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Jammers (Jam-Filled Buttermilk Biscuits)

Published on
October 8, 2026
Biscuits with jam and cream

Jammers are tall, flaky buttermilk biscuits with a well of jam baked right into the middle. Use the best jam you can find, and if you like, mix the butter into the dry ingredients the night before so breakfast comes together fast.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups (1 pound, 4 ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter, plus more for the baking sheet
  • 1¼ to 1½ cups buttermilk
  • About ¾ cup jam or preserves

Instructions

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda together in a large, deep bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
  3. Cut the butter into ½-inch cubes. Work it into the dry ingredients with your fingers, or with the paddle attachment on low speed, until the flour feels mealy rather than silky. Plenty of dime- to quarter-size pieces of butter should remain. (You can cover the bowl and refrigerate it overnight at this point.)
  4. Make a well in the center, pour in 1 cup buttermilk all at once and mix gently just until a rough, shaggy dough forms. Scrape the bowl, add another ¼ cup buttermilk and mix briefly to pick up the dry bits. Stop while you can still see butter chunks and a few floury patches.
  5. If the dough still looks dry and crumbly, add up to ¼ cup more buttermilk a tablespoon at a time, giving it no more than one turn of the spoon or paddle after each addition.
  6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and pat it into an oval 1½ to 2 inches thick. It will look rough, and that's fine. Cut out rounds at least 2½ inches across. Stack the scraps, pat them to the same thickness and cut more.
  7. Holding each biscuit lightly around the edge, press your thumb into the center to make a hole about the size of a half-dollar coin. Widen it slightly at the bottom and go almost all the way down, like a small pinch pot. Squeeze the sides as little as you can so the flaky layers stay intact.
  8. Spoon 1 tablespoon jam into each hole and set the biscuits 1½ inches apart on the baking sheet.
  9. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, turning the pan halfway through, until deep golden brown. They're best eaten warm.

Adapted from Leite's Culinaria, from The Grand Central Baking Book by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson.