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.
Luke Aaron
Im so exited to make these! Im 13 years old and all of your recipes look wonderfu!😁
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Luke! I hope that you enjoy the recipe when you try it! 🙂
Carly
The best biscuits I have ever had! Instead of topping it with butter, i drizzled some honey and it was delicious!!
Sam
Thank you so much, Carly! I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Dimitra Steeley
Made these tonight for breakfast for dinner. Super flaky and delicious! I used the box grater, doubled the recipe and they were perfect. This will be my new go to biscuit recipe. Thanks Sam for an easy, well written recipe.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Dimitra! 🙂
Lois E Smith
Perfect biscuits finally! So easy and delicious!
Sam
So glad you enjoyed, Lois! Thank you so much for commenting!
Rebecca
These were perfect and extraordinarily easy!! Flaked beautifully and we’re delicious! I used 1% milk because that’s what I had on-hand.. probably even better with more fat. I did to one extra tbsp of butter to add a little more fat.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Rebecca! 🙂
Jenny
I followed the recipe exactly and was rewarded with 6 flaky biscuits. As I can’t get to my cookie cutter at that moment, I formed the dough into a rectangle and cut it into 6th’s. Rustic and yummy! A new breakfast favorite.
Sam
I’m so happy to hear this, Jenny! Thank you so much for commenting!
Jean Thayer
Wow! This recipe did not disappoint. I made these biscuits today for the first time, and they turned out perfect. I followed the tips on freezing the butter and found it very helpful. I will be using this recipe from now on. Thank you!
Sam
You’re very welcome, I’m so glad you enjoyed!
Trollhair
I made the biscuits. They were fluffy and looked good. But the taste …..there was something missing. I made gravy and poof they were perfect.
Erica
I made these last week, and was so impressed that I actually made homemade biscuits! I only have self-rising flour left (and the stores have been out!) so I am going to give it a try with that, and leave out the baking powder and salt. (per guidelines on using self-rising instead of all purpose) Hoping this works!
Sam
I hope you love them, Erica! 🙂
Yusra
I made these biscuits but they turned out to be more like huge buns. They still tasted good but i expected and wanted something that looked and tasted like a biscuit, not a bun. They were still pretty good though, but not biscuits.
Sam
Hi Yusra! It sounds like the dough may have been over-worked. I would check out my video above the recipe, that might be helpful. I hope that helps!
Angelica
Hi, by chance can I substitute buttermilk instead of whole milk?
I’ve made them once before with the whole milk and they were delicious, making them again and was curious if I could use buttermilk?
Sam
Yup! Lots of people have commented that they love this recipe with buttermilk! Enjoy!
Heather
Just made these & I never knew delicious biscuits could be so easy (this was my first time making homemade biscuits). Turns out I don’t own a cheese grater or pastry cutter so I cut up butter fresh from the fridge into pieces close to cheese grater size & then put them back in the freezer for 20 min. And I used a whisk to cut the butter in (not the best – but it worked in a pinch!). And I only had salted butter so I cut the added salt down to 1/8. So basically do what you have to do & you’ll have delicious biscuits in no time! Tried with butter & fresh strawberries & both were great. Will be making these again & again!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them and found the recipe easy to follow, Heather! Thanks for commenting! 🙂
Denise
Would it be possible to use water instead of milk? Or any vegetable milk? Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
Unfortunately, I do not reccomend it. 🙁
Jsg
I’m a horrible baker. This is easy and they’re amazing. Took me no time at all. Made me look good. THANK YOU.
Sam
I’m so happy to hear they were a hit! Thank you for commenting!
Lois E Smith
If you can’t drink pasteurized milk, I cannot either, but raw milk does not bother me at all. I have avoided making biscuits because of the milk issue. I just made these delicious biscuits with raw milk from a trusted organic market. So delicious!!
Jenni Wyatt
My hubby is a biscuit connoisseur, ;), and he loved loved loved these! I agree! And they are so easy to make. I agree with others, this recipe goes into my favorites!
Thank you for sharing!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy to hear how much you both enjoyed them, Jenni! Thank you for trying my recipe and for storing it in your “favorites” to use in the future. Enjoy! 🙂
Miha
I’ve been baking a lot since quarantine, and so I figured I should make biscuits from scratch! DELICIOUS! We ate these with gravy! Can’t wait to make them again!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Miha! Thanks for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂