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.
Gia
I made these last summer and I loved them! Made them again the other day, but this time I made 66! Love them so much.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Gia! That is A LOT of biscuits! 🙂
Morgan
Very tasty…but a little bit too salty for me. I’ll lessen the salt a bit next time. But they were so fluffy! And grating the frozen butter was a perfect idea.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Morgan! Did you used salted butter when you made them? That added salt could make them salty tasting.
Alicia
I found your recipe last year and have been using it ever since. I’ve shared this recipe with my mom and sister. Everyone approves.
I usually don’t like to bake bc if it’s more than 7 ingredients I’m out. This is a easy recipe to follow, not many steps, and these biscuits are amazing!
Sam
I’m so glad you have enjoyed it so much, Alicia! 🙂
Charlene Madden
This recipe is incredibly easy and delicious! It has just the right amount of butter and crisp. It melts in your mouth!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Charlene! 🙂
Morgan
Sam, I just made these for myself (lol) for breakfast this morning and HOLY CRAP they are SO GOOD. Thank you for the bomb recipe girlfriend!! xo Morgan
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Morgan! 🙂
April
Just tried these and they are amazing!! Super easy. I added some garlic and parsley into my melted butter on top. Thanks for the great recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, April! 🙂
Teresa
I have never made homemade biscuits before so I chose this recipe because it also had a video. They were delicious! I will definitely be making them again.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Teresa! 🙂
Scott Frank
Excellent biscuits. Light and fluffy and buttery. Very easy.. Went great with country sausage gravy.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Scott! 🙂
Jeremy
Could i use the dough to make pigs in a blanket?
Sam
I honestly don’t know how it would hold up. If you do try it let me know how it goes. 🙂
Carla Banks-Williams
Sam is it ok to use almond milk and nI-Cant-Believe-It’s-Not-Butter margarine. (I’m on a no dairy medical restriction.) Thank you.
Sam
Hi Carla! I think the almond milk will work. I know others have used margarine with success but I haven’t tried it. I’m not sure how it will cut in, but it’s definitely worth a shot. 🙂
Danielle
I love this recipe! Used it to make biscuits with some homemade sausage gravy 🙂 I was wondering if I could make an Italian herb biscuit with this recipe? Could I just add the herbs and spices directly to the dough? Thank you!!
Sam
Hi Danielle! You can certainly experiment and add herbs as you’d like 🙂
Sherry
I tried your biscuit recipe making biscuits and gravy. Oh my, SO delicious and super easy. Thank you for sharing it! ♡
Rene Stanfill
Super easy and tasty. I did make once before and thought they were a bit sweet for my taste. I made again today and halved the sugar…..perfection!
Filing this receipe away for future use. Thanks for sharing.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Rene! Thank you so much for letting me know how it turned out for you!
Antoinetta
So easy and fast. Best biscuit recipe ever. Made for amazing strawberry shortcake!
Denise
Can’t wait to try these. I make a wonderful sausage gravy, that needs an equally awesome biscuit. This looks perfect.
Kimberly Fujimoto
I made these delicious biscuits 5 times. 3 times in Yuma Az, 1 time in La Mesa Ca, and 1 time (where I live) in Plant City Fl. The biscuits that I made in Yuma, turned out excellent. The one in La Mesa, didn’t rise as much but tasted good. The ones I made in Plant City, rose ok but tasted gummy even though they were browned and rose. I know that the flour I used in La Mesa was different so I kinda understand but the ones that I made in Plant City, I used the same type of ingredients yet do you think the humidity and sea level has something to do with it? Plus I just saw that my baking powder had expired in 2019. Could that as well be a factor? Thank you.
Sam
O no! I would definitely say the expired baking powder has something to do with it. I would buy some new stuff and give it another shot. 🙂
Kenza
I made these for the first time and they were delicious, soft and fluffy, definitely will be making them again!
I was looking at the calories, and it says 280kcal for 1 biscuit and for 6 biscuits too.
Is the 280ckal the total calories of the dish or just 1 serving?
Sam
Hi Kenza! This recipe makes 6 biscuits and each one is 280. 🙂 I really wish all of them were only 280 calories because I wouldn’t have to feel bad when I eat so many. 🤣
Racquel
The best went perfectly with Dinner tonight
David G
I love these biscuits…. The grating the butter is a stroke of genius! Thank you.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, David! 🙂
Nikki
I’ve made these biscuits a few times over the past year and they always turn out perfectly! This is definitely my go-to recipe.
Sam
I’m so glad you have enjoyed them so much, Nikki! 🙂
Julie
These are THE BEST biscuits I’ve ever made. We wanted to make biscuits and gravy as part of a Father’s Day breakfast in bed, and now I know to double the recipe next time because everyone asked for more. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Julie! 🙂
Luna G
My favorite biscuit recipe! So flaky, and buttery, and delish! I’d love to know if you can make, cut, and put these on a baking sheet, and then bake the next morning? I’d love to make some biscuits the night before for big breakfasts!
Sam
Hi Luna! That will work just fine. Just make sure they are wrapped tightly so they don’t dry out in the refrigerator. 🙂