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.
catie haensler
Awesome biscuits!! Thank you!
Sam
Thank you so much, Catie! 🙂
Lori
Great biscuits! Thank you!
Julia
Very simple to make and super tasty!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Julia! 🙂
Michelle
These were the best biscuits I ever made, thank you! I dint have whole milk so I used 1/4 cup of half and half and 1/2 cup of 2% milk. Mine didn’t rise as much as yours but I still got the nice flaky layers that have alluded me in the past.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Michelle! 🙂
Sergio
I have tried other recipes with similar ingredients but didn’t always get great results. Your make or break tips is what made the difference! Thank you, the biscuits were the best I have made!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Sergio! 🙂
Anderia Rhodes-Bigham
Good day, I used this recipe for the first time on Saturday. The biscuits from this recipe were a great hit with my family. I’ve been making biscuits for quite a while now. I came across your recipe and wanted to try something different. Glad I did. I used all the tricks you showed. They were perfect. This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thanks.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Anderia! 🙂
anonymous
they were good but just flavorless. nothing went wrong in the actual process of making them and they were fairly easy however they came out quite boring. they’re good with a spread of some sort but just not a quality biscuit. Biscuits are the type of thing where the more work you put in the better the outcome and these were just kind of boring.
Sam
I’m so sorry you didn’t enjoy them. I think this is the most critical review I have ever received on these biscuits.
Jewellee Mellor
Thank you for sharing this recipe. These are some of the most delicious and best looking biscuits I’ve made! I purchased a 25 lb sack of all purpose flour only because the shelves were stripped completely empty of self rising flour after the corona virus pandemic made it’s way into the US. I have been intimidated by so many all purpose biscuit recipes until your recipe! The video tutorial was very helpful as my 6 year old son enjoyed participating in this baking session. I appreciate the grated butter tip you shared. I always keep butter stored in the freezer, so I was ready to get started after reading your recipe! I am now comfortable with making biscuits with all purpose flour! I’m so glad I found your recipe! My family enjoyed them with chocolate gravy! …going to try some of your cookie recipes next 😀
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Jewellee!I lovvvveee the sound of some chocolate gravy on top! I hope you love the cookies too. 🙂
Stephanie
Made these twice & turned out amazing both times! Thanks for such a simple recipe with ingredients that are common staples. I’ve tried other homemade biscuit recipes & they always fell short or required things I don’t keep handy (like cream of tartar). Grating & freezing the butter before cutting it in is a game changer!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Stephanie! 🙂
Stan
Easy recipe! And the biscuits…the biscuits were delicious! Probably the best I’m made from scratch. I will definitely make these again!
Sam
Hi Stan! I am so glad you enjoyed them so much. 🙂
Ursula Tilley
You rocked it! Best biscuits I’ve ever made and I have a tough crowd to please. Finally figured it out. (don’t use a rolling pin and follow this recipe) Thank you! Thank you!!
Sam
Thank you so much, Ursula! I am so glad you enjoyed them so much. 🙂
JoAnn Mc
Fantastic recipe. Why did they not teach us to grate the butter in home-ec? Makes the whole process so much easier.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, JoAnn! I was homeschooled so we did learn it in home-ec. 😉
Elizabeth Pagnani
Best easy sweet biscuit recipe! I have made these several times and they always turn out great! We use them for strawberry shortcake. I will try them with cheese and only a pinch of sugar for a savory biscuit next time. yum!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Elizabeth! 🙂
Karen Bevan
I found that ¾ cup of milk was not enough to make the dough come together.
Sam
Hi Karen! 3/4 cup should be enough here. Is it possible there was too much flour in your dough? 🙂
Jim Manning
Simple to make yet fantastic results! I love the technique of grating the frozen butter into the flour, it worked perfectly! The only variation I made was to brush the tops lightly with whole milk before baking. The layers were well developed, the outer crust flakey and the buttery was center rich, moist and chewy. My batch took nearly twice the time to bake properly – about 21 minutes at 425 degrees. Overall, I couldn’t be more pleased with this recipe, great job!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jim! 🙂