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.
Christine A Boineau
I have made these biscuits a lot! They are awesome. I did change it and tried it with bread flour which made a softer biscuit. I have added bacon and pepper jack cheese to them. Bacon and cheddar. I also made cinnamon ones. Before the last laminate I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on it then folded it. Baked it. Brushed it with butter when they came out. While warm added a cinnamon glaze. Family loved them!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Christine! I love the sound of bacon and cheese mixed in. 🙂
Jessica
Delicious recipe. It’s light and airy. I will definitely save this recipe. It’s easy and delicious. The video was helpful too in folding the biscuit.
Tony
Fourth time making this recipe. Perfect every time! Added jalapeños this time. I always make a double batch and give half a dozen away. Everyone loves them. Thank you for the video, I’m definitely not an experienced cook and it really helped.
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoys them so much, Tony! 🙂
Thad
Can I add cheese?
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
Stephanie N.
I have never made biscuits from scratch before, this was the perfect recipe for me. I will be making them for the third time today with buttermilk. I had some leftover from a cake I made for Easter, so I will be trying it with that. Thanks for the recipe.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Stephanie! 🙂
Susie
Really great recipe. I’ve been searching for just the right blend to suit my taste and this is it. I like the amount of sugar and baking powder. I used 2% and it was fine. First time, I made them too thick so had to add to the baking time. Folding over several times makes them very flaky. A hit with the family! My forever biscuit recipe.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Susie! 🙂
Denise
These turn out flaky and yummy every time!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Denise! 🙂
Jennifer Schiffer
Can you add extra sugar to make these sweet for dessert? How much extra would be okay to add?
Sam
Hi Jennifer! You can make my shortcakes. They are very similar and call for more sugar. 🙂
Jennifer Schiffer
Thank you! I made your shortcakes recipe yesterday and they turned out perfectly!
Sam
Just made these! I LOVED them! They were a huge hit with my fam!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Sam! 🙂
Roy Jones
Love the tips for biscuit prep. I make lots of biscuits. Be aware, this recipe has a LOT of salt. Too salty. I guess that’s ok if you like salty biscuits. 1 T. is too much. Compare the amount to other recipes and you’ll see it’s too much salt.
Sam
Hi Roy! I think you mis-read the recipe. 1 T/Tablespoon would absolutely be too much, if you double-check the ingredients you’ll see that my recipe only calls for “1 teaspoon”. I think you’ll be happier with the results if you try it again as written 😉
L
My buttermilk already had salt so I halfed the salt to half tsp and they came out perfect!
Kristen
Hi! Just wondering how these will do if I make them ahead of time. Will they still taste fresh the next day? Looking to make ahead the night before to save time in the morning. Thank you !
Sam
Hi Kristen! These will be great the next day. Of course there is nothing like fresh from the oven, but you can store them in an air tight container and just microwave them for a few seconds before serving to warm them up a bit. 🙂
JT
Thank you Sam! Brilliant presentation of info on how to make great biscuits. I love biscuits and have been using tubed dough forever. Now I have fun making them from scratch and they are so much tastier. I make them on the weekend and enjoy them for a couple of days into the week.
Sam
Homemade is always better if you ask me. I’m glad you enjoy them so much. 🙂
Anna
I love this recipe and my son kept saying they tasted just like Popeyes…
Lol
Sam
😂 I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them, Anna! 🙂
Sky Elias
you can just refrigerate them wrapped in parchment paper
Marlona
So I’m not going to lie…these were fantastic!!! Tried one from Callie’s Charleston Biscuits I saw on the Kitchen cooking show. While supposedly she draws crowds for her biscuits, they were dense and I never tasted the cream cheese or butter.
This recipe was very different starting with basically frozen butter; the box grater idea was perfect. My biscuit came out fluffy, crunchy on the outside; light and airy.
I do find with both recipes, I had to add more milk otherwise they are too dry to cut, is this normal? I think I am afraid of handling the dough too much, I may need to mix more. Suggestions appreciated.
This is a recipe I will continue to use!!!
Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Marlona! As far as the dough being dry, do you weigh your flour? If not you may be accidentally over-measuring your flour, which could make them dry. You also want to be careful not to work in too much flour while laminating the dough. 🙂
RUTH REYES
I like the video it made was very helpful
Sam
Thank you, Ruth! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Lynzii
These turned out great! I used extra butter and a mixture of honey and sugar (I always prefer honey when baking breads) and used grated and chopped butter to make these biscuits! I will try it next time with just the grated butter.
Thank you so much for the recipe! This is definitely a keeper and going in my recipe box!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Lynzii! 🙂
Robin
Made these with my husband! Delicious! The store ones don’t compare to these!!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them, Robin! 🙂
Cy Frederick
Can you make the dough before hand and refrigerate until it is time to use?
Sam
Sure thing! I would cut out the biscuits then store them in an air tight container in the refrigerator. 🙂
Adria
I haven’t made biscuits in years but these were so fast and so simple. They came out great despite the fact that I used a mix of soured dairy milk and almond milk, I didn’t have a chance to freeze the butter and just rolled them out and cut them directly on the baking sheet (on parchment paper). I made them a little thicker than recommended because I love big fluffy biscuits and I are one with gravy and one with strawberry jam. Both were delicious! This is my new go-to biscuit!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Adria! 🙂
Jonna
First time making successful biscuits!! Thank you so much. My 7 yo daughter and I had so much fun and we loved them.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Jonna! 🙂