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.
christine
very yummy I added cheddar cheese and green onion and loved it! second time making this first time was normal.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed it, Christine! Thanks for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Sheila
I want to try these but only have 1% milk; will it work?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Sheila! You can use 1% milk, however they will not be as flaky and will be denser. No worries though, they will still taste delicious. 🙂
Grace
I’m 13.. and I cook for a family of 13
This recipe was amazing my family loved it
It’s easy to make and pop in the oven while your babysitting your younger brother or niece.
Also it’s a big time saver including if you live on a big farm…
Thanks so much for the recipe.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoys the biscuits so much, Grace! That is a lot of people to cook for and a lot of work taking care of the younger ones at the same time. Keep up the hard work. 🙂
Ashlily
I started using this recipe months ago and my family Loves it!!! They always ask for biscuits and gravy on the weekends. I will NEVER go back to canned biscuits again! This recipe is so easy to make,easy for the kids to help with, and always a hit!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy the biscuits so much! 🙂
Julia
Could you use 2% milk instead of whole milk?
Sam
Hi Julia! I know others have with success. 🙂
Shannon
I just tried it they tasted wonderful
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much, Shannon! 🙂
Terri Percival
These were amazing and a huge hit in the house. They are my new go to biscuits! Thank you for sharing.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much, Terri! 🙂
Karen
This is my 3rd time making this recipe! My husband loves biscuits and gravy so this has been my go-to recipe. I enjoy eating this biscuits with honey, so good! Thank you for sharing your recipe. ❤
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoys them so much, Karen! 🙂
Carol Anderson
I’m not an experienced cook, but I followed everything to the T and these were a big hit. I used them for strawberry shortcake. Yummmy!!
Sugar Spun Run
That is my favorite way to eat them too, Carol! YUM! I am so glad that you enjoyed them. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Linda
I tried this recipe for the first time tonight. Perfection!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed it, Linda! Thank you for commenting! 🙂
Sam Talmage
These were the BEST! Thanks for the helpful instructions! Grating butter – Who knew?!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you for trying my recipe, Sam! I am so glad that you enjoyed them and found the tips helpful. 🙂
Steph
Hi! Can you substitute in buttermilk?
Sugar Spun Run
Yes, that will be fine, Steph! Enjoy! 🙂
Grace
Is it possible to make the dough early, keep it in the fridge, and then bake it later (like the next morning)? It seems like it would work since you said it helps if the dough is as cold as possible but I wanted to know what you thought.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Grace! Yes, you can! You will make the dough, allow it to rise completely, then store it in an airtight container and place it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Enjoy! 🙂
Sally
Sally from Wpg
Hi I really appreciate your step by step explanation it was very helpful. You see I don’t like cooking or baking that was my daughters job at home
She loved cooking and baking and I would do the clean up. It was a great arrangement and then she got married and moved away.
My husband and I thought now what are we going to do So I began to do some cooking and baking.
My husband would give the thumbs up or say this is a good one Sal but other times not so good. 🙁
What’s funny is that I would call my daughter and ask her for cooking advice. Ok long story but I thought you needed to know my struggle with cooking and especially baking.
I tried your biscuit recipe and followed all your steps and they turned out amazing yeahhhh
They were nice, light and tasted great with raspberry jam definitely a thumbs up from my husband.
Well I can say I felt so good and I thought “I can do this baking thing”
So I forgot to write down your recipe and your company name. I tried searching knowing there was
three words in your company name and that you were going to be
in a baking competition.
I told my husband I can’t find your recipe!!!!
So I tried another one and they did not turn out so good. I was so frustrated.
Then last evening I was just flipping through recipes and there you were.
I yelled I found it!!!! And I saved your recipe and company name.
So thank you sooooo much for detailed recipe steps and video greatly appreciated ♥️ Sally
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Sally! I am so glad that you have enjoyed my recipes and appreciate my step-by-step instructions. Thanks for being a fan of my work. I appreciate it. 🙂
Brook
These turned out amazing! I swapped self rising flour for all purpose, salt, and baking powder and they still turned out amazing!! Will definitely make again! 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe, Brook, and that it turned out perfectly for you! Thanks for commenting. 🙂