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.
Ishani
Can 1% or 2% milk be used? I rarely have whole milk or buttermilk on hand since I typically won’t use it all. Thank you!
Sam
Lots of people have commented that these biscuits have worked out well with 2% milk 🙂
Ishani
Thanks for getting back to me! I made them today with the 2% milk and they turned out great! 🙂
AJ
Hi! Will it be okay to add honey to the recipe to make it honey biscuits? Or bacon and cheese? 😊
Sam
Bacon and cheese, definitely, you can toss those in and I bet it would be delicious! The honey sounds like it would be delicious, too, but I haven’t played with adding it myself. You’ll have to be careful because adding more liquid like this could alter the consistency of the dough and the biscuits may not end up with the proper texture. You could always brush them with some honey butter before and/or after baking, instead!
AJ
I added 1/8 cup honey to the batter and just added a bit more flour to the dough as I was kneading it. Still turned out pretty great 😊 I’ll try the bacon and cheese ones next. Thank you so much for a great recipe!!
Sam
You’re so welcome, thank you for letting me know how it turned out! 🙂
AJ
Hi again, Sam! I tried adding cheese and bacon to the batch I made yesterday and they did turn out pretty well! Thanks for the very yummy, versatile and easy to make base!!!
Sam
So glad to hear this, AJ! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out, I appreciate it 🙂
Yuki
Had this recipe bookmarked for about 2 weeks and finally decides to make it on a drizzly Saturday morning. I didn’t have enough AP flour so used whole wheat instead and they turned out great! The texture was slightly grainy, but I liked them like that.
I’ve already shared the recipe to my family and friends, hoping to spread a bit of love (and promote self love via baking!) during this strange crisis.
Great recipe, and I really appreciate all the tips and tricks!! Will make some more in the coming weeks and can’t wait to experiment with additives like cheese and herbs.
Sending many thanks from Tokyo 🙂
Sam
I am so happy to hear they were such a hit, Yuki! Thank you so much for commenting, I really appreciate it! 🙂
Sofia
Made these for the first time and they were AMAZING! I did have to add a bit more buttermilk to the recipe. Will definitely be making these again!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Sofia! Thanks for trying my recipe! 🙂
Brooke
Can I use half and half or heavy cream? We never have whole milk.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Brooke! You can make milk using half and half. Whole milk is 4% fat. Half and half is around 10-18% fat. So you’ll need to do roughly a 1:4 ratio of half/half to water. 🙂
Spaz
Can you use buttermilk?
Sugar Spun Run
Yes, you can! Enjoy! 🙂
Tiffany
How will this recipe work with skim milk instead of whole?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Tiffany! Unfortunately, this recipe does not work well with skim milk. The biscuits will be on the denser, drier side. 🙁
Neal
What adjustments do I make at high elevation? Im in Denver
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Neal! Unfortunately, I do have experience baking at high altitude so I can not provide you with any personal recommendations. I am hoping that someone else will chime in who has baked this recipe under those conditions.
Biscuitsrgood
Not at Denver elevation but I found they take longer to cook at 2000’ then at sea level
Clint
Hey Neal, I’m up here in FoCo and just made these this morning without a single adjustment. They turned out fantastic!
tere
can i use almond milk for this recipe?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Tere! I do not recommend it as it will alter the texture and the taste. Others have used it and reported that the biscuits were on the drier side and denser.
Peyton
i did this with almond milk and it worked great!! i would recommend adding more sugar though because the almonds take away some flavor 🙂
Marty
Excellent! Easy to follow, even able to substitute buttermilk- thanks for this recipe 😊😊
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Marty! 🙂
Miki
I am not an experienced baker at all, but I was craving biscuits and decided to try this recipe. AMAZING. They turned out so good, and your instructions (especially the video) was so helpful! I will definitely be coming back to this recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you found my video and directions helpful, Miki, and that you enjoyed the biscuits! Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Mitzy
I just made these. I needed to add a little extra milk to the dough. The biscuits are so delicious. Thanks for this recipe.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Mitzy! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Liv
Soo good and fluffy
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that you enjoyed them, Liv! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂
Kim
The first time that I made thee they were perfect and everyone loved them. However, the second time I wasn’t that lucky. I followed the recipe to the T however, the mixture was dry and didn’t come together well. The biscuits turned out really dry and hard. Please tell me how I can correct this.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Kim! I am so sorry that you are experiencing an issue. It sounds like too much flour was added. Over measuring your flour is the biggest mistake in baking so I have created a guide on how to measure flour properly that can be used as a reference for next time. I hope that this helps! 🙂
Judy
I have made this recipe 3 times and my family & I just love it!!! Its super easy, quick & yummy. I serve them with a Sausage or bacon Potato Soup ( soup recipe also from this website- i add bacon or sausage ’cause my family likes it like that for lunch), absolitely delicious. The hard part is to get one to stop eating this biscuits . Thanks so much for sharing.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy to hear that this recipe has become a family favorite of yours, Judy! I am glad that everyone has enjoyed them. Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂