Name: Overnight Sourdough Biscuits
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 515 min
Ingredients: 2 cups flour (whole wheat, spelt, white, or combination); 1/2 cup butter (cold, cut into cubes); 1 cup sourdough starter (discard); 1 tbsp honey; 1/2 cup buttermilk (or thinned yogurt, milk, or water); 1 1/2 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp salt

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This sourdough biscuits recipe is my favorite way to use up sourdough discard. I often make these easy biscuits once a week, and they always disappear fast!

sourdough biscuits on a blue and white stoneware plate.

Why I Love This Recipe

One of the best things about this recipe is how easy and convenient it is. Because it’s long-fermented, you can start the recipe the night before, and then finish it up the next day. I tend to prefer sourdough recipes that are long-fermented (like sourdough tortillas, sourdough English muffins, sourdough focaccia, and sourdough Artisan bread) for a couple of reasons.

First, the longer fermentation time makes your sourdough recipes even more digestible. Second, I find long-fermented recipes more convenient, because you can break up the steps (mixing up the dough in the evening, and then finishing and baking the recipe the next day).

If you’re needing a delicious sourdough recipe to accompany a meal, these overnight sourdough biscuits are so good! I like to mix them up the night before, then put them in the refrigerator until the following afternoon. Then it’s easy to remove the dough from the refrigerator a few hours before I plan to make the biscuits.

Add the final three ingredients, roll out your dough, and bake! This way, it’s easy to have homemade sourdough biscuits with dinner, with very little effort.

sourdough biscuits on a plate with a butter dish next to it.

Sourdough Biscuits Tips

You can use a variety of different flours for this recipe. I usually use a whole grain flour (whole wheat or spelt), but I’ve also used a combination of these. I’ve had great success with half whole wheat, half white (all-purpose), or half wheat, half spelt. I’ve used freshly-ground wheat, freshly ground spelt, and store-bought whole wheat flour.
If using all-purpose flour by itself, you may need to adjust the amount of liquid in the recipe.
Where the recipe calls for buttermilk, you can also substitute regular milk, water, or yogurt thinned to the consistency of buttermilk. The tastiest result seems to be with buttermilk or thinned yogurt.
If you don’t have a biscuit cutter handy, the rim of a small glass works well.

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Equipment

Ingredients

Find the full list of ingredients and instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

Flour: You can use any type of flour for this recipe. All-purpose flour as well as whole grain flours will work.
Butter: Cold butter, cut into cubes.
Sourdough Starter: This is a great recipe for using up sourdough discard.
Honey: You can substitute sugar for the honey.
Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute water, milk, or thinned yogurt.
Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Both of these ingredients help the biscuits to rise.

How to Make Sourdough Biscuits

The night before you want to make biscuits, add the flour to a large mixing bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes, and add the butter to the flour in the bowl. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender (or two knives), until the butter pieces are like small crumbs.

Add the sourdough starter, honey, and buttermilk (or thinned yogurt, milk, or water), and stir to combine. Use your hands if the dough is too thick to stir. Form the dough into a ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a tea towel, and set aside to ferment 7-24 hours.

You have several options here. You can allow the dough to sit out at room temperature, or you can put the bowl in the fridge. Either way works fine.

I usually put my bowl of dough into the refrigerator and then take it out a few hours before I want to make the biscuits.

Just be sure to let it sit at room temperature for awhile to allow the dough to soften. It’s very difficult to work with when it’s cold.

The Next Day

The next day, when you’re ready to make your biscuits, get your bowl of room temperature dough. (If the dough was in the fridge, just be sure to remove it from the fridge an hour or more before you’re ready to make them).

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the dough, sprinkling it over the dough and kneading it in with your hands as evenly as possible.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, about half an inch thick.

Cut biscuits with a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass. This recipe usually makes about 12-14 biscuits, depending on how thick you cut them.

Place the sourdough biscuits on the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 15-25 minutes until golden brown and done inside (I usually check them at about 15 minutes, and they’re usually done around 20).

Remove from the oven and enjoy! These would go so well with a bowl of slow cooker chicken stew, mushroom soup, or sausage potato kale soup.

More Sourdough Recipes

If you make this recipe and enjoy it, please leave a comment with a 5-star recipe rating and let me know! Thank you!