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.
Marilyn
Tried these this morning and they were not too difficult and tasted great! Next time I think I’ll sift the flour to be sure they’re really buttery!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Marilyn! 🙂
Suzie Balentine
I am so happy with myself and these biscuits! I’m a good cook but a so-so baker who is constantly trying to perfect my meatballs, meatloaf and biscuits. I can take the biscuits off the list now because I hit a 10 this morning. I watched your video carefully, froze the butter, grated it on top of wax paper and underneath it it was a frozen gel pack. The frozen gel pack also did double duty by cooling down my counter surface. My biscuits were layered delicious perfection. Much thanks
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Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Suzie! 🙂
Marley
Hello can i use oat milk and vegan butter
Sam
Hi Marley! Honestly I’m not sure, I feel like they should work, but the biscuits may end up being slightly dry. You need to make sure to use stick butter. Let me know how it goes. 🙂
Karen
These came together very easily and have absolutely ruined me for all other biscuits! I had them with a savory beef stew and it was absolutely heaven. I don’t think my husband and I talked about anything else during the entire meal except for how great they were. Thank you so much!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Karen! 🙂
Brian
First time making these and they biscuits came out really well. They rose a lot, i think for making egg and cheese sandwiches i would press them out enough for 12 biscuits from the normal recipe.
The video really helped. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Brian! 🙂
Kristen Rivera
Best biscuit recipe I’ve tried! It IS really worth grating the butter, even though it’s not my favorite part. I’ve used grated butter in many other pastry recipes though and the results are always worth it. I doubled this recipe and it worked perfect. I’m tripling it this weekend for a get together.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Kristen! 🙂
Jennica
Thank you for this recipe! It really was as easy as you said. I had soup simmering, but without any rolls or bread to pair with it. Quick search on my phone, and bam! Found your site, and was able to crank these out in less than 30 min. Fam was impressed. So much better than biscuits from a can. Since then, I have made it a second time but added 1/2 cup of sharp cheddar – also amazing! I was wondering if you’ve ever noticed a slight sour taste (not in every bite, though)? Like maybe the baking powder clumped up in a couple of spots? If so, I was wondering if you had any ideas for preventing that. Thanks again!! Very happy to have a great new recipe 🙂
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jennica! 🙂
Dawn
With Thanksgiving being “remote” this year, due to the pandemic, can I freeze the cut out biscuits, and deliver them to family to bake themselves?
Sam
Hi Dawn! That will work just fine. If they are baked from frozen they may just need to bake for a minute or two longer. 🙂
Sallie
What if I have only salted butter?
Sam
Hi Sallie! You can cut the salt by about 1/8 teaspoon. 🙂
Lawrence
Excellent results!!! Used 1/2 cup organic whole wheat flour and 1 1/2 organic all purpose flour.
They turned out perfect.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lawrence! 🙂
Holly
Great biscuits! I loved how you explained how to fold the biscuit dough, it really made a difference! Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Holly! 🙂
Jessica S-Houston
I just made the biscuits. OMG they were so delicious. I made them with gravy and 🍯. Highly recommend. Thank you for sharing
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jessica! 🙂
Dolores
I believe I did overwork the dough. Interrupted several times. But they were still good,looked good. And ham gravy, made them better.
Sam
I’m glad you still enjoyed them, Dolores! 🙂
Dolores
They tasted good,looked good,but didn’t rise. New flour, New butter, New baking powder. Spouse didn’t complain. Ice and rain high humidity 28 degrees good possible excuse.?
Sam
Hi Dolores! I am so glad you still enjoyed them! A possible cause of the biscuits not rising is the dough being over-worked. 🙂
Bonnie
Absolutely the very best. I work dough as little as possible and froze the butter. The recipe is a keeper.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Bonnie! 🙂
Melodee
Can this recipe be doubled? Do you just 2x each ingredient?
Sam
Hi Melodee! You can double the recipe, just make sure to double every ingredient. 🙂