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 recipeย a few weeks ago,ย “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.ย 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.ย And then more butter once they’re finished baking because of course we need more butter.
I mentioned that these biscuits are easy soย do not be alarmedย by all the tips that I have for you below. These biscuitsย 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 ofย 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:ย 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.ย 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 andย 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 encourageย 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
- ยพ cup whole milkยน (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 ยพ" round biscuit cutter with flour.ย
- 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 ยฝ" apart on baking sheet.ย
- 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.
Becky Bjork
Excellent biscuits. I keep powdered buttermilk and made it with cold water from the refrigerator. After kneading as directly, I patted dough into a rectangle and used the bench scraper to cut it into 9 big biscuits. They were a perfect base for turkey al a king. Then we each had a half biscuit with jam for dessert.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed the biscuits for both dinner and dessert, Becky! Thanks for coming back to leave a review ๐
Tami O
Awesome biscuit recipe! Have enjoyed making biscuits and soups with the cold snowy weather. I experimented and used 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and decreased APF to 1 3/4 cups. Also added an additional 2 TBSP milk due to the whole wheat flour. Also have added 1 tsp of medium ground peppercorn medley for a pepper biscuit. These biscuits don’t last long as they make great bacon, egg and cheese breakfast biscuits. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe. Have been looking for a recipe like this for years!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you’re enjoying the biscuits Tami–they really are perfect for that kind of weather! Thanks for letting us know how your substitution worked too! ๐
Brenda
If I donโt have the exact size biscuit cutter can I cut the dough into squares instead?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Absolutely! Enjoy, Brenda ๐
Rebecca C
I love this recipe! Its so simple and with few ingredients they whip up in a flash! My family adores them! Thank you!
Julie
Hi! I love this recipe! Iโve made it a bunch of times now and itโs so simple and the best biscuits Iโve ever had by far. I was just wondering how the best way to store left over already made biscuits?
Thank you so much!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Julie! They can be stored in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Enjoy! ๐
Nancy
Julie, I have used a recipe close to this one for 15 years. I add in a drop of real vanilla to my recipe for a creamed flavor and I usually make a 3x batch. All my extra biscuits get put into 2 gallon freezer zip lock bags. I make sure that I only put 8 biscuits in each bag, let the air out as much as possible without squishing them then I seal the bag. On the other bag I write the date made and date froze (if different), my use by date is 6 months from the day I freeze them. They never last that long but it works great ! To rewarm them I put them in a paper bag (roll the top over) in the oven @325-350ยฐf for about 15 min. They come out just like when I freshly baked them. Hope that helped some. Enjoy and happy holidays!
Beth
Just made these for Christmas breakfast practice. They are delicious! Super easy and great. Thanks!
Melissa
I want to make these in advance of Christmas morning and just bake them the morning of. Can I freeze or refrigerate the cut biscuits over night and bake in morning?
Sam
Hi Melissa! They will keep just fine in the refrigerator in an air tight container overnight. ๐
Hoku
Thank you thank you thank you! I never leave reviews for recipes but I made these this morning and your pizza dough last night and OMG. Best ever (Iโm a avid baker). So simple, easy ingredients everyone has on hand, love your videos and the instructions are clear. I have saved your website and plan on baking my way through it. Thanks again!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you found us, Hoku! Please let us know if you try any of our other recipes ๐
Rick
I’ve made biscuits in the past without much success. This recipe, if followed exactly, delivers perfect, flaky biscuits.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy to hear this, Rick! Thanks so much for trying our recipe. Enjoy your biscuits ๐
Lisa
These were so flaky and easy to make. Perfect biscuits!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you liked them, Lisa! Enjoy ๐
Steve
Easy and delicious! My wife isn’t into baking so I searched for a recipe that isn’t too complicated as I’m not an experienced baker. I followed your instructions to the letter and they came out perfect! I did find that it took longer than 12 minutes so I removed them when the tops were starting to turn golden. Thank you for sharing the recipe and tips in terms that are easily understood.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out well for you, Steve! Thanks for giving our recipe a shot ๐
Amy
Can I make the dough ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator to bake the next morning? I would like to make for Christmas morning but, like to prep everything I can for a simple relaxing day!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Amy! You sure can. Enjoy your breakfast and have a very merry Christmas!
PJI
Super easy and delicious. These are the best biscuits Iโve ever made. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love hearing that! Thanks so much for trying our recipe and leaving a review ๐
Krystal Lee
Really great recipe with helpful tips. This may be the only time my homemade biscuits have ever turned out well. The box grater really is a game changer! Thanks for the recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you loved our biscuit recipe, Krystal! Thanks so much for commenting ๐
Deb Wright
These were amazing! And I love the frozen, grated butter trick; I’ll never go back to cutting in the butter. The only problem with these biscuits is that I couldn’t stop eating them!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you liked them, Deb! The frozen butter trick really is a game changer ๐ Enjoy!
Michelle
Iโve made these biscuits three times now and I LOVE how the have turned out! My family keeps asking for them. I definitely learned that freezing the bitter makes a big difference. They come out flakey and so perfect.
Christine Allen
I want to add Cheddar Cheese to the recipe, how would you recommend that I do this? Also how much cheddar cheese would I add to make cheddar biscuits?
Sam
Hi Christine! I would probably stir it in when the milk is about half way incorporated. I would probably try a cup, but it’s really a preference thing. ๐