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.
Matt Bonner
Great recipe, Sam. Lost my old recipe and saw the great reviews so gave it a try tonight. I used Bobs 1:1 GF flour for the celiac wife and it worked very well, still flaky and buttery – thank you!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear that it turned out so well and that the gf flour worked, Matt! Thank you so much for commenting and for trying my recipe 😊
Lori Smith
Making them now. All I have on hand is salted butter… should I add less salt to the recipe?
Sam
Hi Lori! Sorry for the delayed response. I would just cut the salt by about 1/4 teaspoon. 🙂
Jennifer
These are the best biscuits I have ever eaten. Make them right NOW!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy them so much, Jennifer! 🙂
Kaitlyn
Best biscuits ever! My husband told me to save the recipe because they were the best he’s ever had. Very easy to make, highly recommend!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits so much, Kaitlyn! 🙂
Amanda
Recipe works great! I used cream instead of buttermilk/milk as that’s what I had on hand (I also added more than what the recipe called for as it’s quite dry where I am and it’s something I need to do with pretty much every recipe). I was a little worried about overworking the dough as I laminated it, but they turned out great – flaky, light, and crispy on the outside.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Amanda! 🙂
Rachel
Is it normal for them to get brown on the bottom but not brown on the top? Or does it have to brown on top? And some of mine didn’t rise as much as my others. Why?
Sam
Hi Rachel! I wonder if your oven is heating properly and evenly. They shouldn’t brown on the bottom and not the top if you put them on a cool baking sheet and bake them on the center rack in the oven. If some rose and some didn’t I wonder if your oven is just not heating evenly or if some of the dough was overworked. I hope this helps. 🙂
Sarah
I have always been terrified of making biscuits but these were delicious. Thanks for the great recipe. I like serving biscuits hot and am wondering if you can make the biscuits and keep them in the refrigerator for a couple hours before baking? Can you put unbaked biscuits in the freezer and bake them right before you want to eat them?
Sam
Hi Sarah! Refrigerating them for a few hours before baking should work just fine. I would make sure to cover them so they don’t dry out in the refrigerator. They also will freeze well. I like to cut out the biscuits and then wrap them individually and store in a freezer bag. You can bake them from frozen they will just take a few minutes longer. 🙂
Ed Smith
I have never made biscuits would it be advised to grade the butter or lard and freeze before using it?
Sam
Hi Ed! Please refer to step 1 for preparing your butter. 🙂
Sam
Light and flaky! Perfect!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Sam! 🙂
Laurel
Really tasty recipe, but the tips didn’t brown, why???
Sam
Hi Laurel! They should turn a light golden brown. If they don’t your oven temperature may be slightly off or they may have needed another minute in the oven, but if they tasted great I would not keep cooking them for that light golden brown color. 🙂
Deborah Ballard
This recipe is making LOVE grow!
Thank you,
Deb Ballard
Alabama Style
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them, Deborah! 🙂
Deb Conklen
GREAT recipe!! We LOVED them!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Deb! 🙂
Jen
Can I use sourdough discard for some of the liquid in this recipe?
Sam
Hi Jen! I am honestly not really sure how it would turn out but it sounds delicious. If you try it let me know how it goes. 🙂
Jen
We used 1/2 cup sourdough discard (100% hydration) and 1/2 cup milk in the place of the 3/4 cup milk called for in the recipe. I did have to add a little extra milk for moisture, and will play around more with the measurements next time. Delicious!
Sam
Wonderful! That sounds amazing!
Lillian Michelle Fikes
I want to double the recipe do I double every ingredient?
Sam
Hi Lillian! Yes you will need to double every ingredient.
Dee
All I can say is wow wow wow! Better than I expected. Fluffy, flakey,not heavy and simply delicious. Thank you thank you!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Dee! 🙂