Homemade chocolate buttermilk biscuits pull double duty as breakfast or dessert! They're quick and easy to make from scratch, with a soft texture and lightly sweet chocolate flavor. This small batch recipe makes just 6 biscuits.
Just when you thought buttermilk biscuits couldn't get any better, I bring you CHOCOLATE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS! Sorry for yelling, but all caps feels necessary to communicate just how excited I am to share this recipe with you. With a soft texture that's more cakey than flakey and a lightly sweet chocolate flavor, these deserve a spot atop your must-bake list!
Chocolate buttermilk biscuits hit the recipe trifecta! These biscuits are:
- Quick and easy to bake from scratch
- Small batch, so they're perfect for families to enjoy at home (though you may wish you had made more, in which case the recipe can be easily doubled)
- Versatile! They're delicious as a breakfast treat, spread with a bit of honey butter. They also make an excellent dessert, especially when topped with fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream! (Recipe for chocolate strawberry shortcakes coming very soon!)
I'll admit that my first recipe test was a major fail. I took my favorite recipe for quick and easy buttermilk biscuits and simply substituted cocoa powder for part of the flour and increased the sugar slightly, but the biscuits needed more sweetness to balance the unsweetened cocoa powder and a better rise. After several more batches and recipe tweaks, I landed on a winning recipe. Using brown sugar, adding baking soda and vanilla extract, plus tweaking the other ingredient quantities produced slightly cakey biscuits with a chocolate flavor that was just right.
How to Make Homemade Chocolate Buttermilk Biscuits from Scratch
- Be sure to begin with ingredients at the proper temperatures. Using cold butter and room temperature buttermilk is important for getting the texture just right (you can read more about why ingredient temperatures are important in this post).
- Combine flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk to combine.
- Add cold, cubed butter to the flour mixture and cut the butter in using a pastry blender.
- Add buttermilk and vanilla extract and toss together with a fork just until the dough comes together, being careful not to stir or over mix the dough.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, cut into 6 biscuits using a round cutter, and bake.
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Recipe
Chocolate Buttermilk Biscuits
Special Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- 2 ½ inch round biscuit cutter
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 5 Tablespoons brown sugar
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoon unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- ⅝ cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, add flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Add cold butter cubes to bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender until a crumbly dough forms.
- Combine buttermilk and vanilla and add to the dough. Toss gently using a fork just until all of the dough is moistened and there's no dry flour. Do not stir or over mix the dough.
- Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface. If necessary, use your hands to gently bring the dough together. Roll out the dough into a circle that's 1 inch thick. Use a 2.5 inch round cutter to cut 6 biscuits from the dough (you will need to re-roll dough scraps to get 6 biscuits).
- Place the dough circles 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the side of a biscuit comes out clean. Let biscuits cool on a wire rack or serve warm.
Jasmine
Did you use natural or ditched cocoa? Based on your leaveners I imagine either might turn out, but I'm curious which you chose as a starting point.
Allison Ferraro
Hi Jasmine! I used natural unsweetened cocoa powder in this recipe.
- Allison
Sarah
Although I used less butter and buttermilk, the dough turned out extremely moist! Working with it seemed impossible, so I scooped it. Ended up with cakey drops, very thin crust and amazingly soft and crumbly interior! Plus Zero sweetness!! I'm dark chocolate fan, but would definitely prefer a slight sweetness in those "cakey" biscuits!
Need to work a little on this recipe to make it just as I dreamed.
Thank you for sharing the idea
Allison
Hi Sarah! Thank you for your comment. I'm sorry to hear the biscuits didn't turn out as you'd hoped. I created them to have a light sweetness so that they would be suitable for breakfast and would pair well with sweet add-ons (like strawberries and whipped cream). As far as the texture, there are several possible culprits for why your biscuits dough may have been overly wet. I'd be happy to help you troubleshoot if you'd like; just shoot me an email at [email protected].
- Allison