Blueberry Biscuits

Blueberry biscuits are super tender, flaky, and delicately sweet. They have a nice crunchy texture from the turbinado sugar on top, instead of a glaze. The blueberries add just the right amount of sweetness and additional moisture to the biscuit. The berries also release some of their juices, which caramelize on the outside for some sticky bites.

The final result? A delicious alternative to classic buttermilk biscuits.

A Fun Way To Use Blueberries

Juicy, plump blueberries are wonderful in recipes like Berry Tiramisu and Blueberry-Lemon Cake. But when they're in season, blueberries come in bushels—and you need another way to use them.

Enter buttermilk biscuits. Adding tender berries to the delicately sweet biscuit invite a hint of a sweetness to the breakfast bread. To elevate the sweetness, these biscuits are topped off with a hint turbinado sugar, a type of natural brown sugar.

You can serve these biscuits as they are, or put out butter and preserves for a DIY biscuit bar.

Ingredients for Blueberry Biscuits

Gather these items from your pantry and fridge to make homemade blueberry biscuits:

• All-purpose flour: We tested this recipe with self-rising flour, and the biscuits didn't have the right texture, so be sure to use all-purpose flour.
• Granulated sugar: This sugar melts into the biscuit dough and provides a little sweetness to meet the berries.
• Baking powder: This helps the biscuits rise, as does creating layers that will expand when baking.
• Unsalted butter: Butter, cream cheese, and buttermilk provide the richness to the biscuit. Butter also helps create the layers. As the pieces of butter melt during baking, they produce steam which makes the biscuits light and flaky.
• Cream cheese: Untraditional but still plenty delicious, cream cheese adds a richness to these biscuits.
• Blueberries: Look for berries that are firm, dry, and plump. The skin should be smooth and deep purple or nearly black-blue. A red tint on the outside of the berries means they aren't quite ripe.
• Whole buttermilk: Buttermilk helps bring all the ingredients together to make the dough. A little extra helps helps keep the sugar on top of the biscuits.
• Turbinado sugar: Instead of a sugar-milk glaze, these berries are topped with a brush of buttermilk and a sprinkle of this sugar, which won't melt and dissolve entirely during baking. It'll leave a hint of crunchiness.

How To Make Blueberry Biscuits

The full recipe for blueberry biscuits is outlined below, but here's a brief recap:

• Step 1: Make dough. If you've ever made homemade biscuits, you know the first step is often cutting butter into a flour mixture. In this case, it's all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt—and you're cutting in both cream cheese and butter.
• Step 2: Add blueberries. Once pea-size bits of butter and cream cheese are spread throughout the flour mixture, add the blueberries and some of the buttermilk. Fold until a loose dough forms.

• Step 3: Form dough disc. Roll the dough onto a floured surface, and gently shape it into an disc about 1 inch thick by 8 inches in diameter.
• Step 4: Cut biscuits. Use a biscuit or cookie cutter that is two inches wide to cut biscuit from the dough. Rework scraps to cut additional biscuits.
• Step 5: Chill biscuits. Place the biscuits on a parchment-line baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap, and chill the biscuits about 30 minutes.

• Step 6: Bake: Brush tops of biscuits with buttermilk and sprinkle sugar. Bake in a 425°F oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool a few minutes before enjoying.
  

Variations for Blueberry Biscuits

You can split the fruit and do half blueberries and half diced strawberries. Adding too much fruit may make the dough wet though, so don't add too much.

If you want a glazed biscuit, hold the buttermilk and turbinado sugar. Instead, mix powdered sugar and milk, and drizzle it over the biscuits once they've cooled.

Use these as a base for blueberry shortcake biscuits—like these classic Strawberry Shortcakes.