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There is nothing better than grandma’s comfort food to make you feel all warm and fuzzy. If you’re southern, try my grandma’s old fashioned biscuits to fill you full of love.

grandma's old fashioned biscuits on a plate, and being rolled out and baked

The last meal my grandma made for me was her homemade biscuits. We were sitting at her little table with her husband George. My grandma was such a cutie and she married her second husband at the age of 82. Tee hee, it was so cute. She had been a widow for around 30 years.

Anyway, back to the biscuits. My husband, daughter, and I went to visit her and she made us breakfast. Her biscuits were always so good. I mean, how did she make them so good? No one had her recipe, so I worked for years to try to recreate it.

This biscuit recipe is as close as I could get to tasting as good as hers and I’ve used it to love my family for years now in her honor. When she passed at age 88, I got to have her kitchen canisters in my tiny kitchen. She used little measuring scoops in them and they made scratch marks on the bottom. When I get to the bottom of my sugar, I get to see her legacy there at the bottom of the can.

There’s nothing better than grandma’s love, so if you still have yours, get over there as soon as you can and learn how to make her biscuits (or whatever reminds you of her). You’ll be so glad you did.

I grind my own whole wheat flour. If you want to do that as well, use soft wheat for biscuits and other baked goods that don’t contain yeast. Use hard wheat for yeast applications like bread and pizza dough.

Old Fashioned Southern Biscuits

Buttermilk is KEY for making the biscuits soft and tender. Grandma didn’t serve an old hard dry biscuit. Hers were tender. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can easily make it. She kept it around for drinking, but I sure as heck don’t do that. Blech.

Measure out the milk and add 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. Stir and let it sit for about 5 minutes. This will substitute for buttermilk just fine.

One more great secret that makes old fashioned biscuits light and fluffy is to keep everything COLD. I use my flour straight from the freezer and butter straight from the fridge. Handle your products and dough as little as possible to prevent melting it. If the butter stays super cold, it gives a flakier biscuit.

hands kneading grandma's old fashioned biscuit dough

My grandma always taught me that. And if you mix or knead it too much, the biscuits will be tough, so that’s a second reason not to handle it too much.

Many old fashioned biscuit recipes call for shortening, but you never get the flavor from shortening as you do from real butter. I freeze my butter and grate it into the flour mixture and toss the flower over it so the butter stays in those small grates.

grating butter into a bowl of flour and sugar for old fashioned buttermilk biscuits

This secret is what sealed the deal on my old fashioned biscuits being like grandmas. My grandma was known all around for her cooking. And the reason is that it was full of love. You can taste that in there.

Whole wheat biscuits

When I make baked goods, I use part or all whole wheat flour. We eat whole grains, but my grandma didn’t do that. So you can add some whole wheat flour or go all white as grandma did. For these, I used half and half so they would be more like hers than all whole wheat.

The very best part of making biscuits for me is having my mom’s biscuit cutter that we made biscuits with when I was a kid. I feel so blessed to have it and it still cuts perfect biscuits after all these years. Special cooking implements make cooking more fun!

It’s important to have a nice sharp cutter, so if you don’t have a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to use, cut them with a knife. Using a glass will not let your biscuits get as high and flaky.

Make up a big batch and freeze them and you’ll have an easy breakfast idea ready that kids love as well. Just spread on some yummy jam and have breakfast in minutes. Or this amazing Small Batch Lemon Curd Recipe makes a gorgeous spread too.

You can substitute honey instead of sugar in your biscuits to make a delicious honey biscuit.

Don’t forget to check how to make the world’s very best sausage gravy for these biscuits on the list below. You’re going to be overrun with grandma love if you make them both together. My grandma and my mom are world-famous for their gravy and after years of practice and learning all the tricks, I have finally mastered love gravy too. There’s nothing like it.

Grandma’s Recipes

For more of my grandma’s recipes, check these out:

For recipes to use biscuits with, check this out:

For a twist on traditional biscuits, try these Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits too. Or for a faster recipe, check out 3 ingredient sour cream biscuits here.

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