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.
Crystal
I want to try this recipe for a breakfast meeting at church this week. Could I make the biscuits the night before, refrigerate and bake at church that morning? Or should I freeze the dough? I want them to be super fresh to go with my sausage gravy!
Sam
Hi Crystal! These will be fine to refrigerate over night. Keep them in an air tight container in the refrigerator. 🙂
Rebecca
Quick and easy! My 19 month LOVED THEM! Great quick recipe for a busy family!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Rebecca! 🙂
Shital Gaitonde
Loved this recipe! Best biscuits ever! Thank you!!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Shital! 🙂
Brigette
I’m so excited to find this recipe. I never make homemade biscuits but am going to use this recipe for biscuits to enter in a county fair a month from today. I will let you know how it goes. 🙂
Sam
I hope you love them! 🙂
Lori Smith
i absolutely LOVE this recipe!! it’s so easy and the biscuits always come out amazing!! i use vegan butter and almond milk and they come out super fluffy and flaky! definitely best biscuit recipe
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lori! 🙂
JB
I was looking for a comment with almond milk! Good to know it worked!! Thank you!!!
R
Hello! I just made these and they turned out SO good!! Any tips on how to store them to be just as fresh in the morning? Would you reheat in the microwave for a few seconds?
Sam
Unfortunately they won’t stay as fresh as when baked but if you store them in an air tight container overnight and simply reheat in the microwave for a few seconds they will still be really delicious the next day. 🙂
Kathy M
This is the best recipe for biscuits I tried. We’ll be making again. Great recipe for those who have never made biscuits. I grated the butter and used whole with a splash of half and half. Thanks for the great recipe. Can’t wait to try other recipes.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kathy! 🙂
Kathy
Family approved!
Michael Taylor
I usually keep my flour in freezer, so this helps with keeping butter cold. Be sure to increase cooking time by 5 min.
Julie
Perfection
Marty
Best biscuit’s ever….
Carina
I’ve been trying different biscuit recipes and this one is our favorite so far. Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Carina! 🙂
Christina
Looking for freezer-friendly options for new baby coming. I LOVE these biscuits. Can they be frozen and do you have directions for how to best freeze them? Thank you!
Sam
Hi Christina! Congratulations! Yes these can be frozen either before or after baking. If you freeze them before baking I would just wrap each biscuit individually and then store in an air tight container. They will just take a few extra minutes in the oven when baking. 🙂
Lucy
It was fast to make and it was yummyy.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lucy! 🙂
Wendy Dueñez
Hi Sam!
Sometimes the internet suggests the perfect website and today it did just that. I woke up thinking about my mama who died last year. She always made biscuits from scratch. I always used a box or can. It’s taken me to almost 55 to realize I might like making them from scratch. So I pulled out her favorite bowl and gave your recipe a go. It was perfection! I had never grated frozen butter. I quite liked it and it worked so well I’ll use that method again. I used her huge biscuit cutter so I only got 5 but that’s ok cause they were massive! Thank you for the wonderful recipe and instructions. You gave me a sweet morning thinking of my mama. She cooked full meals at age 8. In 1950 everything was from scratch. I’ve always marveled at her abilities. Stay well. Much love from Arizona.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Wendy! Your mom sounds like she was a wonderful person. I’m glad these biscuits could bring back such good memories. 🙂
Brittnee Lokey
This was AMAZING!!!!!!! never made biscuits before. The recipe was super easy to follow. My family loved them!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Brittnee! 🙂
Martina
Amazing, easy biscuits!!!