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.
Jaime
Love, love, love these yummy biscuits!! Such an easy recipe and I loved your video. Thank you so much for helping me with dinner tonight.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jaime! 🙂
Sarah
Did anyone need a lot more than 12 minutes for these to bake? Mine needed like 20! And it made 6 biscuits plus a little more, so I know they weren’t too big…
Sam
Hi Sarah! Is your oven temperature accurate? It sounds like it may be running a little bit cooler than it says it is. I hope they were still delicious! 🙂
Gail
My first time ever making biscuits and this recipe was the first one I came across so I tried it and the biscuits were absolutely delicious, the biscuits are light and flaky and I am melting some butter right now as I speak to brush over the tops. I’m going to be making these again
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Gail! 🙂
Brittany B.
This is a 5-star recipe. I was in a bit of a hurry so I used cold butter from the fridge and chopped by butter up with a knife. The biscuits were still amazing, and were ready within about 35 min (15 min cooking time to get light golden brown color to the tops!! I am definitely looking forward to making them with slightly frozen butter and the grater.
Question: once the biscuits are formed, is it possible to freeze them to bake later? Also, if storing in the fridge to bake later, how long can it be stored?
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that you enjoyed them, Brittany! To answer your questions you can easily freeze these and bake them later, they will just take a few extra minutes in the oven if baking them frozen. If you wish to store them in an airtight container and in the fridge they will be good for a few days. 🙂
Melissa
So disappointed about these biscuits! I followed the recipe to the T and even weighted out the ingredients, but the baking soda was incredibly overpowering after I cooked them, making them almost inedible. The texture of the biscuits is great, but the after taste makes them pretty much unbearable. Has anyone else had this issue?
Sam
Hi Melissa! Oh no! The recipe actually calls for baking POWDER and not baking soda, unfortunately this accidental mix-up is why the taste was so bad for you 🙁
Jessy
The recipe calls for baking powder instead of baking soda, maybe that’s why it didn’t turn out like you hoped.
Shawonna
I made homemade biscuits for the first time yesterday and they were so delicious I am making them again right now lol
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Shawonna! Thank you for commenting. Enjoy your next batch! 😉
Amy
These are the absolute best biscuits!! I’ve tried a few other recipes but these are perfection! So flaky and light. My husband and kids devoured them. I’ll be making these every Sunday😋
Asha
I made these today and they came out great! I cut mine into squares so as not to work the dough too much and they were super flaky.
kathy
i”ve made these before but used self rising flour instead of all purpose got the same results
Ambi
Plopped these babies on top of some homemade chicken noodle soup for a yummy casserole. Was delicious!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Stephanie Ahrens
I have tried several biscuit recipes and have never had one turn out the way I was hoping for, until now. These were fantastic, super flaky and light! Thanks for sharing!
Sam
You’re very welcome, I’m so glad they were such a success for you, Stephanie! 🙂
christine brown
Yum! My first attempt at biscuits. Simple, fluffy, and delicious. Thanks for this recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Christine! 🙂
Kim
We made these this morning and they are so good!!! We were able to use gluten free flour to make them gluten free for our son. I have never grated frozen butter before, and this was a game changer! Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that everyone enjoyed them and you were able to make them gluten-free successfully. Thanks for trying my recipe and commenting, Kim. 🙂
Marlena
WOW! Luscious, yummy, easy, why not biscuits everyday? I accidently dropped the frozen butter in the flour and discovered the flour helped me grip it better for grating. This is my go to for buscuits now. Thank you.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Marlena! I would loveeee biscuits every day! 🙂
Ronnie
HELP!!! SOS!!! I am being forced to make bisquits almost EVERY morning now!!! Lol. My husband said whatever recipe you used this time, tack it to the fridge. He adores this recipe. Thank you!
Sam
😂😂 This comment just actually made me laugh out loud, Ronnie! I’m so glad (or maybe sorry? 😂) that your husband loves the recipe so much! Thank you so much for commenting!
Racchel
Great recipe but totally in the “hands off ” approach to making the dough, (like not overworking but underworking the dough with the butter).
The Biscuits were so light and fluffy! Also I used 100% Kerrygold Irish butter and that butter has a flavor to live for. I iced it down for about a half hour, shaved it with the cheese grater into big chunks as quickly as possible and added the ice cold milk.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Eleanore
These are the best biscuits I have ever had in my life! Once, I had to substitute bread flour for the all-purpose flower and they came out more dinner biscuity and were also delicious!
This recipe is amazing and everyone is amazed how simple it is! Love love love these beautiful, buttery biscuits!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Eleanore! 🙂
Jacob
I made these tonight, but left out the sugar. Biscuits are savory, not sweet, at least to me! I made them with a 2 3/8” cutter. Almost bite size! Wish i could insert a pic! Thanks.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jacob! You can join my Facebook Group or tag me on Instagram @sugarspun_Sam. I’d love to see the pictures. 🙂
Shannon
Success! It took two tries (mainly because I skipped over the tips…but that’s neither here nor there..but THE TIPS ARE IMPORTANT) but now they came out perfect this time! Biscuits and gravy for breakfast! Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad they turned out! 🙂