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
- Biscuit cutter
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.
Peggie Nelson
These were easy!! They were delicious!!! I was always frustrated with my scratch biscuits so I haven’t tried any in decades. So glad I had a hankering for my Granny’s scratch biscuits. Of course she didn’t measure a thing and used shortening! That’s why I wasn’t successful…. I never found her magic. These were very light and the crust was just right. So glad I tried them! I’ll be keeping butter in the freezer so I can make them anytime. Thanks for sharing your recipe!!!
Sam
I am so happy to hear that this recipe was such a success for you, Peggie!! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how they turned out, I truly appreciate it! 🙂
April
This is now my go-to recipe/technique for biscuits. It has certainly elevated my breakfast game during these mid-pandemic weekends. I hardly miss going out to brunch!
Sam
I am so happy to hear this! Thank you so much for commenting, April, I appreciate it! 🙂
Mary Naumann
I don’t have whole milk. Only heavy cream & 2% milk. Can I use one of these or a combo?
Sam
Hi Mary! Others have commented that 2% milk has worked great for them. Enjoy!
Alexys
I am excited to make these tomorrow! I’ve never made biscuits before but the reviews are so good! May I ask what the difference in the biscuits texture is compares to using milk, cream, or half and half? Thank you!
Sam
Hi Alexys! Milk is my preference, cream makes the biscuits more rich (not a bad thing, I use it in my scones) and you would need a bit more of it. I’ve never tried with half and half.
Erin
This recipe is awesome… bought back memories of my long lost recipe. Thank you, it’s very close and grating the butter is so much better than using a pastry blender.
Sam
I’m so happy to hear it was such a success for you, Erin!! Thank you so much for commenting, I really appreciate it! 🙂
Laura Welch
Yummy biscuits. I used 1/2 & 1/2 and added a tsp of vinegar to make buttermilk and these are the best biscuits. Will definitely keep this recipe on hand. I only got 5 biscuits, but I think I used a bigger cutter. Thanks for a great recipe.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Laura! Your biscuits cutter is probably on the larger side. 🙂
jamie
i didn’t pre-freeze my butter (didn’t have time), so this is what i did: grated it anyway (first step). then stuck it in the freezer in a bowl (oh, and i just went ahead and used 8tbsp). measured half & half (instead of milk) into 2-cup pyrex measuring cup and left in fridge. because i used salted butter, i only used 1/4 tsp of salt. i only had brown sugar. i was using heirloom local whole grain “red winter wheat” flour that is naturally low-gluten (great for biscuits). none of these substitutions took away from the recipe. i combined the dry ingredients with a whisk, then took out the butter from the freezer and used the pastry cutter thingy (whatever that’s called) to incorporate it. some of the grated strands had re-stuck, so this was a good middle ground, using the grater first and the cutter to incorporate. added the half & half, and got it barely incorporated with a spatula, then did the rest. i also didn’t use a biscuit cutter, i just cut my dough into rectangles, which allowed me to work the dough less. 🙂 they were amazing!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that they turned out so well and you enjoyed them, Jamie! Thank you for trying my recipe and sharing. 🙂
John Turner
Can you sure buttermilk instead of whole?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, John! Yes, you can! 🙂
Brenda Stack
First time I was close to making a good biscuit and I’m OLD! Grating the chilled butter is an amazing tip, thank you.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that you enjoyed them and the butter tip too, Brenda! Thank you for trying my recipe! 🙂
Michelle Welsh
Can this recipe be made with whole grain flour? If so, would the amount of flour be different?
Sam
I haven’t tried it but generally this type of flour tends to be “thirstier” and require more liquid so I would either use half whole grain and half all purpose or reduce the flour a bit (hard to say exactly how much without trying it, unfortunately). I’ve also found that whole wheat flour tends to make the baked goods a bit denser and more dry and tough, which is another reason I recommend a mix of the two flours if possible. I would love to hear how it turns out for you if you try it!
Bianca
Omg these were so easy and delicious!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Bianca! I am so glad that you enjoyed them! 🙂
Dawn
Very easy to make, and I like the simple ingredients. Mine were a touch doughy, so I think I would bake these for another couple of minutes next time. Overall, a good biscuit. Thanks for sharing.
Sugar Spun Run
I am glad happy that you found the recipe easy to follow and enjoyable, Dawn! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Alison White
Easy, delicious and flaky! Make sure you grate and freeze the butter.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy to hear how much you enjoyed them, Alison! Thank you for trying my recipe! 🙂
Julissa
Made it for the first time and it came out really good wish I could post a pic of the results thanks
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Julissa! Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to share a picture on the site. If you wish to share you can do so by joining my Facebook Bakers Club or by sharing a photo on Instagram, tagging me @sugarspun_sam 🙂
LORI
I’m a pretty decent hobby cook. I have NEVER made biscuits right.
Last Sunday I made some jam and this shortage of yeast is KILLING ME. I needed something to put my jam on!
This morning, I nearly cried when these biscuits turned out so perfectly!
Well done, and great instructions. In case anyone is wondering, low-fat milk worked well in a pinch.
Thank you so much!
Sugar Spun Run
Hooray! I am so glad that they turned out perfectly for you and you enjoyed them, Lori! Thank you for trying my recipe. I appreciate your feedback. 🙂
Sandy Mark
Made it….. It was amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing added a touch of mustard to the milk…. love the simplicity and the short time it takes to do this…
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy to hear how much you enjoyed them, Sandy! Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Juliet
Is it possible to pre-make these and freeze before baking? Wondering if they will turn out the same.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Juliet! Yes, you can! They just take a little longer to bake since the dough is frozen. I hope that you enjoy them. 🙂