Buttery, soft, and made completely from scratch, this easy homemade biscuit recipe deserves a permanent place in your recipe repertoire. This recipe is made with all butter, no shortening!
With just 6 ingredients that I bet you already have on hand, these homemade biscuits are so simple to make and I’ve included plenty of tips (and a video!) to make sure you end up with perfect biscuits every single time.
Two reasons I’m super excited to share this homemade biscuit recipe with you today:
One: because homemade biscuits are delicious (obviously) and they’re so easy to make. So many people buy the canned version without realizing that they already have all of the ingredients to make them from scratch in their pantry.
The taste of a pre-made biscuit doesn’t hold a candle to a homemade biscuit. Not. even. close. Preservatives and artificial flavors, you aren’t welcome here.
Two: because ever since I started working on this biscuit recipe a few weeks ago, “Mind Your Own Biscuits” by Kacey Musgraves has been stuck in my head and I’ve been singing it off-key relentlessly.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Kacey Musgraves and her music, but every time I start singing my dog starts actually crying. It’s sad and hilarious, and if I wasn’t so embarrassed by my terrible singing voice I would have shared a video of it by now. Hopefully, by publishing this recipe I’ll release myself from the endless refrain and the animal abuse will finally stop.
But let’s talk more about the first reason.
Homemade biscuits call for just six ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, butter, and milk. And then more butter once they’re finished baking because of course we need more butter.
I mentioned that these biscuits are easy so do not be alarmed by all the tips that I have for you below. These biscuits are easy, but technique matters and I want to arm you with all the information that you need so that you can make these easily and have them come out perfectly the very first time.
The tips are simple but important, and while some more seasoned bakers already know them, I want to give everyone an even playing field.
Tips for Making Homemade Biscuits
- The butter and milk for this recipe need to be as cold as possible for fluffy and soft biscuits. I freeze my butter before using it and recommend keeping the milk in the refrigerator right up until it’s time to add it to the dry ingredients.
- Don’t overwork the dough! Keep in mind that you want your butter to stay as cold as possible when making these biscuits, and the more you have your hands on the dough the softer the butter will become. Definitely don’t use an electric mixer for this recipe.
- We’re going to do a little bit of laminating. This means folding the dough over itself multiple times (5-6 times here) to encourage flaky layers in our biscuits. You can watch the video below to see exactly how this is done.
- Don’t use a rolling pin, use your hands to gently work the dough into a flat rectangle before cutting out your biscuits.
- Don’t be afraid to add flour to the dough if it’s too sticky while you are handling it (and make sure to work on a lightly floured surface).
Visual clue: If you look at the pre-baked biscuit below, you’ll see that you can actually see the butter pieces in the dough. This is what you want, the ingredients won’t be well-combined like with a cookie dough and seeing bits of butter means you’ve actually done everything right here. Hooray!
A Few Notes on Butter in Homemade Biscuits
The butter is possibly the most important part of this recipe, and the way you handle it can make or break your homemade biscuits.
While you can certainly use a pastry cutter to cut your butter into the dry ingredients, I recommend freezing your butter for about 30 minutes before beginning. Then, use a box grater to grate the butter before combining this in with your dry ingredients.
I use this technique in my scone recipes and highly recommend it with these biscuits, too. Not only is it much easier than using a pastry cutter, but it does a great job of finely shredding and distributing the butter throughout the mixture without overworking the butter (remember, you want to manage the butter as little as possible so that it’s as cold as possible when going into the oven).
Alternatively you could also use a food processor (like I do with my pie crust recipe), but it’s just so easy to grate in the butter that I always use this method instead.
And yes, I do recommend using unsalted butter in this recipe and then adding salt. If you want to know more about why I write my recipes this way, you can read all about it (and an easy substitution if you only have salted butter on hand) in this post that I wrote about salted vs unsalted butter.
I know I’ve mentioned to you guys a few times that I’ve been working on a baking contest/challenge/I’m really not sure what to call it, but I’m planning a post where I encourage all of you to bake along with me. The goal is to get people baking recipes they may have not tried before, and I’m encouraging everyone to share their results for a chance to win a small prize.
Well, today’s homemade biscuit recipe is essentially the base for the baking challenge that I’ll be sharing in exactly one week, so take this as a hint that making today’s recipe is a great way to get a jump start for the challenge!
To make sure you’re among the first to be notified of all new recipes and baking challenges, make sure you’re subscribed to my e-mail list. It’s free, and you get a free e-book of 8 of my favorite cookie recipes.
Enjoy!
How to Make Homemade Biscuits
I know I talked a lot in this video, but I really feel that the tips are so important, and will help ensure your biscuits come out perfectly!
Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter very cold (85g), unsalted European butter is ideal, but not required
- ¾ cup whole milk¹ (177ml) buttermilk or 2% milk will also work
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- For best results, chill your butter in the freezer for 10-20 minutes before beginning this recipe. It's ideal that the butter is very cold for light, flaky, buttery biscuits.
- Preheat oven to 425F and line a cookie sheet with nonstick parchment paper. Set aside.
- Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside.2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt
- Remove your butter from the refrigerator and either cut it into your flour mixture using a pastry cutter or (preferred) use a box grater to shred the butter into small pieces and then add to the flour mixture and stir.6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- Cut the butter or combine the grated butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add milk, use a wooden spoon or spatula to stir until combined (don't over-work the dough).¾ cup whole milk¹
- Transfer your biscuit dough to a well-floured surface and use your hands to gently work the dough together. If the dough is too sticky, add flour until it is manageable.
- Once the dough is cohesive, fold in half over itself and use your hands to gently flatten layers together. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and fold in half again, repeating this step 5-6 times but taking care to not overwork the dough.
- Use your hands (do not use a rolling pin) to flatten the dough to 1" thick and lightly dust a 2 ¾" round biscuit cutter with flour.
- Making close cuts, press the biscuit cutter straight down into the dough and drop the biscuit onto your prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat until you have gotten as many biscuits as possible and place less than ½" apart on baking sheet.
- Once you have gotten as many biscuits as possible out of the dough, gently re-work the dough to get out another biscuit or two until you have at least 6 biscuits.
- Bake on 425F for 12 minutes or until tops are beginning to just turn lightly golden brown.
- If desired, brush with melted salted butter immediately after removing from oven. Serve warm and enjoy.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Penny likes to supervise the photography process. Fortunately, this setup got her vote of approval.
Erin Nelson
I used this recipe to teach my daughter how to make biscuits. It was a big hit since she did almost all the work herself (8yrs). I have one recommendation, grating the butter is genius but I found it getting soft towards the end so once we froze the grated butter and it was perfect by the time we were ready to mix the ingredients! Thanks for the recipe, we’ll be back for more!
Sugar Spun Run
I hope that you and your daughter had a blast making these together, Erin! I am so glad that you enjoyed them. 🙂
Tricia
Anyone tried to freeze these? I’d love to make a bunch and have some to pull out of the freezer and pop in the oven. Would it be best to freeze them before baking them or freeze them once they’ve been baked?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Tricia! This recipe works well frozen. You can do it either way. You can make the dough, cut the biscuits and store in an airtight container and pull out of the freezer as you’d like. If you do this method, you want to keep in mind that they may need a few additional minutes in the oven. You can also baked them and store in a freezer bag and reheat as you need. Enjoy! 🙂
Mark
I made these as instructed for the guys at work the night before one of our breakfast days. I had my family test them after I made them and they loved them! I ended up having to make an extra batch for home. Great recipe and awesome flavor.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you have enjoyed this recipe, Mark! I hope that the guys at your work do too! 🙂
Les Strouse
Why unsalted butter?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi! I typically use unsalted butter in my recipes so that I can control the amount of salt used and flavor. For this recipe, you can use salted butter but you will need to omit the additional salt listed. Enjoy! 🙂
Freddy
Just made these for breakfast and they were outstanding with butter and jelly. Never made biscuits before and these were sooo good, I could eat all of them immediately. I love Scones, but these are dead even. Excited to try them with chicken and gravy…
Greetings from Germany,
Freddy
Sugar Spun Run
Congrats on making your first ever biscuits, Freddy! I am so glad that you enjoyed them. I do have a scone recipe that you are welcome to as well. Thanks for commenting, I appreciate the feedback. 🙂
Noelle
These are hands down the best biscuits I have ever made from any recipe. This is a very easy to make recipe. The biscuits are very light and delicious. I just had to say THANK YOU for sharing with everyone. ❤
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Noelle! I greatly appreciate the feedback. I am so glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Sharan
I like the recipe the bannock was tasty, thank you…
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed it, Sharan! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Lindsey
Could these be made with soy or almond milk? We don’t drink milk, so I don’t have any on hand, but am craving some biscuits!
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Stephanie! I have never tried it personally, however, someone recently used almond milk and reported success. I hope that it works for you as well. 🙂
Denise Parker
Made these EXACTLY AS DIRECTED!! And OMG!! Best biscuits I have EVER HAD!! My papa taught me to make sausage gravy that he learned from his mom but he never made biscuits feom scratch.. I have always just done the pillbury grands.. I like the rest of the country in lock down so thought I would try it.. looked at A LOT of recipes claiming to be the best.. and chose this one.. watched the video TWICE.. froze the butter for an hour.. also put the milk in the freezer while I made the gravy so it was extra cold.. INCREDIBLE! Thank you!!! i will be looking for more of your baked goods recipes! I am a personal chef BUT not a baker! So during this down time learning to bake!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you LOVED them, Denise! Coming from a chef that means so much. I greatly appreciate the feedback and look forward to hearing what recipe you try next. Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Jamie
Love this recipe. Made it for the family several times, they don’t last very long because they are so delicious. Thank you for the recipe
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy to hear that they have become a family favorite, Jamie! Thank you so much for using my recipe and for taking a moment to leave a comment. I appreciate the feedback. 🙂
Linda Sayre
Hi! I tried the recipe with my organic white whole wheat flour. It was too dry and I am not experienced enough to realize I should have put in more milk. I did use the 3/4 cup the recipe called for, but the dough was too crumbly and wouldn’t hold together. As a result, to hold it together, I think I worked it too much and was unable to press it and turn it for the lamination. The biscuits did not rise and were like hockey pucks! I think it was a combination of the wrong flout and not enough milk for that kind of flour. Not sure if I’ll try again, and add more milk.
Sam
Hi Linda, I think you are right. The type of flour would have caused this unfortunately 🙁
Dexter
OH my goodness! I just made the homemade biscuits using your recipe. I’ve tried different recipes from well known chefs throughout the years here and there when I get in the mood for biscuits, and I have you say yours is THE BEST! I like buttermilk biscuits a lot too, so next time I’ll substitute the whole milk for buttermilk. I want to thank you so much, Sam! My wife and daughter loved them. I’m a hit thanks to you.
I’ll be looking forward to trying some other receipes in the near future. Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that your family enjoyed them, Dexter, and that they the perfect cure to your craving. Thank you so much for trying my recipe. Others have substituted the milk for buttermilk and enjoyed them that way too. If you like sausage gravy these are great for that as well. Thanks again for taking a moment to comment, I greatly appreciate the feedback. I am excited to hear what recipe you try next! 🙂
Lauren
Wow! First time ever making biscuits. These turned out perfect. So light, fluffy, just perfect.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that they were PERFECT, Lauren! Thank you so much for the feedback. Enjoy!
Dalmita Velilla Turner
Thank you for your recipe. My husband who has liver cancer wake up with a crave to eat biscuits. I had everything at home so I made him some. Delicious!delicious yummy 😋
Sugar Spun Run
What a sweet thing to make him, Dalmita! I am so glad that you had everything on hand and that you both enjoyed them. Thank you so much for trying my recipe. 🙂
Raquel
Made me feel like I was making biscuit with my meme I didn’t have whole milk so used 2percetn and organic flour and they turned out great
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that they turned out perfectly for you, Raquel! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂