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.
Treat yourself to a FREE E-BOOK!
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
Penny likes to supervise the photography process. Fortunately, this setup got her vote of approval.
Net
I’m a biscuit making novice for sure. This recipe is awesome! No more frozen biscuits in this house. Couldn’t be easier, tastier or flakier!!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Kenni
I’m not sure if someone already asked this question but would it be possible to add cheese to these?
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
Aeyre
I’ve already reviewed this recipe because it’s so amazing, but I had to come back (for probably the last time) to say that I’ve now used it so frequently I have it memorized! They are a hit every time, never going back to pilsbury again lol, sorry doughboy!
Sam
Thank you so much, Aeyre! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Elizabeth
Can I ask why you use all purpose and not self rising flour? Ready to try these out but I’ve always used self rising when making biscuits!
Sam
Self rising flour includes baking powder and salt, which this recipe has already accounted for. If you were to use self-rising they would have far too much of these ingredients and be very salty. I believe it is possible to do a substitution, but haven’t tried it myself.
Susan
These are the best I have ever made. AND they freeze beautifully. I just put them in a cold oven, set for 275 F, turn it off after about 15 minutes and let them sit a few minutes longer. I wish my printer was t broken. I’d hate to lose this one.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Susan! I’ll make sure to keep this recipe up. If something ever happens and you can’t find it you can reach out and I will send it over to you. 🙂
Rhon
Can I omit the 1 tsp salt and use salted butter?
Sam
I would just cut the salt a heaping 1/4 teaspoon here. 🙂
Susan
I use salted butter and don’t add any salt. I really love these biscuits.
Gwen
These biscuits were amazing, I’ve always been intimated by making my own biscuits but your recipe and instructions worked great! No more canned or frozen biscuits in this house! Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Gwen! 🙂
Retsuko
I was a little scared to make biscuits but I am glad I found this recipe. The instructions were clear and detailed. The biscuits were delicious! Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Brian
I’m from Texas made these for my amigos in the Yucatan mx where I moved they absolutely loved them now if I could just get white gravy down without burning and running it everytime I could give them a real Texas breakfast thanks sooo much very easy recipe
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoys them so much, Brian! 🙂
widelatitude
I’ve been failing at biscuits for a year. These made me a success. Thank you for the detailed instructions!
Alex
Sam, this recipe is down right excellent. Ever since the pandemic I have made my wife biscuits and gravy on the weekends to make up for not being able to get to brunch. My gravy skills have been honed and perfected but I was using box made biscuits until now.
Such a shame it took me a year to try these from scratch. This was so easy to make and with your tips (the video was huge this helped me understand what you were doing so much better than just reading it) it really speed up the learning curve. Thank you! I will be looking through your other recipes now, you have yourself another follower that is for sure.
One question, you mentioned somewhere maybe in the video that unsalted butter is better, especially if it’s European style, what is the difference / benefit of using European style butter? I have never purchased it before, you have a brand you recommend?
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Alex! European butter has a higher fat content which in turn makes the biscuits a little more moist and flavorful. I typically use Plugra or Kerrygold. 🙂
Janis
These were the best biscuits that I’ve ever made! So dang good! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Dort
At last, a recipe that turns out tall and flaky biscuits! These are the best I’ve ever made!
Jesse
I’ve been craving a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit but you can’t get buttermilk here in Japan so I thought I was out of luck. These biscuits turned out incredible! Exceeded all my expectations. Definitely a new go to recipe for me.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Jesse! 🙂
Jed
Jesse!
I feel your pain. We are Texans also in Japan and having to get creative. 3/4 cup of milk with 2 tablespoons vinegar works well (it’s what we use for our weekly chocolate chip buttermilk pancakes). The local rice vinegar doesn’t work well, the apple cider vinegar works better.
Susan
Delicious! This will be my go to biscuit recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Susan! 🙂
Liz
Great recipe! I messed up a little by forgetting to do the milk when doubling the recipe🤦♀️ and mixing a bit too long. However, they still came out tasty and fluffy and flaky! Gonna do it right next time! Lol
Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Liz! 🙂
Shondra
Consistently amazing biscuits. Thank you!
Chelsea
I found this recipe about a year ago (April 2020) at the beginning of the pandemic. It’s so simple and easy, yet absolutely delicious! I’ve probably made them twice a month since – they’re that great. My husband and friends request “my” biscuits and refer to me as the biscuit queen! L O L! Really I’m just a biscuit peasant who memorized this simple yet perfect recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Chelsea! 🙂
Danielle
Hi there! I’m going to attempt this recipe this evening and wanted to know how well these are kept stored? I don’t plan on serving them until the following morning. Do they reheat well?
Sam
Hi Danielle! They do very well stored in an air tight container overnight. To reheat them I just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds. 🙂
Michelle J Haynes
Great recipe, biscuits came out very fluffy and flaky. Thanks for sharing your recipe! Definitely will share recipe with family and friends. 😋
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Michelle! 🙂
Heather
These would have been fine if you like a sweeter biscuit. I like them with gravy and the sugar ruined that for me. I might try again with no sugar added
Sam
Hi Heather! Just wanted to confirm that you just used one Tablespoon of sugar only? We enjoy these with sausage gravy often, the sugar adds flavor but I definitely don’t consider them to be a sweet biscuit.