Easy Sour Cream Biscuits

No buttermilk? No problem! These Easy Sour Cream Biscuits bake up tall and flaky and perfectly moist, without buttermilk! Perfect for breakfast or with dinner, put these in the bread rotation!

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There’s just something magical about pulling warm, buttery biscuits out of the oven. These Easy Sour Cream Biscuits are everything you want—flaky, tender, and full of flavor. The sour cream gives them a little tanginess and keeps them incredibly moist, so every bite practically melts in your mouth.

I’ve gotten tons of messages from people excited to try my flaky buttermilk biscuits but struggled to find buttermilk in their area. To help out, I originally created a simple yogurt biscuit recipe. But now, I’m excited to share this sour cream biscuit recipe—just as amazing and made with an ingredient that’s even easier to find!

Ingredients & Substitutions

These are pretty much the same ingredients found in most of my biscuit recipes, but with the addition of sour cream. And if you have sour cream on hand, these are going to become your go-to recipe. Let's go over some easy substitutions you can make, if you need, and still make the best biscuits:

• All purpose flour - Basic all purpose flour is all you need to make your new favorite biscuit recipe. If you happen to have leftover self-rising flour from making my cream biscuits or my three ingredient pancakes, use that and leave out the baking powder and salt from the recipe.
• Sour cream - I prefer full-fat sour cream, but you can use reduced fat. I wouldn't recommend a nonfat sour cream because you need the fat content to help maintain the structure of the biscuits. If you don't have sour cream, you can substitute with plain yogurt.
• Butter - In a pinch, you can use margarine or butter flavored shortening to make biscuits, but the layers probably won't be as distinct, due to their low water content.

See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Variations

These sour cream biscuits are a perfect base recipe for whatever fluffy biscuits you want to make. Try these ideas to start:

• Sour cream drop biscuits - Add an extra 2 to 4 tablespoons of sour cream to your biscuit dough and drop ¼ cup portions onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake as directed.
• Sour cream and onion - Toss ½ teaspoon each of onion powder and garlic powder, along with ¼ cup of finely chopped chives into the dry ingredients. Continue the recipe as written.
• Cheddar and jalapeño - Toss one cup of freshly shredded cheddar cheese and one finely chopped jalapeño into the dry ingredients. Continue the recipe as written. See my jalapeño and cheddar biscuits.
• Roasted garlic and herb - Cut the top ¼  inch off of a whole head of garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap in aluminum foil and roast at 400°f for 40 to 50 minutes and then squeeze out the softened garlic. Combine with fresh ½ teaspoon each of oregano, rosemary, and thyme and whisk into the sour cream before adding to the dry ingredients. Continue the recipe as written.

Adding ingredients

Unless the flavorings you want to add are on the wet side, I usually suggest tossing any additional ingredients directly into the dry ingredients after you have incorporated the butter, then adding your sour cream and mixing. This will ensure even distribution and prevent over-mixing, which can lead to tough biscuits.

Short Recipe Video

Step-by-step Instructions

Let's go over the instructions for making this simple homemade biscuits. As always, I recommend you check out the video above, then read all of the directions, look at the pretty pictures for reference, gather your ingredients, and then make some delicious biscuits.

• Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or foil and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and kosher salt. 
• Cut cold butter into small cubes and add to your dry ingredients.

Step 1: Using a finger snapping motion, rub the unsalted butter and the flour together. Continue until you have a mixture of pea sized and flat pieces of butter mixed with flour that is the texture of cornmeal.

Step 2: Add the cold sour cream to the flour mixture and use a spatula or dough whisk to mix together with the dry ingredients until you have a loose shaggy dough.

Step 3: It will look like the flour is not all mixed in, but that's okay. It will combine in the next steps.

Step 4: Dump the biscuit dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Use your hands, and a bench scraper, or other flat edge, to form the dough into a square, pressing down gently to help the dough stick together.

Step 5: Use the bench scraper to cut the dough into 4 pieces. Stack them on top of each other, placing loose bits between the pieces. Press back down into a square.  Repeat two more times, for a total of three. This helps you create flaky biscuits.

Step 6: Use your hands or a rolling pin to shape the dough into a rectangle about ½ inch thick. Use a cookie cutter, biscuit cutter, or ring cutter to cut out biscuit rounds. 

Step 7: Do not twist your cutter, or you will seal your flaky layers shut. Place cut biscuits in the freezer while you preheat your oven to 425°F.

Step 8: Remove your biscuits from the freezer and brush with an egg wash made of one egg whisked with a tablespoon of water. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, if desired.

Serving suggestion

My favorite way to serve any of my biscuits is to cover them with creamy sausage gravy. It's literally the perfect way to start any day, but especially on a weekend. Add some soft scrambled eggs and you are set! Got leftovers? Save them and make my Leftover Biscuit Breakfast Bake with yesterday's biscuits, savory breakfast sausage, sautéed onions and peppers, all baked together in a rich, creamy egg custard.

Recipe FAQs

Put it on a biscuit