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.
Jim R
These are simple and the absolute best.
Salty, buttery (even wothout topping them at the end).
Great recipe.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Jim!
Simona L. Carter
I have made these like 3 times now and they are awesome. A huge hit with my army (6 boys [17,15,12,12,9,3] and a husband.
I love cooking and trying new recipes. And now that I am working from home and don’t have to juggle commuting, 8 hour work day, shuffling children, homework along with cooking…..I love it even more.
Sam
Holy smokes thats a lot of boys in the house! It must be crazy!!! I am so glad everyone enjoys the biscuits. You must have to make a quadruple batch to feed all of those growing boys. 🙂
Amber
Wow, these really turned out great! I was always a little intimidated when it came to making biscuits. I would take the easy way out and buy the pop can biscuits or make butter dip biscuits (that you have to cut apart after baking LoL). Thank you so much for making an easy to follow recipe with tips to ensure things are going in the right direction. I’ll be using this for many years to come.
Sam
You are welcome, Amber! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much. 🙂
SP
This was my first time ever making homemade biscuits and these were easy and delicious! They reminded my husband of his grandmother’s biscuits growing up. My kids loved helping to make them as well as eating them. Your tips were great. Thanks!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits so much! 🙂
Brittney
Could I use Almond milk instead of cow’s milk?
Sam
Hi Brittney! I would be worried the biscuits would be dry but I haven’t tried it before. They should still turn out. Let me know how it goes if you try it. 🙂
Sandy
I know many other people have said the same thing, but these are easy to bake and DELICIOUS!!! My kid asked me to make them everyday! I’m happy I found (and tried) your recipe. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe and tips! I’m pretty sure I’m done with pop-can biscuits.
Sam
I’m so happy you tried my recipe, too!! Thank you so much for letting me know how it turned out for you, Sandy, I appreciate it!! 🙂
Melissa Becker
This is the first time I made biscuits and they were so delicious! I made them twice in two days, second time using European butter and they were even better! Great, easy to follow recipe! Thank you for the tips! I will make these regularly now.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Melissa!
Crystal
These are super flaky and easy to make. Delicious.
Jill
I only have salted butter, could I omit the salt and be ok?
Sam
Yes that will work! Enjoy!
JO
Just to make sure can you make it very clear for me how much salted butter to use (it’s all I have) and how much salt in this recipe? (in tablespoons/teaspoons please)
I am not good with calculating conversions.
Sam
All you’ll need to change is the amount of salt, I would reduce the salt in the recipe to 3/4 teaspoon if using salted butter. Enjoy! 🙂
Cristina Lopez
Honestly an amazing recipe. Easy to follow and great results. Also very repeatable, so I know next time I want to make biscuits, this is the recipe to follow!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed, Cristina! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting, I appreciate it 🙂
Gwen
This is the first time in my 60 years of life that homemade biscuits turned out perfectly! The only mistake I made was that I only had salted butter, (I did not read your link to salted vs. unsalted butter), therefore I left out the salt and so the flavor was a little bland, but oh, the flakiness and texture was wonderful! Thank you!
Sam
You’re very welcome, Gwen! I am truly so happy to hear they were such a hit for you, thank you for commenting! 🙂
Alexandra Vásquez Dheming
I was out of bread and found this recipe. I used oatmilk and brown sugar because it’s what I had on hand and they still turned out delicious with the substitutions! Thanks for the grated butter tip. I feel like that’s going to make so many recipes soooo much easier!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Alexandra! Thank you for the update on your substitutions. 🙂
kathy stevens
can you make with fat free milk? I wanted to make today and that’s all I have
Sam
Hi Kathy! I haven’t tried it but other people have with success. I hope they turn out for you!
Matt
Hi,
This looks great and I can’t wait to try it. I only have Kosher salt. Do I still use the same amount as in the recipe or should I use more?
And would it be okay to use bread flour?
Thanks much,
Cheers.
Sam
I’d use just a pinch more. I haven’t tried this with bread flour, I think it would work but the biscuits would probably be chewier. Enjoy! 🙂
Christine
Can I use buttermilk Or 2% instead of whole milk ?
Sam
Hi Christine! You can use 2% milk. Others have done it with success. The biscuits may just lose a little moisture. 🙂