Name: Southern Honey Butter Biscuits
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 22 min
Ingredients: 2 cups flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon sugar; ½ teaspoon salt; 8 tablespoons butter (cold); 3 tablespoons honey (divided); ¾ cup buttermilk (cold); 2 tablespoons butter (melted)

The perfect addition to any breakfast table, these honey butter biscuits are light, flaky, and deliciously sweet. With a touch of honey in the dough and a honey glaze on top, these biscuits are scrumptious all by themselves.

A plate of honey butter biscuits next to a dish of butter.

For those mornings when you want a biscuit all by itself, no sausage gravy or homemade strawberry jam, just a buttery slightly sweet biscuit, a honey butter biscuit is the way to go.

You can always make honey butter to spread on a traditional buttermilk biscuit, but baking the honey butter into the dough and also spreading it on top while it bakes, infuses sweet honey into every bite.

Like strawberry biscuits and blueberry biscuits, these are great by themselves or served along side your favorite breakfast or brunch recipes. They’ll be the star of the show.

While buttermilk biscuits go with anything you’re serving for dinner, these flaky honey biscuits have a sweet taste that you’ll love in the mornings or as an afternoon treat.

With simple pantry ingredients like flour, butter, honey, and of course, buttermilk, you can make these Southern biscuits from scratch and enjoy them hot out of the oven with some additional homemade honey butter on the side.

What is honey butter?

Honey butter is a mixture of butter and honey that’s commonly used as a spread or topping for baked goods. It’s easy to make at home by melting butter and combining it with honey, or adding honey to softened butter. It can be spread over baked goods or pancakes, added to sauces, or drizzled over vegetables like carrots or sweet potatoes.

How do I serve honey butter biscuits?

Honey butter biscuits are delicious on their own for breakfast or as a snack. But if you want to serve them with other foods, here are some ideas:

Use them as sandwich buns for leftover honey-glazed ham
Serve alongside some slow cooker baby back ribs
Sweeten up a pork tenderloin dinner
Nothing better with fried chicken

The Best Honey Butter Biscuit Recipe

This classic recipe is easier than you think
Honey adds a natural sweetness
These biscuits bake up light and flaky
You don’t need any toppings

Do I need to use buttermilk to make these biscuits?

Buttermilk is an important ingredient in this recipe. It adds that tangy flavor to biscuits that we all know and love, and using a different milk will yield a different taste. But there are even more reasons to use buttermilk as opposed to regular milk.

When butter is churned, a liquid is left behind. That liquid is buttermilk. Traditionally, it is fermented, giving it a tangy flavor. This fermentation process also gives buttermilk properties that allow it to react with leavening ingredients like baking soda and baking powder. This helps the biscuits to bake up lighter and flakier.

If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make your own buttermilk with pantry ingredients.

Honey Butter Biscuits Ingredients

Ingredients for honey butter biscuits. — Gather the ingredients.

Honey – Choose a high-quality honey for the best flavor. Local honey is always a good choice.
Butter – The recipe calls for unsalted butter, if using salted, reduce the salt by ¼ teaspoon.
Buttermilk – Use buttermilk for the best results and most flavorful biscuits.
Pantry Staples – baking powder, baking soda, flour, sugar, salt.

How To Make Flaky Honey Butter Biscuits

Step 1: Incorporate the butter into the dough.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt to your food processor. Remove the butter from the fridge and cut it into cubes. Add it to the flour mixture and pulse until the butter is incorporated, but you can still see pea-sized chunks coated in flour. In the alternative, you can use a pastry cutter.

Step 2: Add the wet ingredients.

Drizzle the honey into the mixture, then, pour in the buttermilk. Turn on the food processor again, just until the dough comes together.

Honey added to the biscuit dough. — Add honey to the flour mixture.

Biscuit dough in a food processor. — Process just until it comes together.

Step 3: Roll out the dough.

Form your dough into a rectangle and cut it into three strips. Stack them, and roll again. Repeat 2 more times. Finally, roll your dough into a large rectangle.

Biscuit dough cut inot 3 strips. — Cut the dough into strips.

Strips of biscuit dough stacked on top of each other. — Stack the strips, flatten with a rolling pin and repeat.

Step 4: Cut your biscuits.

Use a biscuit cutter to cut out circles. Place them on parchment paper and freeze for 10 minutes.

Biscuit dough with circles cut out of it. — Cut the dough into circles or squares.

Step 5: Bake your biscuits.

Make honey butter by mixing together melted butter and honey. Brush the tops of the biscuits, then place them in the oven.

A mixture of honey and butter in a measuring cup. — Melt butter and honey together.

Biscuit dough on a cookie sheet. — Freeze for 10 minutes then brush with honey butter and bake.

When they’re finished baking, brush them with more honey butter. Serve warm, and enjoy!

Honey butter biscuits on a baking sheet.

Tips for Making Perfect Honey Butter Biscuits

Make sure your ingredients are cold. Take your butter and buttermilk out of the fridge just before you add them to the dough. This is what will give your biscuits a light and flaky texture.
Don’t overwork the dough: Mix the dough just until it starts to come together. Overmixing will result in tough biscuits.
Use a biscuit cutter. You can also use a circular cookie cutter or even a thin lid from a jar. Using a cutter will help all of your biscuits be uniform in size and bake evenly.

How to Store Honey Butter Biscuits

If you have any leftover honey butter biscuits, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. You can also store them in the fridge for up to a week, but they may get a bit hard and dry. Just sprinkle with water before reheating.

You can freeze your biscuits for up to two months in a freezer-safe Ziploc. To reheat, wrap in foil and simply pop them in the oven for a few minutes until warmed through.

How do I make these biscuits without a food processor?

You can incorporate the dough by hand or with a pastry cutter. If you’re using your hands, try to keep your hands nice and cold throughout the process by running them under cold water and drying them well. Quickly rub the chunks of butter and flour between your fingers, being conscious to not let the butter melt. Try to keep the dough looking dry.

Honey Butter Biscuit FAQs

What’s the best flour to use for baking biscuits?

I like to use a good-quality all-purpose flour for baking biscuits, bread flour also works great if you have it on hand. Learn about the differences when I compared bread flour with all-purpose flour for biscuits.

How do I make honey butter from scratch?

You can make honey butter by melting a few tablespoons of butter, then drizzling in 1 tablespoon of honey. If the butter is soft, you can just mix them together with a spoon.

What is the secret to making flaky honey butter biscuits?

The secret to flaky biscuits is making sure you don’t overmix your dough and that your butter doesn’t melt as it’s added to your dough. Use very cold butter and handle your dough as little as possible while rolling and cutting your biscuits.

More Light and Flaky Biscuit Recipes to Enjoy

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