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.
karen
i don’t know what i did wrong.. but after i baked my biscuits.. the middle was still raw. but overall.. the biscuits were good.
Sam
Hi Karen! They probably just needed a few more minutes in the oven. 🙂
Arlene
Love your site, artwork, writing but…… no true southern would put sugar in a biscuit, honey. Maybe on a biscuit, in the coffee they have with the biscuit and most certainly in the tea they might drink with it at supper time. In lots of southern cakes, pies and banana pudding. For sure Sugar is a consummate staple of the southern pantry But we ain’t puttin it in the biscuit dough….ummmmmmm…….that’s a NO. Memaw would think you were making a pie crust. Call up Loretta Lynn. She will tell you, honey, there ain’t no sugar in biscuit dough and add some Crisco to make your pie crust more flaky.
Sam
Glad you have been enjoying, Arlene, but you are missing out! I only grew up a hair below the Mason Dixon Line so I wouldn’t really call myself a true southerner but I think you need to try it before you knock it! NO Crisco in my pie crust either! 😉
Sandra
Sugar in biscuit dough is a matter of preference. There’s nothing wrong with it. Sometimes “the old way” isn’t necessarily better. Sugar, back in the old days, was a luxury for many. Sugar serves a purpose in biscuits; it diminishes the formation of gluten and prevents starch gelatinisation. It also limits the availability of water to the flour minimizing the formation of gluten which results in a better texture and soft, flaky biscuit.
Sandra
And Crisco was used a lot because butter was precious. There are “old timers” that say “never Crisco, but lard, animal fat”. It’s all very subjective, so there’s no right or wrong way, it’s which you enjoy the most.
Kaitlyn
I’ve been trying to do this recipe all evening with barely any success. I’ve found that 12 minutes at 425 isn’t enough time for my oven I guess, and they never got brown on top so I added melted butter on top before baking to fix that issue. I ended up getting 10 biscuits! They are tasty just not as brown as I usually prefer. Great recipe either way!
Tina L
OMG. Best biscuits ever. I’m a trained chef. But biscuits I’m not good at. Saw this recipe a d thought. wth. Why not. Now…….I can add biscuits. Thank you for Sharing.
Tina
Sugar Spun Run
That is wonderful! I am happy to hear that recipe was a hit for you! 🙂
Chris R
Haven’t tried yet but I’m sure it will be 5 star. Just one question. Can you use half and half instead of regular milk? If so how will it affect it, if at all? Thanks for your time.
Sam
Hi Chris! I haven’t tried it but that should work just fine. 🙂
Teresa
Sam! Girl! I’ve always been afraid to make biscuits from scratch. But I thought I’d give it a try when I saw your easy to follow recipe and video. I’m so glad I did! I used the box grater as you suggested. When I took them out of the oven I’m pretty sure I had a tear! And they were so good! This recipe is going in my recipe file to make again and again. Thank you!
Sam
That is so awesome! I am so glad you enjoyed them so much. 🙂
Natalie Glass
Finally a biscuit recipe I can follow and taste good!
These were literally the best biscuits We have ever had. Thank you so much for sharing! We followed the recipe and they turned out great! We made them a little bigger on accident but still so good!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Natalie! 🙂
Khylah
My biscuits turned out great! Thank you! This was my first time. The tips were extremely helpful!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Khylah! 🙂
Shari
These biscuits were so delicious! Freezing then grating the butter worked perfectly. They are a weekend staple. Thanks!
Sam
I’m so happy you enjoyed, Shari!! Thank you for commenting 🙂
Rachel Maldonado
So so so good!! No leftovers between my husband and I 😜
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits so much! I try to not share my biscuits, so I’m impressed you shared that many! 🤣
Carla
Been cooking for over 45 years and this is THE BEST biscuit recipe!!😊❤️
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Carla! 🙂
Haylee
I am have heavy whipping cream. Am I able to use that instead of whole milk?
Sam
Yes, but you may need a bit more as it is thicker than milk.
Bellamy
Amazing recipe, made this tonight and we all loved them. I doubled the recipe and used 2% milk, it turned out great. The grated butter was genius! Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that everyone enjoyed them, Bellamy! Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Rita
My granddaughter and tried this reciped and the biscuits didn’t rise. We followed the recipe exactly, even freezing and grated the butter but still the biscuit came out of the oven looking like plump cookies.
Sam
Hi Rita! The most likely reason for this was that either the dough was over-worked or your baking powder may have been bad or expired.
Sandra
I had an experience like this, turned out my oven was almost 30 degrees off. I had to set my oven to 460 degrees. Pays to get an oven thermometer placed in the right position for an accurate read.
Heather Vaden
Could I use buttermilk instead of whole milk?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Heather! Yes, you can! I hope that you enjoy them. 🙂