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
- Biscuit cutter
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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
Carl
Easy recipe….great biscuits! I’ve used it with buttermilk, whole milk and 2%. I’ve used regular and European butter. Works fine every time. Well except the time I forgot to add the butter. I got hockey pucks 😂
Sam
🤣 Whoops! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much. 🙂
Angie
We really did enjoy your biscuit recipe.I did use buttermilk and added
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. I also divided the dough in half and added raisins to half the dough(for raisin biscuits).These raisin biscuits tasted so much like scones 😋
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Angie! 🙂
Wendy Beck
I wonder if this would work with unsweetened almond milk or Carnation’s almond cooking milk. I have no problem using butter but we never have milk around. Thank you for the great recipe option for my gluten reintroduction from this Elimination diet.
Sam
Hi Wendy! Unfortunately I’m not sure how they would turn out. 🙁
Kristen
I followed the directions and substituted the flour with gluten free 1to1 flour and they turned out so well I almost cried. I don’t get to have yummy baked things like this very often. I needed to add a few extra tablespoons of milk and I think they could have used a few more minutes to bake but they rose and got fluffy and you can see the difference that folding the dough makes.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kristen! 🙂
Mary
These are SO simple to make and absolutely delicious! I used to think my only option for a truly quick homemade biscuit was using Bisquick (which I admittedly still love for pancakes), but this will be my go-to recipe from here on out! I did use salted butter because it was all we had on hand so I cut the added salt to a 1/4 teaspoon. My family and I could not have loved these more! I will have to double the recipe next time!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Mary! These are definitely better than the box mix. 🙂
Adam Davenport
This was a last second, breakfast for lunch decision and was out of canned/frozen biscuits. So a quick google search and clicked the first recipe I came across and let me tell you this one is going to be the go to biscuit from now on! So good and simple. My only set back was I made them too thin, still delicious but not as big as I wanted. That’s my fault tho. Also I used 2% milk and they came out great. Tops are kinda pale in color but I baked for 12 min and checked the bottoms and they were perfect. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Adam! 🙂
Ashlie
My son has a dairy allergy, so I made these with almond milk and Country Crock plant butter. They were still delicious. My husband says the best biscuits he’s ever had. Thanks for a great, easy recipe!!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Ashlie! Thanks for your feedback! 🙂
Erica
Super easy to make – the biscuits are huge, fluffy, flaky, and perfect. My kids request these biscuits every week. Cutting in the butter using the box grater is such a great tip – it’s so easy and quick. I’ve tried that technique with my scone recipe and for some reason it did not work as well as cutting in the butter by hand, but with this biscuit recipe it works beautifully. Sometimes I make them with a smaller round cookie cutter so they’re a bit easier for little hands to handle, and I can usually get a few more biscuits out in the first round – decreases how much I have to work the dough. I forgot the salt once and that did impact the flavor a bit so I wouldn’t leave it out.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoy them so much, Erica! 🙂
sandra
sorry but the jiffy mix box came out better…even tho i froze butter and grated it and cold milk. folded 5-6 times only. hockey puks. i was just out of mix so tried this but its a no go
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this. I would check the date on your baking powder. Sounds like it may be expired.
Amy
This recipe is easy to follow. I followed the instructions exactly as written and the biscuits came out fluffy and flaky.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Amy! 🙂
Farah K.
I’m new to cooking and baking, but I’ve been trying to get myself accustomed to making new things. I came upon this recipe and tried it for the first time for the family. I served it with fried chicken. OMG!! Best thing ever. I followed the recipe and was so impressed to how the they came out. They were a bunch of delicious buttery soft biscuits. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I will definitely try others from you Sam.
Sam
That is so awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Farah! They go awesome with fried chicken. Next you should try making them for breakfast with some sausage gravy. 🙂
Jasmine
As I told my friends, I have followed recipes of the most southern celebrity chefs I know of but have not been successful with any biscuit recipes! I found yours at the top of my Google search with the best ratings and went for it. So glad I did! They turned out perfectly. Thank you for a great and simple recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jasmine! 🙂
Carmen
These turned out fantastic!!
I only had heavy cream and 1% milk on hand, so I mixed roughly 75% cream and 25% milk to sort of approximate the whole milk. It worked – but the dough was quite dry so I splashed in a bit more until it could come together, ending up probably closer to a full cup than 3/4c for my milk-cream mixture. They were pretty easy and tasted great – flaky, buttery – miles away better than tube-biscuits.
Thanks for the recipe!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Carmen! 🙂
Cheryl A NunesKnittel
OMG! These biscuits are phenomenal. My family can’t get enough. I have to quadruple or quintuple the recipe because everyone wants more than one. Thank you for sharing your recipe and for all the valuable preparation tips!
Sam
That is so awesome! I’m so glad everyone enjoys them so much, Cheryl! 🙂
Yvonne Frazier
Love this recipe ❤️
Diana
I just found it today Monday morning 8:00 going to make it tomorrow morning 🌅 let y’all know how I did 😘
Sam
I think you are going to love them! 🙂
Nicole
I am not much of a baker, so I really appreciated these simple instructions and your video, so I could see how to fold the dough. I also don’t own a pastry cutter, and the grater is a cool idea! I used Kerrygold Irish butter, which tends to be softer, so even though I put it in the freezer for 10 minutes (maybe not long enough), the grated butter kind of clumped together. I cooked the biscuits longer, about 16 or 17 minutes, and they were cooked but the tops didn’t brown. The overall color was very light. What’s the best way to make them browner? Even so, the biscuits were delicious and easy to make. I appreciate you sharing this recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Nicole! You can help encourage some browning on the top by brushing the tops with an egg wash before baking. They won’t get really really browned but the egg wash will help a little bit. 🙂
Jackie Weinberger
I’ve now made this recipe several times and they turn out perfect every time. I find it helps to slowly mix the frozen grated butter. Just a little at a time to prevent clumps. Delicious, easy, and perfect as an accompaniment to soups.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jackie! 🙂
abbie
did you use parchment paper? i skipped that part and my biscuits browned nicely
Norma Huizar
These were super easy to make and delicious!
Sandra Grant
I used light butter and 2% milk. And I made 12 thinner biscuits Delicious. They still rose nicely and turned a nice golden brown. Flakey. So good. I’ll make them again!!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Sandra! 🙂
Bev
The first time I’ve been able to make good biscuits! I’ve tried so many recipes. Finally a success! Great and EASY recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Bev! 🙂
Elizabeth
This was my first time making biscuits in many years, and they came out perfectly, even at high altitude! Thank you for a delicious treat on a snowy day!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Elizabeth! 🙂
Valonda
My oven didnt come on so i was not able bake my biscuits can i refrigerate the dough for tomorrow or do i have to throw it out and start over?
Sam
Hi Valonda! You can keep the dough in the refrigerator overnight. Make sure to wrap it tightly so it doesn’t dry out. 🙂
Yvonne Ortiz
Hi there,
I followed your recipe actually and they came out looking beautiful but once we tasted them we can only taste a really strong baking powder sour taste? I put in 1 table spoon like you mentioned. Have you had this complain before? Not sure what happened.
Sam
O no! I’m so sorry this happened, Yvonne! I hate when this happens to me. 🙁 The most likely culprit is that the baking powder was bad. I have also noticed this issue if I use a generic brand baking powder. I hope it goes better next time. 🙂
Kay McAnally
These were perfect biscuits with a crispy outside, soft inside and buttery flovor. The recipe was easy to follow and thorough and you covered all the bases. Thank you for my new go-to recipe which my husband and son in law adore (and I do to!).
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kay! 🙂