
