Small-Batch Honey Butter Biscuits

About These Small-Batch Honey Butter Biscuits

These honey butter biscuits are incredibly flaky, tender, and filled with honey butter flavor! Why? This honey butter biscuit recipe uses Land O Lakes® Honey Butter Spread in three ways: to make the dough, to glaze the biscuits, and finally, to serve with the baked biscuits! The best part? The recipe is small-batch and only makes 4 biscuits—the perfect amount for a small household.

For more delicious small batch breakfast recipes on Hummingbird High, check out my Breakfast Recipe archive! Popular recipes include these Small Batch Blueberry Muffins (makes 4!) and these Small Batch Cinnamon Rolls (which also make 4).

A big thank you to Land O’Lakes for sponsoring this recipe! Learn more in the blog post, and thank you for supporting the sponsors that keep Hummingbird High up and running!

Ingredients and Substitutions

Now that I’ve convinced you to make this small-batch honey butter biscuit recipe, here’s what you need:

Shopping List

• all-purpose flour
• baking powder
• granulated sugar
• kosher salt
• Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter
• Land O Lakes® Honey Butter Spread
• buttermilk
• Demerara sugar
• fresh strawberries OR other fresh fruit of your choice
• whipped cream
• honey

And let’s talk about key ingredients and potential substitutions:

Why You Should Use Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter In This Recipe

Real Talk: Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter is the all-purpose MVP butter I use in my recipes. To me, Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter is the standard to which I hold all other butters. It improves every recipe—baking or otherwise—that I use it in. I love it so much that I even used it while testing all the recipes in my cookbook, Weeknight Baking! The best part? Land O’Lakes is farmer-owned, meaning that the 1,600+ farmer-owners who sell milk to Land O’Lakes have a stake in the company. You can learn more on Land O’Lakes’ website!

But back to the recipe. When it comes to baking, I also prefer to use unsalted butter. Doing so allows you to control the amount of salt in the recipe. It ensures that you don’t end up with a baked good that’s overly salty or umami!

What is Land O Lakes® Honey Butter Spread?

Land O Lakes® Honey Butter Spread comes in a tub and is made with sweet cream, sugar, canola oil, honey, and salt. The canola oil keeps it spreadable straight from the refrigerator, while the sugar and honey make it perfect for pairing with breakfast pastries like biscuits!

How To Make The Biscuits

Here are all the steps to make small-batch honey butter biscuits from scratch:

First, prep the ingredients.

1. Prep the ingredients for the biscuits. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
   For super flaky biscuits, make sure that ingredients like butter and buttermilk are very cold. What does that mean? Use the ingredients while they are still cold from the fridge—there’s no need to bring them to room temperature beforehand!
   
   And if you want to go the extra mile, I recommend freezing the Land O Lakes® Honey Butter Spread for at least 1 hour before using in the recipe. This is the secret to EXTRA flaky biscuits!

Next, make the biscuits.

1. Make the dough. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   The honey butter biscuit dough comes together quickly—it only takes about 5 minutes to mix everything together in a stand mixer! Why? Mixing the dough as little as possible results in super tender biscuits.
   
   Most biscuit recipes instruct you to start by making the dough in a food processor. Typically, they’ll instruct you to pulse the butter together with the dry ingredients until a coarse meal forms.
   
   However, I instruct you to mix everything together in a stand mixer. Why? I find it’s easy to over-process the dough in a food processor. It’s easy to pulse the mixture too much, leading to smaller pieces of butter that result in denser biscuits. A stand mixer enables you to see how everything is mixing together better. It also processes the dough much more gently.
   
   
2. Shape the dough into biscuits. (Work Time: 5 to 10 minutes)
   Now comes the hardest part of the recipe: assembling the dough into biscuits. Place the dough on a lightly floured counter and pat it into a 1-inch-thick square. Don’t worry about getting it perfect—at this point, it’s more important to handle the dough as gently and as little as possible.
   
   After that, cut the dough into 4 squares. I cut the square in half horizontally first, then vertically. Stack the squares on top of each other and use your hands to flatten them into a rough square. All the layers you just created translate to different layers in your biscuits!
   
   Now, it’s time to be precise—use a rolling pin to roll the square into a 1-inch-thick square measuring 4 to 5 inches. Trim the edges to get a perfect square, and slice into 4 squares to make the biscuits. That’s it!

Bake the biscuits.

1. Freeze the biscuits while you preheat the oven.
   I recommend freezing the biscuits while you preheat the oven. Doing so creates flaky, crisp biscuits by ensuring that the butter in the dough is cold when placed in the oven. It typically takes 15 to 20 minutes to preheat the oven to 425°F—that’s the perfect amount of time to re-chill the butter!
   
   
2. Bake the biscuits. (Bake Time: 20 minutes)
   After placing the biscuits in the oven, immediately reduce the oven temperature to 400°F. The biscuits need 20 to 25 minutes in the oven.

Finally, serve the biscuits.

1. Prep the ingredients for serving the biscuits. (Prep Time: 5 to 10 minutes)
   You can serve the biscuits plain from the oven, but I like to go the extra mile. Specifically, I like to serve them with fresh fruit, whipped cream, and extra honey. While the biscuits are baking, I prep everything I need to serve them. I wash and slice the fruit, and I whip the cream. This prep will take 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the type of fruit you’re using and whether or not you’re making whipped cream from scratch.
   
   
2. Assemble the biscuits for serving. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   While the biscuits are still fresh and warm from the oven, prep them for serving. Slice a biscuit in half like you would a bagel. Spread both halves with Land O Lakes® Honey Butter Spread, then layer the bottom half with fruit and whipped cream.

Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ

I don’t have a stand mixer. Can I make them with a handheld electric mixer?

Sadly, I don’t recommend it. A handheld electric mixer doesn’t have enough mixing power to properly beat the butter into the dry ingredients. But don’t worry! You can still make the biscuits. Check out the next question to see what other tools work instead of a stand mixer.

I don’t have a stand mixer. What other tools can I use to make these honey butter biscuits?

If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use the following tools to make the biscuits instead:

• Two butter knives. Combine the dry ingredients and the butters in a medium bowl. Hold the two knives at an angle and use them to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture has the texture of cornmeal. If you don’t understand what I mean, there are a ton of great videos online demo-ing this technique!
  
  
• A pastry cutter/blender. Again, combine the dry ingredients and the butters in a medium bowl. Use a pastry cutter (also known as a pastry blender) to mash the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture has the texture of cornmeal. This is the tool I would use if I didn’t have a stand mixer!
  
  
• A food processor. Combine the dry ingredients and the butters in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse, for 2 to 3 seconds at a time, until the mixture has the texture of cornmeal.

Can you freeze honey butter biscuits?

Yes! You can freeze the biscuits in two ways:

• Freeze the honey butter biscuits before baking. After shaping the biscuits, place them on a sheet pan and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for 1 hour. After 1 hour, transfer the frozen biscuits to a zip-top bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
  
  When ready to serve, follow the recipe instructions to preheat the oven, brush the biscuits with butter, and serve. You may need to bake the biscuits on the upper range of their Bake Time (25 minutes, as opposed to 20 minutes).
  
  
• Freeze the unassembled but baked honey butter biscuits. Place any leftover, unassembled (meaning that the biscuits are not sliced and served with fruit and cream) biscuits in a zip-top bag. Freeze for up to 3 months.
  
  When ready to serve, rewarm in the toaster oven or regular oven at 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes. There is no need to thaw the biscuits beforehand.