This is a very old, very easy biscuit recipe for those times you don’t have a second to waste. They’re sometimes called Southern Biscuits, sometimes called Southern Buttermilk Biscuits, sometimes called 3-Ingredient Biscuits (even though, if you add salt, there are four!)…but I know them as Self-Rising Biscuits, because self-rising flour is, of course, the star of the show.
Now, the original recipe calls for buttermilk, but of course, I never have any buttermilk in my fridge. So I made my own by measuring close to the amount of milk I needed…
Adding white vinegar…
Stirring it together, and letting it sit.
The simplicity of the dry ingredients is what makes this biscuit recipe such a winner: It’s just self-rising flour…
And salt!
Important Note: If you wind up using cold salted butter instead of shortening or lard (see below), you can either omit the salt entirely or just add about 1/2 teaspoon instead.
Just scoop it in batches into a sifter…
And sift it all together.
Now it’s time to play another round of Choose! Your! Fat! You can use cold butter (delicious), vegetable shortening (it’ll do), or—take a deep breath—lard. I’m using lard, but a mixture of lard and butter (or shortening and butter) is a good compromise, too.
(You can buy little tubs or boxes of lard at most supermarkets.)
Throw in the fat…
And use a pastry cutter to mix it all together.
Now, after sitting for a few minutes, the milk has become buttermilk! It’s one of my favorite shortcuts. And actually, it isn’t even a shortcut. It takes longer than just pulling a jug of buttermilk out of the fridge. But then again, it takes longer for me to drive to dang town and get a dang gallon of dang buttermilk than it does for me to mix milk and vinegar together.
So as I was saying, it’s one of my favorite shortcuts.
Just drizzle it in, slowly stirring…
Until it all comes together. You’ll immediately see a little difference in the dough because of all the magic of the self-rising flour. So easy!
As soon as it comes together, turn out the dough onto a floured surface…
And knead it about 10 to 15 times (sprinkle on some flour if you need to) so it will come together in a ball.
Then just roll it out! How thick you roll it really depends on how high you want the biscuits; they will rise pretty rapidly in the oven, so if you cut them too thick, they might be a little too high! Too thin, though, and you’ll stunt their growth. So about 1/3 to 1/2 inch is probably good!
I used a mini cutter, but of course, you can do any size of biscuit you want.
Just cut them as close together as you can…
And get them onto a pan.
I also used a fluted cutter, just for kicks.
Cute!
They go into a really hot oven—about 475—and don’t take long to bake, of course. How long they bake depends entirely on the size of the biscuits, so start at about 8 to 10 minutes for mini biscuits and work your way up from there.
Aren’t they lovely?
But just one thing…
They are begging for melted butter.
Just slather the tops generously; this is not the time to practice restraint!
Oh, my dear goodness. So phenomenally easy and so delicious. If you need biscuits in a hurry, this recipe is the way to go!
Here’s the handy dandy printable.
