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.
Simone
I have tried MANY biscuit recipes. All an epic fail. These were delicious. I will definitely be making these again!
Sam
I’m so glad this one was such a success for you, Simone! Thank you so much for commenting, I appreciate it! 🙂
Kimberly Merejo
Great recipe!!
I made this tonight and it was my first time making homemade biscuits like. As a first timer that didn’t have the utensils mentioned in the recipe, here’s how I modified.
I mixed all dry ingredients together in a bowl then took about 1.5 cups of that mixture and added it to a manual food processor. Then added the cold butter cubes a little at a time as I blended. The finished product still looked like flour (not crumbles) when I was done but I went with it.
I dumped it back into the bowl and mixed it in with the remaining flour mixture.
I didn’t have milk or buttermilk so I mixed 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar with 1/2 cup half and half. Then added that to the dry mix and blended them together with a wooden spoon.
The mix was still a bit too crumbly so I ended up having to add some ice water to it. It took about 3tbsp to get it to the right consistency.
I kneaded with my hands just until I could form a ball. Then I rolled it by hand into the shape of a log and used a knife to cut into 3/4″ discs.
There were a few that were too small so I mushed them together which formed a mound. In the end, those actually turned out the best.
They tasted delicious and my 1 and 4 yo couldn’t wait until morning to eat them!!
Next time I’ll add another 1/2 tsp of salt and will just shape the biscuits by hand (much easier and came out the perfect texture).
Thanks for sharing!!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Kimberly! 🙂
Rose
Made theses today. I’ve made many recipes and this one is the best. The three things that made a big difference was first cold butter using the box grater and folding the dough. I also would use a roller pin and I will not do that again. I made two batches. My family said that theses were the best ones I’ve ever made. The biscuits when great with the beef stew I made tonight.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that they were a hit and paired perfectly with your stew, Rose. Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Cynthia
Delicious and easy. I even chopped some herbs and tossed it in the dry mix before the butter and milk. Came out great. Thanks for this!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Cynthia! 🙂
Russ
Easy recipe and tasted great! No more store bought when I can whip these out. On the negative side, my stash of strawberry jam just took a large hit!
Sam
O no! I guess you’ll be making more jam soon then. I’m glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Joan Haverkamp
Thank you for consistently sharing recipes that are basic, easy to assemble and produce a wonderful finished product. I look to you often for recipes. Thank you!
Sam
Thank you so much, Joan! I am so glad you have enjoyed everything, and I really appreciate your support. 🙂
Kaley
By far the easiest and most delicious biscuits I’ve ever made! I followed the recipe exactly except I used 3 tablespoons of lard because I only had 3 tbsp of butter (it’s grocery day I’m out of everything). I also used half buttermilk because I was low on milk and needed it for gravy. I Froze the fats, grated them with a small handheld grater, which I always do and then placed back into the freezer for a bit. I also had my milks in the freezer while prepping. These turned out so amazing and they even LOOK great. Thank you so much. The video was very helpful too.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kaley! 🙂
Carla Davis
❤️ this recipe. I am a biscuit connoisseur and have tried a few recipes. This one is the best so far. Taste like The Colonel’s biscuits. I add about a teaspoon of baking soda and use salted butter. Thank you for sharing Sam😊
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Carla! 🙂
Lisa
Great recipe!! Really good biscuits!!!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed it, Lisa! 🙂
Megan Lin
Great recipe. I see you can freeze the prepared biscuits, but curious can I leave my dough in the refrigerator over night and bake the next day with the same great results?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Megan! Yes, you can! You just want to make sure that your dough is well wrapped or stored in an airtight container so the dough does not dry out. I hope that you enjoy them! 🙂
Kellie
Fantastic! I followed the recipe and your tips exactly as well as watched the video as this was my first time making gluten biscuits. My family LOVED them. I also made a gf batch with bobs red mill 1to1 flour, I added an egg and increased the milk to 1 cup. BEST gf biscuits ever! I’ve thrown out so many gummy raw gf biscuits NOT anymore! Thank you so much for this versatile and wonderful recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
You are very welcome, Kellie! I am so glad that you enjoyed them. 🙂
Beth
I made these and even though I’m at a very high altitude they turned out beautifully. They rose like no biscuits Ive ever made before and had gorgeous flaky layers – Yay!!! I don’t always feel like making biscuits from scratch in the morning so…..can I make the dough, cut out the biscuits and then freeze them to bake later?
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Beth! To answer your question, yes, you can! If you are baking them frozen they will just need a few more minutes to bake. 🙂
Beth
Thank you! Breakfast time just got 10x easier 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
Hooray! I hope that they are a hit and the kids love them! 🙂
VV
Can you make the dough in advance and freeze it? As a working mom of 2 little ones, I try to do my baking in bulk and so if I can mix a large batch at one time and bake part of it and freeze the rest, it would be great. Any tips on that?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Vineeta! Yes, these can be made in advance. You will make the dough, cut them into biscuits, and place them in an airtight freezer-safe container. You can individually wrap each or align each layer with freezer or wax paper. If baking frozen, it will just take an additional minute or two to bake through. You can also freeze baked biscuits. 🙂
Risa Gabai
I want to make the biscuits but I only have Oat milk and Soy milk in my fridge today, can I substitute either kind? Thank you!
Sam
Hi Risa! I haven’t tried it with either of those to be sure. I think they will still turn out but you will probably lose a little bit of the moisture.
Danny
I’ve been making biscuits for years using a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour. I tried your recipe, grating frozen butter into the flour and brushing the tops with melted butter when they come out of the oven. I was amazed at how much better the biscuits were than my usual biscuits. My family loves them! Thank you for contributing this recipe for everyone to enjoy.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Danny! 🙂