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.
Cyndi
Mine didn’t rise up very high at all. They taste good but they aren’t light and fluffy. I wonder if I flattened the dough too much before cutting them out.
Sam
Hi Cyndi! Over-working the dough can definitely cause this, or your baking powder could be bad. I hope they turn out better next time. 🙂
Tracy Garrett
Can I use baking soda instead of baking powder?
Sam
Unfortunately that won’t work 🙁
Tracy Garrett
I tried it anyway and it actually did work! The family loved the biscuits. Next time I’ll make them your way. I’m sure they’ll love them even more.
Sam
I’m glad they still turned out. 🙂
Amy
These are super easy to make really delicious. Flaky outside, tender middle, with a great taste. We had to stop ourselves from eating them all in one sitting. 🙂
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Amy! 🙂
RoxAnne Nicholson
Joining the throng of “Best biscuit recipe ever!”. So excited I found your recipe! I’m a HUGE fan of butter, so this fit the bill. I keep all my butter in the freezer. Super idea for the box grater! And also, must recommend White Lilly flour. I’m in the south, and know it’s hard to find outside the southeast; particularly now. Hard to find here right now, too! Thank you SO much! Sharing with all my friends & family!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Roxanne! I jokingly call myself a butter addict so I am right there with you! 🙂
Mem
I can’t find where to add a comment. I mostly have a question… is it ok to make the dough ahead of time and store it in the fridge? Also how many days can the dough be stored in the fridge for? Thank you and thank you very much for this AMAZING recipe!!!
Sam
I have had others report holding them in the refrigerator overnight without issue. I’m not sure how long they will last in the refrigerator uncooked. Make sure you wrap them tightly so they don’t dry out. 🙂
Karen
Best biscuits that I have ever made!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Karen! 🙂
Emily
I tried this recipe tonight and it is a WINNER! I’ve tried a lot in the past and could never find one i really liked until now. The whole family loved them.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Emily! 🙂
BRAD
Is it possible to make these ahead of time, and then refrigerate overnight? Can I use them the next morning?
Sam
Hi Brad! That should work just fine. Make sure you wrap them tightly so they don’t dry out. 🙂
U'ILANI K Meskell
Definitely my favorite biscuit recipe! Thanks for the tip about putting the butter in the freezer. This is now my go-to recipe and I keep butter sticks in the freezer so that I am prepared!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Caroline
This is the recipe I always use when I make biscuits! I double it and it turns out really nicely! Personally, I prefer using a rolling pin, because I have found it makes the layers very defined and makes the biscuits flakier. This is the best biscuit recipe I’ve found, 10/10!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy them so much, Caroline! 🙂
Tiffany Green
There is absolutely no question that these are the best biscuits that I’ve ever made! Absolutely delicious! My eldest has confirmed that they are delicious (and they don’t lie about food)! One question I have: I’d love the tops of the biscuits to be a little browner, but I don’t want the bottoms to burn. Any tips?
Sam
Hi Tiffany! I am so glad you enjoyed them so much! If you brush the tops with a little bit of cream or milk before baking it will help encourage browning. 🙂
Dwight
I had good success and had never made good buscuits before. I used fat free milk and it worked fine except I had to add more flour, was way too sticky.
Thanks for a great recipe, even a non-baker can succeed eith.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Dwight! 🙂
Kathy Young
Have you eve used lemon juice or vinegar to make your 2% into buttermilk? I often do this when I don’t have buttermilk on hand. It’s a very old ‘tip’ from my grandmother and mother. I use a tablespoon to recommended milk measure – let it sit for a bit – it should start to thicken, then tada, it’s ready.
Sam
Hi Kathy! I actually have a post on how to make that buttermilk substitute. It can definitely come in handy. 🙂
samira
Aside from the chilling butter part and chilling dough part (i added that step by myself just to make sure the dough was cold when i was cutting it) this was super easy and ridiculously quick to make. However, the dough was weird (?) I did not end up putting all of the milk because it would have been too ‘normal’ dough-like as opposed to biscuit dough-like. Even then, as I was rolling the dough to cut the biscuits, it took an unusual amount of effort to flatten the dough, it was very elastic. Not sticky, but elastic. Can’t speak for the taste cause they’re still in the oven, but I hope they turn out well.
Sam
Hmmm… did it look like it does in the video? This seems odd.
Alicia
This was so easy and they came out sooo good! I was so surprised by how quick they actually were to make, and as someone who sometimes has difficulty baking, this recipe was easy to follow and simple. The result was a delicious, soft, layered biscuit that I never could’ve imagined I would be able to make myself. I will keep this on hand for many more bakes to come – thank you for this recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, ALicia! 🙂
Nettia
This recipe was easy to follow; bear in mind that I have made biscuits before. I was looking more for a quick measurement reference, but ended up reading the tips and got pulled into following the recipe. Although I didn’t find the biscuits to be what I’d describe as flaky, they were delicious! My family and I all enjoyed them, and I will continue trying the grated butter technique in other recipes. Thanks.
Sam
Im glad everyone enjoyed overall! Thank you for trying my recipe!