Fluffy Self-Rising Flour Biscuits for Two: The Ultimate Cathead Biscuit Recipe
There’s a special comfort in a warm, homemade biscuit, yet sometimes, traditional recipes yield far too many. If you’ve been craving that classic Southern staple but prefer a small-batch approach, this recipe for **Self-Rising Flour Biscuits for Two**, affectionately known as **Cathead Biscuits**, is your perfect solution. These aren’t just any biscuits; they are exceptionally light, incredibly fluffy, and boast a tender, velvety crumb that practically melts in your mouth. Designed to be simple drop biscuits, they eliminate the need for rolling and cutting, making them an ideal choice for busy mornings or a quick, comforting side with dinner. I’ve found them delightful when baked in individual 3.5-inch mini skillets or a single trusty 6.5-inch cast iron skillet, ensuring a perfectly golden-brown crust every time.
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Why These Small Batch Biscuits Stand Out
Many biscuit recipes aim for a crowd, but this one is specifically tailored to make just two generously sized biscuits. This means less waste and fresh, warm biscuits every time you bake. The moniker “Cathead Biscuits” isn’t just a quirky name; it describes their impressive size, often as large as a cat’s head! This recipe ensures that you get that signature grand scale, alongside an unbeatable texture. Furthermore, these biscuits are fantastic for making ahead. You can easily prepare the dry ingredients and fat mixture in advance, storing the crumbly blend in the freezer. This clever trick means you can whip up fresh, hot biscuits in minutes, without the hassle of rolling dough or dealing with a mess when you’re already busy with meal prep. It’s the ultimate convenience for fresh, homemade goodness.
The Secret to Fluffy Biscuits: Key Ingredients
The unparalleled softness and fluffiness of these Cathead Biscuits come down to a few key ingredients, starting with high-quality self-rising flour. I wholeheartedly recommend **White Lily self-rising flour** if you can find it. This flour is known for its lower protein content and finer milling, which results in a significantly lighter and more tender biscuit. It truly makes a noticeable difference in the final texture, providing that classic Southern biscuit character.
Beyond the flour, the fat blend is crucial. This recipe uses a smart combination of both butter and shortening. Butter contributes incredible flavor and helps create a crispy, golden exterior, while shortening ensures a supremely tender crumb and helps maintain the biscuit’s height. Just a hint of sugar is added not for overt sweetness, but to enhance browning and provide a subtle complexity to the flavor. Finally, the liquid combination of cream and cold buttermilk plays a pivotal role. The acidity in the buttermilk reacts with the leavening agents in the self-rising flour, creating those airy pockets that define a fluffy biscuit, while the cream adds richness and moisture. Using cold liquids is essential to keep the fat solid, which is key to achieving flaky layers.
Effortless Mixing: The Drop Biscuit Advantage
Often, making biscuits involves meticulously cutting in cold butter or grating it, then carefully rolling and folding dough. While I enjoy the laminating process for certain scones, this **drop biscuit recipe** simplifies things dramatically. The beauty here is that you don’t have to stress about the butter and shortening being ice-cold or perfectly uniform. Since you’re working with such small quantities—just ½ tablespoon of each—it’s incredibly easy to blend the fat into the flour at almost any temperature. Even if you decide to double the recipe, a simple chop of the butter into small bits and a quick mix with the flour is all it takes.
For mixing, a sturdy spoon or a heavy-duty scraper works wonders. I recently upgraded my kitchen scraper to a robust, heat-proof one from Sur la Table, and it’s proven to be an invaluable tool for ensuring the fat is evenly distributed throughout the flour mixture. This simple mixing method not only saves time but also reduces the risk of overworking the dough, which is a common culprit for tough biscuits. The goal is to create a crumbly, coarse mixture that resembles damp sand before adding the liquids, ensuring every particle of flour is coated with fat for maximum tenderness.
No Rolling, Just Dropping: Achieving Perfect Texture
One of the most appealing aspects of these Self-Rising Flour Biscuits for Two is that they are true drop biscuits, meaning there’s absolutely no rolling required. This not only makes the process faster and cleaner but also contributes to their unique, rustic charm and incredibly soft interior. The dough itself is quite soft and sticky, which might surprise those accustomed to firmer, kneadable doughs. Its consistency is often compared to cottage cheese – lumpy and soft, yet still cohesive enough to form into portions.
After mixing, you’ll simply scoop generous portions of this soft dough directly into your prepared skillet. The only “shaping” involved is a light dusting with a bit of extra flour to make handling easier and to help achieve that beautiful golden crust. This minimal handling ensures the dough remains tender and light, preventing the development of gluten that can lead to a chewy, rather than flaky, biscuit. The slightly uneven, rustic appearance is part of their appeal, and the soft, pillow-like interior is a direct result of this no-fuss dropping method.
Baking in Cast Iron: A Southern Tradition
For truly authentic **Southern biscuits**, especially Cathead Biscuits, baking them in a cast iron skillet is highly recommended. Cast iron excels at heat retention and distribution, creating an incredibly even bake and a wonderfully crispy, golden-brown crust that’s difficult to achieve with other bakeware. I adore my collection of Lodge cast iron skillets, particularly the 3.5-inch and 6.5-inch sizes. The 6.5-inch skillet is perfect for baking both biscuits side-by-side, allowing them to gently spread and touch, which helps create a softer, more tender interior by steaming each other as they bake. If you prefer to give each person their own personal biscuit experience, two of the charming 3.5-inch skillets work beautifully, yielding individual, perfectly portioned delights.
The preheating of the skillet, combined with a generous greasing of butter, ensures that the biscuits develop a rich, buttery bottom crust while remaining impossibly soft on the inside. As seen in the photos, when baked in the 6.5-inch skillet, the biscuits will spread slightly and bake into each other, forming a delightful pull-apart texture. This slight spreading only adds to their rustic charm and makes them even more enticing. If you’ve never baked biscuits in cast iron, this is the perfect small-batch recipe to experience the magic.
Versatility: All-Purpose Flour & Scaling Up
While I’ve emphasized the benefits of self-rising flour, don’t let its absence deter you from making these delicious biscuits. I’ve successfully made them with all-purpose flour, and while they might be a tiny bit less soft than their self-rising counterparts, they are still absolutely delicious. For those using all-purpose flour, you’ll simply need to add your own leavening agents – specific amounts are provided in the recipe notes section, ensuring you can still achieve a fantastic rise and tender crumb. This adaptability makes the recipe accessible to everyone, regardless of what’s in their pantry.
Additionally, this recipe is incredibly forgiving and easy to scale up. Whether you’re making breakfast for a larger family or preparing biscuits for a small gathering, you can effortlessly double, triple, or even quadruple the ingredients without compromising on quality. The small-batch nature makes it simple to multiply the quantities, and the drop biscuit method means you won’t be spending extra time rolling out vast amounts of dough. Just mix, drop, and bake for more of these delightful **fluffy self-rising flour biscuits**.
More Biscuit & Scone Inspiration
- Small Batch Cream Cheese Biscuits (An old favorite, adapted from Cook’s Country, offering a rich twist.)
- Skillet Cookie aka Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie (Perfect for those mini 3.5-inch skillets – a fun dessert to try!)
- Pumpkin Biscuits with Cinnamon Sugar (A seasonal treat that’s always a hit, especially as the weather cools.)
- Biscuits and Scones (Explore the full category for more delightful baked goods.)
- Chocolate Chip Biscuits (A sweet variation for those who love a little chocolate in their breakfast.)
Recipe
Self-Rising Flour Biscuits for Two or Cathead Biscuits
Anna
Pin Recipe
Equipment
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Cast Iron Skillet (6.5-inch or two 3.5-inch skillets)
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Mixing bowl
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Spoon or heavy-duty scraper
Ingredients
- ½ cup White Lily self-rising flour (65 grams, recommended for best results)
- 1 ½ teaspoons granulated sugar (6 grams, for a hint of sweetness and browning)
- ½ tablespoon unsalted butter, softened (7 grams, for flavor and tender crumb)
- ½ tablespoon vegetable shortening (6 grams, for extra flakiness and lightness)
- 2 ½ tablespoons heavy cream (35 grams, adds richness)
- ¼ cup cold buttermilk (56 grams, essential for tang and reaction with leavening)
- ¼ to ⅓ cup all-purpose flour for shaping (You won’t use all of this; for dusting hands and dough)
- 1-2 tablespoons high quality salted butter, melted (for greasing the pan and brushing the baked biscuits)
Instructions
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Preheat & Prepare: Preheat your oven to a hot 450 degrees F (230°C). Generously grease your cast iron skillet (either a 6.5-inch or two 3.5-inch skillets) or a small cake pan with 1 tablespoon of the melted salted butter. Ensure the entire surface is well-coated for a golden crust. You can start preheating your oven immediately, especially if it takes a while to reach temperature, or wait until your flour mixture is chilling in the freezer.
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Make the Crumbly Mix: In a medium mixing bowl, combine the self-rising flour and sugar. Add the softened ½ tablespoon of butter and ½ tablespoon of shortening. Use a spoon, fork, or a heavy-duty scraper to mix the fats into the flour. Work the mixture until the fat is evenly blended and the flour resembles coarse, wet sand or fine crumbs. There should be no large lumps of fat. Place the bowl in the freezer for about 20 minutes to chill thoroughly, or longer if preparing ahead. The key is for the mixture to be very cold, but not frozen solid.
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Combine Wet & Dry: Remove the cold flour mixture from the freezer. Add all of the heavy cream and stir gently until just blended. Then, gradually add the cold buttermilk, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring lightly after each addition. The dough will look very lumpy and bumpy, resembling cottage cheese – this is exactly what you want! Be careful not to overmix, and remember you might not need all of the buttermilk; stop when the dough just comes together and is sticky, but not soupy.
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Prepare for Shaping: Pour the ¼ to ⅓ cup of all-purpose flour into a shallow bowl or onto a clean work surface. This will be your dusting flour for handling the sticky dough.
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Shape & Place: Using your spoon or scraper, scoop up half of the very soft biscuit dough. Gently plop it into the bowl of extra flour. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour, then gently shake off any excess. Carefully transfer this dough portion into your prepared skillet. Repeat this process with the remaining biscuit batter. If using a 6.5-inch skillet, place the two biscuit dough sections side by side, allowing them to touch slightly – they will bake into each other and create extra soft edges.
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Bake to Golden Perfection: Bake the biscuits in the upper third of your preheated oven for approximately 15-18 minutes, or until they are beautifully golden brown on top and puffed high. Once removed from the oven, immediately brush the tops of the hot biscuits with the remaining melted salted butter. This adds flavor and a gorgeous sheen. Let the biscuits rest in the skillet for about 10 minutes before serving to allow the internal structure to set and for easier handling. Serve warm with your favorite toppings!
Notes
All-Purpose Flour Substitute: If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can easily substitute all-purpose flour. Use 65 grams of AP flour and add ½ teaspoon of baking powder and ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt to the dry ingredients. Make sure to whisk these well to distribute the leavening evenly.
Make-Ahead Tips: The dry ingredient and fat mixture (before adding liquids) can be prepared in advance and stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a month. When ready to bake, let the mixture sit at room temperature for a few minutes (about 5-10) before adding the cream and buttermilk. The butter and shortening should be extremely cold but not frozen solid. If you notice any frozen chunks, gently break them up with your spatula or spoon before proceeding.
Serving Suggestions: These fluffy biscuits are perfect with a dollop of butter and your favorite jam or honey. They also make an excellent side for fried chicken, gravies, or a hearty breakfast.