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.
Lisa
These were nice and fluffy, and I followed the recipe as written; however, my biscuits were kind of dense and a bit gummy in the middle. I only had a 2″ cutter, so I reduced the baking time to 10 min. because I thought since they were smaller, they would need less time to bake. Should I have left them in for 12 min.?
Sam
Hi Lisa! Normally when the biscuits are smaller they will take less time, but since they were dense and gooey it sounds like they weren’t baked all the way through so probably just needed a little more time. 🙂
Christine
I’ve made these several times and my boyfriend and I absolutely love them. Great recipe, will always be my go-to for biscuits!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Christine! 🙂
Ashley B
I LOVE this recipe, it’s the only one I use for biscuits now. They turn out perfect every time 🙂 I just discovered this morning they’re a little versatile too! I was out of regular milk and tried substituting with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and they came out awesome. Thanks for the recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Ashley! 🙂
Laura Ledford
Can you use self rising flower instead of all purpose?
Sam
Hi Laura! I’m not sure how it would work here. There may need to be some other alterations made, but without having tried it I can’t say for sure what they would need to be.
Matt
I make these all the time for my family, I like the size of this recipe. In my opinion biscuits don’t keep all that well and they are the best right out of the oven.
A question on the rise though. I always end up with fairly uneven rises. They puff up nice but they’ll kind of split on the laminated layers and one side will grow more than the other. Is my dough too dry? The layers aren’t adhering to each other.
Sam
Hi Matt! It sounds like the biscuits are turning out really flaky, which in my opinion, is perfect! One side of your biscuit dough may have been pressed together more firmly when laminating causing one side (the side not so tightly packed) to rise much higher than the other, but it doesn’t sound like they are too dry. I hope this helps. 🙂
Maria
As a collector of rolling pins, I was appalled 😁 when the recipe said just to use your hands, but these biscuits were so easy and tasted yummy!
Sam
😂 I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Krystal
Can I use bread flour instead of all purpose?
Sam
Hi Krystal! I haven’t tried it but I think it could work. Your biscuits will probably be a little bit chewier. 🙂
Amanda Williams
I just love this recipe so much. I’ve never been able to successfully make biscuits until I tried yours. It’s now a family favorite! My son ate four as fast he could!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Amanda! 🙂
Pam
Love these biscuits and make them often. I am camping this weekend and am wondering if I could make the dough ahead of time, keep it cold and bake them the next day?
Sam
So glad you enjoyed, Pam! Yes, so long as the dough is kept in an airtight container and kept cold it will keep for several days. Enjoy! 🙂
Joe
I impressed myself as I’m not a baker, Needing a biscuits and gravy fix I figured these looked simple enough so I tried them. They where wonderful and simple to make, everyone liked them and now I’m asked to make them all the time. Thanks for making me look good.
Sam
Haha, I’m so happy they were such a success for you, Joe! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how they turned out 🙂
PS: If you’re looking for a good gravy recipe, try my sausage gravy! 🙂
Jesse Alonzo
Used your recipe for the first time this morning and they came out fantastic !! Thank you for sharing this simple recipe. I am going to use the biscuits for breakfast biscuits and gravy then for my hot and spicy chucken and biscuits for dinner.
Sam
I’m so happy you enjoyed, Jesse! If you’re looking for a good sausage gravy recipe I have one of those, too! 🙂
Allie
I am in heaven! I just took these palate pleasers out of the oven and can’t believe how light, fluffy and flavorful they are! I rarely make biscuits because they are usually kind of flat, but I’m having the in-laws for dinner tomorrow night and wanted to make blueberry shortcake. I almost went to the supermarket for the canned version but I thought I’d give this recipe a try-soooo glad I did! Thank you!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Allie! Homemade is always better if you ask me. 🙂
Marielis R.
Listen…I’m from the Midwest (Ohio), and I have never made homemade biscuits in my life because they intimidated me, but I was SO surprised at how easy these were to make! If I would have known how easy they were, I would have been making these so long ago! They were absolutely delicious and perfect! No need to be an experienced baker. Your video is what really helped me as I am a visual learner. Thanks for sharing!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Marielis! 🙂
Holly
Biscuits were wonderful, but way too much salt. I will cut it down or totally cut it out. I agree with lady in previous posting.
Leanita
These are delish! Been watching YouTubers using store-bought brands. Got jealous 😊 and curious and decided to make them this morning, as they’re not exactly a traditional English brekkie and they were LOVELY!
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Leanita! 🙂
Doug Brown
Been baking what I thought were good biscuits for 40 years. This recipe is so much better.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Doug! 🙂
Alexandra Brinker
They were so delicious! I made the for my whole family and it was a hit!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Alexandra! 🙂