Living alone has a lot of perks, like watching whatever you want on TV or no one judging how many buttermilk biscuits you ate in one sitting. Solitary living also has some downsides, like no one being around to stop you from eating too many biscuits.

In all seriousness, I love to bake! Some of you might know that I even went to pastry school. But, it’s hard to bake treats when no one else will be around to help you eat them, which inevitably means I feel obligated to finish them myself. Seeing as how I have no self control, I thought I’d start a new blog series: Recipes for One! I’ll scale down some of my favorite recipes like when I’m craving biscuits, but don’t want to have to finish an entire tray of them.

Ingredients for Buttermilk Biscuits

1/2 cup + 6 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/16 tsp baking soda*
1/4 cup (half stick) cold butter
1/4 cup buttermilk*

*To measure 1/16 tsp of baking soda I fill a 1/4 tsp about 1/4 full. It comes out to about a “pinch” of baking soda. *I’ve always used a buttermilk substitute for this recipe by mixing about 1/4 tsp of vinegar with the 1/4 cup of milk and letting it sit for about 5 minutes.

How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits for One

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar in a bowl. Cut butter into small pieces. Add butter to flour mixture. If you have a food processor, you can pulse the butter and flour mixture until you have pea-sized crumbs, or use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. If you don’t have a food processor or pastry cutter, you can use your hands by breaking the butter with your fingers until you have pea-sized lumps. Make sure to work quickly so that your body heat doesn’t warm the butter. Gradually add the buttermilk, tossing with a fork to incorporate. Knead the mixture a few times in the bowl until the dough just starts to form (mixture will look dry). Turn the dough out onto a clean surface.

Work the dough into a rectangle roughly 1 inch thick. Using a knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into three pieces. Stack the pieces on top of one another, adding any loose dry bits of dough between the layers. Press down to flatten. Use your hands (do not use a rolling pin) to create a 1 inch thick rectangle. Use the knife or bench scraper to cut the rectangle in half. Having square biscuits means no wasted dough!

Transfer biscuits to a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze for 10 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-22 minutes, or until lightly golden on top. If desired, brush with melted butter immediately after removing from oven. Serve warm, and enjoy! I love these with some butter and honey.