Sourdough Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Sourdough Buttermilk Biscuits

• All-Purpose Flour: I used a generic brand of all-purpose flour for this recipe and it worked great. But, any quality all-purpose flour with around 11-12% protein should be great.
• Buttermilk: Buttermilk, the fermented milk product, brings the traditional tanginess and softness to this biscuit recipe. I used a product labeled as “lowfat buttermilk” that I found at the grocery store.
• Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Discard: You’ll need a 100% hydration sourdough starter for this recipe (one that is fed equal parts water and flour by weight). You can use either risen and active starter or older sourdough discard. Either will work fine for this recipe, since the main leavening agent in the dough is the baking powder and not the sourdough starter.
• Butter, salted: Salted butter will be cut into the dough, giving the sourdough buttermilk biscuits their typical flaky and layered texture.
• Baking Powder: 1 Tbsp of baking powder will be the main leavening agent in this dough.
• Baking Soda: This recipe also calls for a small amount of baking soda as a leavening agent.
• Salt: I used Kosher salt in this recipe. You can use any sea salt, plain table salt, or kosher salt and it will work just fine.

Note: See recipe card below for full ingredient amounts and quantities.

How to Make Sourdough Buttermilk Biscuits

Step-by-Step-Instructions

Prepare the Butter

Preheat your oven to 450°F (232°C), then take a stick of cold butter out of the fridge. Set aside six tablespoons of butter and chop the butter into small chunks. Place the chunks of butter back into the refrigerator to keep them cold. You’ll mix them into your dry ingredients later.

Mixing the Wet Ingredients

To a mixing bowl, add 190 grams of buttermilk (later, if the dough seems too dry, you can add more buttermilk 10 grams at a time until the dough feels right). Then add 100 grams of sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard. Whisk the starter and buttermilk together thoroughly with a fork or a whisk until the starter is dissolved and the liquid appears like very thick buttermilk. Set the bowl aside.

Mixing the Dry Ingredients

In another mixing bowl add 290 grams of all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, 1/4 tsp of baking soda, and two grams of salt (about 1/2 tsp if using kosher salt). Whisk the dry ingredients thoroughly with a fork or a whisk. Then, add the cubes of cold butter to the dry ingredients. Mix the butter around with your hands, breaking up the cubes of butter into small, pea-sized pieces and distribute the small pieces of butter all throughout the flour flour. When your dry ingredients appear like white sand you can move on to the next step. (Note: Move quickly during this step so that your warm hands don’t melt the butter!)

Forming the Dough

Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Bring the ingredients together with a fork or a wooden spoon until they form a chunky dough. Tip out the dough onto your kitchen counter and lightly knead the dough with your hands for 30 seconds to bring the dough together. Then, flatten the dough into a 1″ thick rectangle.

Layering the Dough

Cut the dough with a knife or a bench scraper into four equal pieces. Place the four pieces of dough on top of each other making a tower of dough. Press the dough down, squishing the dough into itself. This will form the first four layers of dough. Reform this dough into a 1″ rectangle again and then cut the dough into four pieces with a bench scraper or knife. Stack the pieces of dough on top of each other and them press the dough down into itself once more. There should now be eight layers laminated throughout the biscuit dough.

Shaping and Topping the Biscuits

Press the dough down gently with your hands, forming it into a large 1″ thick rectangle. Then, cut out eight individual biscuits from the dough by cutting the dough into 8 smaller squares or rectangles. (If you cut the biscuits into rectangles, you won’t have any dough scraps to deal with. But, if you want round biscuits, you can cut the biscuits out with a round biscuit cutter and then re-form the remaining dough scraps into more biscuits.) Place the cut biscuits onto a metal baking sheet that has been greased with a little bit of butter, leaving about 1″ or more of space between each biscuit. Brush the tops of each biscuit with some buttermilk using a pastry brush. This will give the biscuit tops a golden brown color without having to use any egg. (Note: Don’t brush the sides of the biscuits with buttermilk as this can prevent the layers of dough from rising correctly.)

Baking the Sourdough Buttermilk Biscuits

Place the sheet pan of biscuits into the middle rack of your oven and bake for 18 minutes at 450°F (232°C). Remove the biscuits when they are risen and golden brown. This could take 16-20 minutes depending on your oven.

Let the biscuits cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack before serving. For extra soft biscuits, move the hot biscuits directly to a large bowl lined with a kitchen towel. Wrap the hot biscuits in the towel and the escaping steam with soften the biscuits before serving.

Enjoy these sourdough buttermilk biscuits with butter and jam, for making an egg sandwich, or for making the best sourdough biscuits and gravy you’ve ever had.