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.
Jonathan
AMAZING! I just have to comment after I made these- which I never do! I’m a home dad now with the pandemic, and designated cook for the family. Both these biscuits and your AWESOME pizza dough have gained me some fans! Biscuits and gravy were loved by all. Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoys it so much, Jonathan! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
Rosie Hayden
Super easy and YUMMY! I was craving biscuits and gravy but didn’t want to run to the store. THese were great!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Rosie! In my opinion they are much better than store bought too. 🙂
Susan
Best biscuits I have ever made! I didnt have any milk so I used coffee creamer. French vanilla. Omg just fantastic tasty. Gotta try it.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Susan! 🙂
Laura
I made a double batch and subbed part of the butter for bacon fat (cooled and refrigerated, of course). 8 tbsp. butter, 4 tbsp. bacon fat. Used my food processor to pulse together the flour mixture and the butter/bacon fat (wouldn’t recommend doing this unless you’re an experienced cook; it’s too easy to over-mix if you don’t know what you’re doing). Came together in a snap, and tasted amazing!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Laura! The bacon fat sounds delicious. 🙂
Molly
Perfect!
Prynsesse
Should I double baking powder too? I’m making 12
Sam
When you double this recipe you need to double all of the ingredients. 🙂
Leeann
Can I make these one day in advance and warm them up on the day of?
Sam
Hi Leeann! That will work just fine. You could also make the biscuits the day before, wrap tightly and store in the refrigerator. 🙂
Leeann
Thanks Sam! So excited to make these!!
Leeann
Just want to follow up and let you know that they were a hit! My son ate 3!!
I used a heart shaped cookie cutter and they turned out beautiful and super fluffy – got so many compliments!
This was my first recipe I made from your blog. Will definitely be trying others. Thank you!!
Sam
That’s so awesome! 🙂
Gina M Lyon
Everyone really liked these biscuits, I made them to go with my sausage corn chowder.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Gina! 🙂
mariya korotun
Can these prepped ahead of time and then refrigerated before baking?
Sam
Hi Mariya! That will work just fine. Just make sure to keep them wrapped tightly so they don’t dry out in the refrigerator. 🙂
Nicole
Are you able to freeze this dough?
Sam
Hi Nicole! Yes this will freeze just fine. I would cut out the biscuits then wrap them tightly and store in the freezer. 🙂
Caroline
INCREDIBLE recipe, so easy and quick and so satisfying. This is my first time making biscuits at all, being a european who visited the US a couple times I had a craving for biscuits and they’re not available anywhere here. I was really happy to find a recipe that didn’t use shortening and had measures in grams and I am not disappointed! Thank you so much!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Caroline! 🙂
Kandace
Yumm!!! So delicious and easy! I’ve never used a box grater for the butter before but it worked like a charm! These are perfect.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kandace! 🙂
Jerald Thornhill
I have made these for a while ,is my wife’s favorite
Sam
I’m so glad she enjoys them so much, Jerald! 🙂
Cheri
So very good! My first time making biscuits and they are excellent!! I did use 8 ounces of Kerrygold though
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Cheri! 🙂
Bret
Subbing margarine for butter. You must treat it the same as a cake. The butter has the fat content you need for moisture. Margarine is made with very little oil and balanced out with water. The highest oil content I have seen is 53%. You need to get rid of that water. It evaporates as it cooks. Dry buscuits are the result. Also denser. Try adding bacon grease. Lard. Goose grease. Melt the margarine. Let it sit a minute or 2. Spoon off the oil on top of the water. Repeat until you have the required oil (personally, sub it out and save the time). Hope this helps
Sam
Thanks for the tips, Bret! 🙂
Lyle Simpson
My very first time seeing anything from you, as it’s just me this morning, wife & grandkids are out, I cut this recipe in half making 2 HUGE biscuits.
Thanks to this recipe, I just made the very best biscuits that I’ve ever tasted anywhere!
Sam
That sounds awesome! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them, Lyle! 🙂
Marrok
Thanks for your comment! I was hoping to make a half recipe for just my husband and myself so glad it turned out for you!