Freezer Biscuit Recipe: Make-Ahead Buttermilk Biscuits

This fluffy freezer biscuit recipe is the perfect way to spend less time in the kitchen while still enjoying delicious, homemade recipes.

Ditch the canned, store-bought alternatives and opt for filling your freezer with these simply delicious homemade buttermilk biscuits. Bake them right from thawed for your ultimate convenience!

What You’ll Need to make Freezer Biscuits

• All-Purpose Flour
• Baking Powder
• Fine Salt
• Sugar
• Cold Butter, Cubed
• Buttermilk (Buttermilk can be substituted in this recipe by putting 1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar into a measuring cup and filling with whole milk to the 1 1/2 cup mark. It will almost immediately curdle when stirred. Add to the recipe.)

How to Make this Freezer Biscuit Recipe

Combine the dry ingredients

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. I prefer to use unbleached, organic. all-purpose flour, organic cane sugar, and a fine salt such as pink Himalayan salt or Celtic sea salt.

Cut in the butter

Using your hands, a pastry cutter / pastry blender, or even a food processor, combine the flour and butter until pea sized crumbs begin to form.

Avoid over mixing or melting the butter into the flour during this step.

When the biscuits bake, the heat will create melted butter in the biscuits and the liquid will evaporate, creating those lovely, flaky layers we all love in a good biscuit. This only works if there are butter pieces left to melt.

If using your hands, squeeze the flour mixture into the butter with your fingers, working quickly to avoid using the butter.

If using a pastry cutter / pastry blender, simply rock the blades through the mixture until the butter and flour are combined into pea-sized crumbles. This is a great thing to use to avoid transferring the heat of your hands to the butter, while still working closely with the ingredients to avoid over mixing.

If using a food processor, pulse gently until just combined. If you over process the butter and flour, you will end up with tough biscuits.

Bonus: you can also use a box grater to grate your butter before adding it. If you grate the butter, simply give it a quick stir when added to the flour. You don’t need to cut the butter into the flour when it is grated.

Add the buttermilk

Add the buttermilk or buttermilk substitution (see ingredient section) to the flour and butter mixture.

Mix

Using a wooden spoon mix the buttermilk into the flour and butter mixture gently until a shaggy dough forms.

The mixture should be just combined. Again, do not over mix. Overworking your dough is a surefire way to end up with a tough biscuit instead of flaky, tender biscuits.

Turn out the dough

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Avoid over flouring to prevent too much excess flour from being added.

Use just enough flour to prevent the dough from sticking to your counter or cutting board.

Press or roll out dough

Using your hands or a rolling pin, gently press out the dough to 3/4″ to 1″ thickness.

If using a rolling pin, be sure to gently press the dough rather than flattening it to prevent it from sticking to the counter.

I prefer to use my hands to have ultimate control over the result.

Cut out the biscuits

Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter or cookie cutter, cut out your biscuits from the sheet of biscuit dough. I used a regular mouth mason jar, but you can also use a drinking glass.

If the biscuit cutter or cookie cutter is sticking to the biscuit dough, you can dip the rim of the cutter into flour before and between cutting each biscuit.

When only the excess is left, press into another sheet avoiding incorporating too much excess flour.

Tip: when cleaning up your work surface, use a bench scraper. This will take off almost all of the flour and any stuck on dough from your counter top. Removing the bulk of the mess using a bench scraper prevents a sticky mess when you go to wipe up the rest with a damp rag.

Place on a baking sheet

Place biscuits in their frozen state onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper is the best option to avoid the biscuits from sticking to the sheet pan when freezing.

You can also use aluminum foil or plastic wrap, although these tend to stick a bit more than the parchment paper.

However, using aluminum foil or plastic wrap is better than freezing the biscuits directly onto the pan.

Freeze the biscuits

Place the biscuits on the parchment-lined baking sheet into the freezer for 3-4 hours or until frozen.

Store the biscuits

Remove the frozen biscuits from the baking sheet and place them into a freezer bag. Remove as much of the air as possible by sucking out with a straw, or pressing the bag gently while zipping the top closed.

Using a straw is the best method as it seals the bag around each individual biscuit.

The more air that is removed, the better the freezer storage will be.

Do not use a regular storage ziplock bag as this will not adequately prevent freezer burn.

Freezer biscuits can be stored in the freezer, before baking, for up to 6 months for the best result.

For added convenience, label your bags with the baking instructions.

Bake the freezer biscuits

Place the frozen, unbaked biscuits onto a parchment lined baking sheet or into a well seasoned cast iron pan.

Put the biscuits into a cold oven and turn the temperature to 400 degrees.

Bake the biscuits for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Allow the hot biscuits to cool for 10 minutes (if you can resist).

Serve warm and enjoy!

Baking the biscuits fresh

If you wish to bake the biscuits fresh rather than freezing for later use, bake on 425 degrees for 14-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Storing Leftover Freezer Biscuits Once Baked

The baked biscuits can be stored in an airtight container or plastic bag for 3-5 days at room temperature.

Or, store the in an airtight container or plastic bag in the fridge for just over a week.

To reheat, place in a toaster oven or directly on the rack of your oven on 425 degrees for a few minutes until toasted again.

Recipe Ideas for Using Freezer Biscuits

These freezer biscuits are the perfect biscuits to enjoy on their own with just a pat of butter, but also make the perfect addition to breakfast and dinner recipes alike.

We love to have these with sausage gravy or as a breakfast sandwich with eggs and bacon.

You can also use them as a baked topping for a chicken pot pie recipe as a well-rounded dinner.

My favorite way to use them is as a topping for my easy one pot turkey chili and biscuits recipe!

For an ultimate, easy dinner, bake these straight from the freezer to dip into a heated up jar of pressure canned beef stew or pressure canned chicken soup.

Be careful serving these to family! I did, and now I’m in charge of making these as a side with my classic green bean casserole for holidays!

Why Should I Make these Biscuits at Home?

While I won’t argue that a tube of biscuits from the grocery store are convenient, this freezer biscuit recipe is worth the little bit of extra effort. When made ahead and frozen, you can still enjoy convenience after making the recipe in larger batches, for ease later!

Making perfect freezer biscuits at home is a great recipe for meal prep, as well as a way to feed your family better quality ingredients you have total control over.

Store-bought biscuits from a can contain ingredients like

• Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid)
• Palm and Soybean Oil
• Palm Kernel Oil.
• Dextrose
• Potassium Chloride
• Xanthan Gum
• Natural and Artificial Flavor
• Turmeric and Annatto (for coloring)

However, this freezer biscuit recipe contains much simpler ingredients you can feel good about like:

• flour
• butter
• salt
• baking powder
• buttermilk
• and sugar

This gives you the ultimate control over the quality and nature of these ingredients.

Butter can be pasture raised and organic, flour can be organic and unbleached, sugar can be organic cane sugar, and buttermilk can be soured at home or the best option you can find!

Skip the artificial ingredients next time and just make this freezer biscuit recipe!