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.
Rosemary Gunning
Truly the best biscuits ever! Grating the butter was a ‘great’ idea… and a good workout. Made egg and cheese sandwiches this morning! YUMMY!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Rosemary! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Felicia
Best homemade biscuit ever!! Froze the butter and grated it. So easy. Will use this again and again. Thank you for sharing!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Felicia! Thank you for trying my recipe! 🙂
Carol
Even though I an 74 years old, I am making homemade biscuits for the first time. Crazy huh!
Thank you for this beautiful recipe. I will let you know how I do. ❤
Sugar Spun Run
Good Luck, Carol! I hope that they turn out perfectly! 🙂
Lilly
My mother made them for us kids just about everyday until we left home. I never learned how to Kate them. This recipe wAs all I needed. Perfect!
Sam
I hope you love them as much as your mother’s, Lilly! 🙂
Elaine R Andrus
Can I substitute low fat milk for the whole milk?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Elaine! Yes, that will be fine. Enjoy! 🙂
C Snyder
Can I use almond milk instead of dairy milk?
Sam
The biscuits should still turn out if you use almond milk, but the biscuits may be a little bit drier than they should be. 🙂
Jane
Hi, thank u so much for the video and the recipe. I am trying to make it this weekend and would like to ask couple questions!
As our family doesnt like sweet thing, can i decrease the amount of sugar to half?
Also, can i use baking soda instead of baking powder?
Thank you!!
Sugar Spun Run
You are welcome, Jane! I am excited to have your family try this recipe. These biscuits are on not sweet, the flour is added to cut down the harshness of the flour. You should be ok to cut the sugar back. As far as using baking soda instead of baking powder, I have found that baking powder is what has helped really bring the layers to life so I would recommend using that. Enjoy! 🙂
kaybee
My oven stopped working almost 3 months ago so I made a few adjustments to temp and time for my toaster oven (375 for 17 minutes), but I just can’t get over how fluffy, flaky and layered these biscuits are. I will never buy store bought again, that is for sure (and I’m tearing my old go-to biscuit recipe out of my recipe book)! I have to admit, I used salted butter (because I don’t have unsalted) without omitting the 1 TSP of salt and I have no regrets, lol. And once I get a chance to hunt down some buttermilk for these it will be game over… 🙂 Do you happen to have any experience with freezing these? I have some milk I need to use up so I was debating what would be better… to cut and freeze the dough, or to bake then freeze the biscuits. Thank you so much for your opinion and especially for your recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe, Kaybee! I hope that your oven gets fixed soon, but happy they turned out perfectly in your toaster oven. As far as freezing them, you can either cut the biscuits and freeze the dough or you can freeze the baked biscuits. If you bake the frozen biscuits they may take a few additional minutes to bake. I hope that helps! 🙂
Emily
This was definitely easy to make and so delicious! Thanks for the tips, they really helped. Best biscuits I’ve ever made!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Emily! Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Stacey
Easy. Flaky. Delicious. My family said this is their most favorite thing I have ever made. Thank you for sharing this incredible recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
I am happy to hear that everyone enjoyed them, Stacey! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂
navy2mom
OMG!!! Super delicious!!!
Soft, flaky and buttery inside and just enough crispy outside. First time here and I can’t wait to do it again. Super easy recipe and straight to the point. Recipe well explained and easy to follow.
Thank you so much for the video, 10 STARS, very helpful!!
Looking forward for more delicious recipes… Thank you !!!!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe and found the video helpful. Thank you so much for the feedback. 🙂
S
Biscuits are delicious as is, but since I have buttermilk I need to use, can I use buttermilk instead of whole milk & should I add some baking soda?
Sugar Spun Run
Yes, you will just substitute the milk for buttermilk. No additional ingredients or adjustments are needed. Enjoy! 🙂
Melody
These are truly the best and easiest biscuits! It is the only recipe I’ll use! I made these a few times then one morning realized we had no for so I went to the store but all the floor was home so I bought the can kind of biscuits. They were terrible in comparison!!! These are amazing!
Sugar Spun Run
I am happy that you prefer this recipe over storebought biscuits, Melody. Thank you so much for commenting. I greatly appreciate the feedback. 🙂
Maribel
Amazing! I love biscuits! I can’t believe how well they turned out on the first try. Delicious! Thank you so much!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Maribel! 🙂
Becky
Loved this biscuit recipe! It is just the two of us and I hate to make a dozen or two biscuits. They are delicious! Stay safe!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe, Becky! Since it is just the two of you, you can make the dough, cut the biscuits and store them wrapped in the freezer. You can bake the dough as needed. Just a tip for next time. 🙂
Ruth
Easy to make turned out great! I may not go back to frozen biscuits!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Ruth! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Shanna Valenti
I am excited to try these soon. I am a novice baker and do not have a biscuit cutter. Is there an alternative I can use? Thanks!
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Shanna! Others have used a metal can, a glass, or cookie cutter. If you do not have those, you can also cut them into squares. Enjoy! 🙂
NotaBaker
Hi!!
I’m looking forward to making these biscuits. I only have salted butter😔. If I omit the salt in this recipe will these still come out too salty? Thanks in advance I will
Sugar Spun Run
Salted butter will work fine, you will just omit the salt. Enjoy! 🙂
Judy
Due to the virus I have not been able to buy the mix I use to make biscuits. I’m helping with the cooking for my grandchildren. I decided to look for a recipe and came across yours. Let me tell you, I will never use another mix! They turned out awesome and everybody loved them. I also loved how you gave step by step details. I will be coming back for more of your recipes. Thank you so much!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you found this recipe easy to follow and delicious, Judy. I hope that your grandchildren love them too. Thank you so much for trying my recipe. I can’t wait to see what you try next! 🙂
Sherry
This is the perfect biscuit recipe for me. It’s easy (except I hate heating the butter) and makes just the right amount for my household. One time I had to substitute heavy cream/water for the milk and they still turned out perfect. Thank you.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you have enjoyed the recipe, Sherry! Thank you for commenting. 🙂