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.
Christine Thomas
Every time I make biscuits by the way I won the biscuit baking contest in eighth grade I believe and I can’t make a biscuit to save my life and I followed the instructions carefully and I’m a very good cook but I haven’t baked in years and I’m almost seventy so they’re in the oven now I’ll let you know
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Christine! 🙂
Haley Franklin
This recipe is so easy and perfection! The best! I cut my butter up from frozen, it chops up into the perfect size. The whole family said it was the best. Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoys them so much, Haley! 🙂
Vickie
These biscuits are really good! They turned out exactly as pictured. I only had 2% milk, but it worked fine. I flattened the dough out and cut into 6 squares, but should have made 8 squares or flattened the dough out a little more. The center was ever so slightly doughy when I cut into them. But we poured on the milk gravy and all was fine. This is now my go to recipe and has been included in my favorites. Thanks:)
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Vickie! 🙂
Carrie Cupples
Had to sub almond milk and plant butter (country crock) because my family can’t do dairy…. and I ran out of regular flour on my second batch, so I used a tiny bit of bread flour. I am blown away with how soft and fluffy these were! I imagine it would have been equally as good if I had used all the ingredients of this recipe. I still thought I should say thank you and give credit where credit is due!!! My family loved them!
Sam
I’m so glad they turned out so well even with all of the substitutions. This is great information for anybody else that needs to avoid dairy. Thank you for your feedback. 🙂
Camille G
I was so nervous to make these. It was my first time trying ever. My grandmother died 25 years ago and no one in our family has gotten Grandma’s biscuits quite right. This recipe was soooooo close! Thank you. I LOVED them. 🥰🥰🥰
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Camille! It’s great to have that memory and I’m glad I could provide a recipe that’s close. 🙂
Claudia
Thank you for this fabulous recipe. I have not made biscuits since 7th grade home ec because they were so terrible. Now 50+ years later I find this amazing recipe. There will never be a store bought biscuit of any kind in my house again since my husband said: “can you always buy this brand of biscuits? These are the best I’ve ever had.” I believe the reason these turn out so well is because you don’t use the rolling pin method. The secret is the laminating along with the ice cold butter and milk. I don’t use a cutter either. I use a bench knife and cut my rectangle into 8 pieces. No reworking the dough to try to get 2 more biscuits and no waste at all. They turn out fantastic. Thank you so much for the great video to go with this recipe. For me I believe it made a big difference to see and hear your tips.
Sam
🤣 “Can you always buy this brand of biscuits?” 🤣 I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Claudia! 🙂
Julia Brissot
My first time making homemade biscuits. Fantastic!
I was a little worried about over working the dough. I ran my hands under cold water and that worked fine.
They came out light and buttery. Thanks for the recipe and the great tips.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Julia! 🙂
Emily
Amazing biscuits that even my very picky 2 year old LOVED!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that they were a hit, Emily! Thank you for trying my recipe! 🙂
Nick
My wife said these were as good as any we have every had in any restaurant!!
I grew up on homemade biscuits. Sadly my mom and aunts (all made amazing biscuits) are no longer with us and I’ve never tried even though my wife and I love to cook. We made up a batch of sausage gravy and didn’t want to go to the store and thankfully your recipe came up, looked easy and we had all the ingredients.
We did freeze the butter which I feel really helps make the buttery flavor jump out.
Also, used something a little different for the liquid. A friend convinced me to try my hand at homemade yogurt in our Instant Pot. We wanted Greek flavor so we drained off the whey and stored it. In looking for uses, someone indicated it was great for pancakes, waffles, etc (which we tried and it is) so I put it in the biscuit batter instead of milk. They came out amazing! Thanks for a great recipe! No more store bought.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for the 5-star review. I am so glad that you all enjoyed them, Nick! Thanks for trying my recipe! 🙂
René
Made the recipe for the first time this morning. I loved the grated butter idea. I only had a half cup of milk so I added a little plain yogurt. Turned out nicely. I had to cook about 10 minutes longer than the recipe so that I had some slight browning. Even then the larger briskets were a little doughy in the centre. But I just ate three of them so no big deal.
Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for trying my recipe, René! I am glad that you enjoyed them! 🙂
Sheri
Best biscuits I have ever made ! Love this recipe. Grating frozen butter makes these biscuits light, flaky and irresistible !!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Sheri! I appreciate your feedback and am so glad that you enjoyed them. 🙂
Terri White
The recipe guidelines and video are spot on. The butter in the freezer before grating is genius as is the folding process! This is the only biscuit recipe that worked out perfectly for me. I didn’t have whole milk so I used 3 oz of skim milk and 3 oz Half & Half. My husband was so impressed when he he could just pull the top of the biscuit. He looked at me and said! “Baby!” Fantastic!!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Terri! 🙂
Dana
This is my go-to, no-fail biscuit recipe. Putting the butter in the freezer, and grating it, is absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Dana! 🙂
Fran
My husband said these were best biscuits he’s ever eaten. I think I agree.
Jennifer Emme
Thank you for this! I used this recipe today! It was my time in my life making biscuits & gravy and these were amazing!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Jennifer! I am so glad that you enjoyed it! 🙂
Hootie
I made the Biscuits this morning, The biscuits and gravy were delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂