These gluten free buttermilk biscuits will become the lightest, most tender biscuits you'll ever have, gluten free or not!
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I have a serious problem...I can't stop buying cookbooks! Is there such a thing as Cookbooks Anonymous? And believe it or not, I usually buy cookbooks that AREN'T gluten free! I want to be able to experience ALL the cookbooks, especially those with pastries and such that aren't ever supposed to be gluten free. I suppose you could call it a hobby of mine, trying to convert gluten-filled recipes into gluten free.
Just recently I purchased Joanna Gaines' newest cookbook, Magnolia Table Volume 2. And there are so many great recipes I want to try. But I've had her first cookbook, Magnolia Table, since it was released over a year ago. And the first recipe I made from that book was her biscuits.
Joanna's recipe isn't gluten free, so I had to adapt it to suit my needs. And I have to say, they're probably the best biscuits I've EVER had, gluten free or not!!
My old gluten free biscuit recipe was always loved by my family, but to me they were a little "heavy" and dense. I'm forever looking for perfection when baking. If I don't think something I make is great (not just good for gluten free) then I darn sure am going to keep trying until I do.
It's just one of those things about me that sometimes drives my family crazy. I take a perfectly good recipe and change it. Who wants good, though? I want great!!
How I Changed the Recipe
I made obvious changes to Joanna's recipe (GF) as well as some not so obvious:
- The recipe calls for self-rising flour. Here in the US, I've never seen gluten free self-rising flour. Since I'm not one to buy pre-made gluten free flour blends anyway, I just made my own. Self-rising flour can be made easily by adding baking powder and salt to every cup of gluten free AP flour. That's why there's so much baking powder in these biscuits. But it doesn't at all make them taste of chemicals.
- I bumped up the amount of buttermilk. Usually with gluten free flours, they tend to absorb more liquids and require a little more than the recipe calls for. Plus, with the addition of the extra baking powder, you'll need that extra liquid.
- Instead of rolling out the dough, I patted it into a 1 ½ to 2-inch thick round. I like my biscuits to rise really tall. This meant less biscuits and a smaller baking sheet. I dedicated my trusty old Pampered Chef round baker to biscuit baking 😉
- I brushed the biscuits with melted butter instead of an egg before putting them in the oven.
What Can I Serve These Biscuits With?
If you're anything like me, your absolute favorite way to eat biscuits is LOADED with sausage gravy! And if you're looking for the perfect gluten free sausage gravy biscuit recipe, have I got JUST the recipe you're looking for!! Check out my recipe here for amazing gluten free sausage gravy to ladle on top of these biscuits!
You could also serve them with butter and jam, or if you love clotted cream like I do, here's a recipe for homemade clotted cream! It's one of the easiest things you'll ever make, but is by far one of the best to put on biscuits and scones.
Chicken and biscuits, anyone??? I was very recently testing some recipes for a Chick-Fil-A style chicken sandwich and my husband suggested I make my biscuits to put the chicken on. I gotta tell ya, he sure has some great ideas because this chicken biscuit was the BOMB!!! The recipe will grace the pages of my blog very soon, but until then I'll leave you with a sneak peek 🙂
Tips for Best Biscuit Making
To ensure the lightest and softest biscuits ever, follow these tips for the beset biscuit making:
- Make sure to use the coldest ingredients possible--cold butter, cold eggs, and cold buttermilk
- After chilling the dough initially, knead it a few times to smooth it out and allow the butter to incorporate into the dough. Watch the video, especially at the 1:09 to 1:11 mark to see how I flatten the dough with the palm of my hand and smear it forward, which is called fraisage. It helps to create buttery layers in the dough.
- After cutting out the biscuits, place them in the fridge while you preheat the oven.
These biscuits are so light and airy! If you haven't already purchased Magnolia Table cookbook, check it out here. It's one of my favorites, and that's saying a lot (you know, with my cookbook addiction and all). 😉
Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 4 cups (560 g) Kim's gluten free flour blend (or your favorite blend with xanthan gum)
- ¼ cup (45 g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 sticks (¾ lb or 339 g) butter, cold and cut into ¼-inch slices
- 2 large eggs, cold
- 1¾ cups (420 ml) buttermilk, cold (I prefer full fat buttermilk)
- 2 tablespoon butter, melted
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the butter pieces and using either a pastry cutter or your hands (I like to use my hands), rub and flatten each piece of butter into the flour mixture until large bean-sized pieces remain.
- Mix together buttermilk and eggs and pour into flour mixture.
- Stir with wooden spoon until it comes together. You should not need more buttermilk, but if you do, only add 1-2 teaspoon at a time until the whole mixture comes together. It should be slightly wet.
- Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes, or even overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough briefly, pressing and "smearing" the dough away from you onto the counter (called fraisage) with the palm of your hand. Roll or pat out the dough to about 1½-2 inches thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter.
- Place the biscuits side by side (touching) in a large round baking pan, or any kind of bakeware that will fit the biscuits (a 9 by 13-inch rectangular pan will also work, or even a large baking sheet). Chill for 15-30 minutes while preheating the oven to 400° F.
- Brush the biscuits with melted butter.
- Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until lightly browned and well risen.
- Cool for about 5-10 minutes.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Magnolia Table cookbook.
Baby
I discovered an alternative to your flour blend that worked PERFECTLY! I made 4 cups of flour using your linked recipe, but instead of using 268 g of white rice flour, I used 113 g brown rice flour, 155 g glutinous rice flour, and maybe 1/2 cup better batter. I also added a splash of lemon juice to my rehydrated powdered buttermilk and an extra pinch of salt to the recipe as well as on top of the biscuits before putting it in the oven. After getting it out I put more butter on top and they were so good I would’ve returned these if I’d gotten them in a restaurant. I would insist they are not gluten free. I can tell you I’ve NEVER had biscuits homemade this good in my life! Thank you for this!!! I am saving this one!
Shirley
Hi, I was wondering if you just changed the flour but still added the rest of the recipe. Could you. Share your exact. Alternative with me please. Thanks
Meghan
Hi Kim! Have you ever made these biscuits sourdough? And if so, what conversion did you use? I’ve made your recipe before and they were delicious but I’d love to try them with sourdough… thanks 🙂
Kim
I haven't, but that's a good question. I've honestly never tried converting anything that's not yeast based into sourdough. Maybe another site, such as The Clever Carrot, has some ideas for how to convert regular (non gf) biscuits to sourdough and you could start there.
Juliette
Made these for the first time this morning. I have to say, of all the GF biscuit recipes I've tried, this one is hands down the best! I usually end up with crumbly hockey pucks, but these biscuits fluffed up, tasted great and held together perfectly. Thank you for sharing and doing all of the trial and error so I didn't have to! This recipe is a keeper. (I also did your sausage and bacon gravy! Delish!)
Kim
Thanks so much, Juliette 🥰
Paulette MacKay
Made these biscuits yesterday. I used Robin Hood gluten free flour with xanthan gum. The biscuits were very tasty but did not rise!! What could I have done wrong? Love your site and recipes!
Kim
I'm not familiar with Robin Hood gf flour so maybe that's why they didn't rise? They usually rise very tall. What are the ingredients in the gf flour blend?
Sarah
I used this recipe for the biscuit part of making Nova Scotia Blueberry Grunt! It was SO GOOD! The biscuit part was so soft and moist and fluffy. We all smiled with ugly, blueberry-stained teeth. It was worth it. 😀
Ocllo Robinson
Incredible! We made ours in the air fryer and they were perfectly brown and crispy on the outside while being soft and buttery on the inside. I found you on YouTube a month ago and love that you do videos with your recipes. Used your gluten free flour blend, and it is my first time baking something gluten free that didn’t have a grainy texture or a raw flour taste. I can tell how much effort you put into perfecting your flour blend and appreciate you sharing it with all of us. Excited to try more of your recipes!!
Kim
Thanks so much! I love the idea of using the air fryer, especially when it gets too hot to turn on the oven 🥰
Rachel Dunn
Just wondering if you have a substitute for potato starch as I have a potato intolerance.
Thanks
Kim
I just recently had someone comment that she uses a combination (equal parts) of cornstarch and arrowroot as a substitute for the potato starch because she is nightshade intolerant. She said it works great! Hope this helps 😊
Laurel
If I use a glass pan, do I butter or grease the pan before putting in the biscuits? Also, would I lower the temperature using a glass pan?
Thank you so much!!
Kim
Most glass pans these days can handle the higher temps, but check with yours, especially if it's older. If it can't handle the higher heat, I might consider switching to a different pan as these need that higher temp to fully rise. I don't think you'd need to grease the pan if you're using glass.
Anonymous
These were awful... Followed the recipe exactly. They didn't rise, they were crumbly, brown, burnt, dense and awfully salty. Will not make again.
Silverseale
I did look askance at the amount of butter stated in the recipe, but I always make a recipe exactly as stated the first time I try it. Sadly, my biscuits too were swimming in a liquid layer of melted butter at the bottom of my baking pan. Gluten-free flours simply cannot absorb the same amount of fat that wheat flour can. It also seemed like awful lot of baking powder, but that part was okay. 2 stars because they’re edible, though I regret wasting so much butter. I’m gonna have to experiment with this recipe, but I still think your g/f flour blends are the best ones out there.
Kim
I've made these biscuits more times than I can count and they're never swimming in butter. My husband says they are the BEST biscuits he's ever had, and he is sometimes my harshest critic and will tell me exactly what he thinks, whether he thinks it or not. The rest of my family also agrees and I'm told I must make them every year for Christmas morning. So my guess is that something somewhere went awry, and if I were to take an educated guess, it would be that the butter wasn't worked into the flour mixture well enough. I hope you get a chance to try them again as when they bake the way they're supposed to, they are amazing!
Silverseale
My *whatever/shrug *was widely directed to Joanna Gaines, not you. I'm not really a fan of hers. I'll definitely try your recipe again--I've found your other recipes I've tried to be so consistent and well done!
Kim
No worries 🙂 Thank you!! If you're looking for something a little easier, look up my basil cream biscuits. They can be made without the basil and black pepper to be just "cream" biscuits and there's no worry of incorporating butter into the dough.
Silverseale
I had wondered if you meant to say 1-1/2 *sticks* of butter instead of 1-1/2 *cups.* But I looked up Joanna Gaines's recipe, and hers does call for 1-1/2 cups. I think that's too much butter even for a wheat biscuit dough, but whatever. *shrug*
Mwininge
OH MY! This dough- these biscuits are the most miraculous thing ever!
I used your All Purpose Flour blend exactly, and the only thing I changed in the Biscuit recipe, is I used Raw Whole Milk from a local farm instead of Buttermilk.
I'm currently testing your blend in different recipes, to see if this is the one I want to make in bulk. I had to tweak your Pancake recipe a bit to get it to our taste, but these biscuits are PERFECT. If your Pie Crust is anywhere near as good, I'm sold for life haha Thanks a million!
-Rosa
Kim
Awe, thanks so much and I'm thrilled that you enjoyed the biscuits!!! I hope you like the pie crust, as well (it's a family favorite and my husband, who isn't gluten free, tells me it's the best pie crust he's ever had) 😍
Sylvia L Ranjel
Hi Kim, these came out great, their the best I've ever made. They taste even better than regular biscuits. I used parchment paper since others mentioned browning and I also needed to rotate my pan because the back row of biscuits was browning more. I am so glad I found your website. I've made a few of your recipes so far and they are so good, so much better than store bought. Thanks so much for sharing your recipes and techniques.
Dorinda
I get a bit skeptical when I make a gluten-free bread product for the first time. Usually bread products will come out dense or not rise or taste badly. These came out great! In my opinion they could’ve used a little more salt and I will salt the butter to brush on top of the biscuits prior to baking next time. I did use a round Pyrex plate placing each biscuit next to each other. They did spread. So two questions regarding the process. The dough was really sticky to work with. Any tricks on how to minimize this? I used gloves, saran wrap, extra flour and it was still sticky. If I were to place the cut biscuits onto a baking sheet, how do you minimize spreading?
I would love making these again with your tips. Thank you!
Kim
Hmmm, I've never had sticky dough or spreading at all. Did you use my flour blend or a store bought one? That could be the reason if you used a store bought ones. Unfortunately, they're all not created equal.
It also could be overworking the dough, or more particularly overworking the butter in the dough, that is causing stickiness. Are you able to watch the video? I like to leave the butter in large chunks and then use a method called "fraisage" in which I scrape the dough across the counter using the heel of my hand (you'll see it in the video). It creates layers and brings the dough together. You'll see in the video that my dough isn't sticky at all, so if the biscuits are made correctly you should be able to place them on a baking sheet with no spreading. Oh, and I use salted butter in all my recipes for a good amount of salty flavor 🙂
Tamar M
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I found out a year ago that I am severely allergic to gluten (can't even touch it) and life has been bland and boring. I stumbled across your page on pinterest and my life has been forever changed! Yesterday I baked 2 loaves of bread using your bread flour blend and this morning I made your biscuits and gravy recipes and my family is all smiles! Thank you for doing all the leg work and giving us good tasting, not prepackaged food back. I am full and loving this valentines treat! My kiddos and hubby wanted me to tell you thank you from them for coming up with such tasty recipes. Many blessings on you and your family for sharing!!!
Kim
Awe, thank you so very much, Tamar!! It means the world to me to hear stories like yours of being able to have wonderful food again, and I LOVE to share my recipes with anyone who wants them 😍😍😍
Erik
I must be missing something - is there a link to the video? I see the video mentioned, but I don't see a link to a video in the recipe above. I'd like to see the video before trying this recipe. Thank you.
Kim
Hi, Erik! The video should automatically play right in the post for the recipe. I just checked it on my phone and laptop and it autoplayed for me. Ad blockers will sometimes not allow videos on websites to play, so make sure you don't have an ad blocker. Otherwise, everything is working properly on this end 🙂
Candice
Hi Kim,
Does altitude affect cooking temperature and time for baking?
Thank you so much for sharing your talent in baking Gluten Free.
Have a terrific rest of your day.
Kim
Hi, Candice! Yes, I'm sure it does. I've had a few readers who have asked about high altitude and since I'm at sea level, I'll leave it up to someone who might know more about this subject. Here's an article from King Arthur Flour: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/resources/high-altitude-baking
Candice
Kim,
O’ my! O’ my! Sooo good. I made this with your sausage gravy recipe. To my excitement it all turned out soo good. My Husband and I thoughtally enjoyed the biscuit and sausage gravy.
At first look at the recipe I was worried to make it but then I seen your video on how to make and read your blog and felt I could do it. I got all the ingredients to make your special flour mix and then followed your well written instructions. And it worked! I was so thrilled. I have tried alot of recipes. Partly succeeding and mostly failing. Your recipe worked. They actually look, feel and taste like a biscuits.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Candice
P.S Do you have cookbook? And nutrition values.
I’m going to make raviolis next, using your GF pasta recipe. Oh ya! You rock!
Kim
Thanks so much, Candice!! You're too kind 🙂
I don't have a cookbook, yet, but hopefully in the future I will be offered a cookbook deal!
The nutritional values package for my website is costly, but I'm looking into it.
Cynthia
I cannot thank you enough for this recipe!
I only had Grandpas Kitchens flour and it worked perfectly, I also made buttermilk from vinegar, cream and whole milk since I was out and I’m telling you since I’ve got celiac and some pesky thyroid issues, The one thing I’ve truly missed is a really good biscuit and I’ll never use another recipe again! I’ve shared it with all my sisters too! - Cynthia
Kim
Awe, that's wonderful Cynthia!! Thank you so much, and I'm so glad you like them 🙂