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.
Norman Epperson
Loved making these as it was a easy to follow recipe. Loved eating these as they are delightfully light and full of flavor due to the way the butter was used. I cheat sometimes and use self-rising flour omitting the baking powder and the salt but either way turns out biscuits I am proud of. I was a biscuit maker for around 10 years for a fast food restaurant called Hardee’s and these equal those in appearance and beat them in taste.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy them so much, Norman! 🙂
Emmanuel
Hi,
I made these tonight with my kids (6 & 8 yrs old).
They came out wonderfully despite the mess the kids made 🙂
I think we cut them too thick and they came out huge so I gave them another 8 minutes in the oven.
What’s the best way to store the leftover ones?
Thanks a million for the recipe 🙂
Emmanuel
Sam
Hi Emmanuel! I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! If you have cooked leftovers I would store them in an airtight bag and just reheat them in the microwave for a few seconds when you want to eat one. 🙂
Tiffany Goss
Seriously, the easiest & most delicious biscuits ever!! This is my go to recipe and this evening, they turned out perfect… I finally got down the frozen butter bit 😉 . I don’t drink regular milk, so I sub in soy milk and these biscuits still turn out so yummy. 10/10 recommendation!!!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them and happy that they turned out so well even with soy milk. Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Lisa
Ive made these biscuits about 10x now and love them! They are easy and yummy. This last batch, I was out of whole mile and used 1% milk but they turned out even better!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lisa! 🙂
Eva
Mine didn’t rise, are you sure we have to use baking powder and not baking soda? Baking powder in a cold environment obviously dies
Sam
Hi Eva! You do not want to use baking soda here, you do need baking powder. For taller flakier biscuits you need to make sure to have REALLY cold butter and milk. With those ingredients being really cold you need to be sure not to overwork the dough. If you overwork it you will warm up your ingredients and your biscuits won’t rise like they should. I hope this helps. 🙂
Alyssa Witt
Can I make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it? Like the night before I need it?
Sam
Hi Alyssa! That will work fine. I would recommend making the dough, cutting out the shapes and then wrapping them tightly and storing in the refrigerator. 🙂
Mariah
Excellent biscuits! I used pink Himalayan salt and (since I realized I was out of milk) substituted some sour cream with water to make up the measurement. Came out wonderfully.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Mariah! 🙂
Marie Chery
I decided to go for an easy biscuit recipe, boy was I happy to have found yours. They came out fluffy and my kids really enjoyed them for breakfast. Thanks again for the recipe.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Marie! 🙂
Rob
These were the best scratch biscuits I’ve ever made…well, hubby cut in the butter cuz I have never been able to do that…but just wow. Thanks!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Sonia Benchimol
Thank you so very much for this recipe and tips for the perfect biscuit!♡
They were deliceous and didn’t stick around long w my gang.
Lovely ♡
I’ll be looking to try more of your recipes.
Thx Sam
Best to you,
Sonny
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Sonny! 🙂
Rebecca
Loved this recipe! So easy to make, so tasty and fluffy.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them much, Rebecca! 🙂
Celo
Hi,
I will make these the very first time. I am curious as why you did not mention everything in grams? This is critical especially when you say salt but don’t mention what type of salt. 1 teaspoon table salt vs. 1 teaspoon kosher salt are different volume, almost 2 grams difference that is.
Sam
Hi Celo, whenever not otherwise specified you can assume it is common table salt. I hope that helps.
Celo
I assume to assume something can go wrong when you are cooking/baking something with assumption 🙂 but what do I know 🙂
Sam
A little common sense goes a long way ☺️😉
Lisa
These were EXCELLENT. So fluffy and delicious and buttery but not overly heavy! God bless you for making this recipe.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lisa! 🙂
Andrea Tickle
Have you ever tried buttermilk instead of whole milk?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Andrea! Others have and reported success. Either milk or buttermilk will work in this recipe. 🙂
Margie Worthington
Sam, we love your biscuits! I’m looking forward to more recipes with great tips. Happy baking to you!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy to hear how much you have enjoyed them, Margie. I can’t wait to see what recipe you try next! 🙂
Margie Worthington
The biscuits were very good and flaky. I was confused, at the lack of browning on top. I kept them in the oven until they lightly browned which took another 4 to 5 minutes, which made them crunchy on top. ( I had buttered the tops before baking on the 2nd batch with the same results, in different pans). Is there something I’m missing?
Sam
Hi Margie! Is your oven temperature accurate? If the temperature is too low it may take an extra few minutes to get those nice browned tops. 🙂