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.
Saras Raman
Grew up making homemade biscuits with my dad on Saturday mornings. Haven’t made any since then but knew it didn’t require many ingredients! Made your recipe this AM for my son and they are fluffing up beautifully in the oven! Appreciated your lamination idea / added notes. I have never taken those extra steps before! Will be adding butter and honey on these! Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for trying our recipe, Saras! Hopefully it brought back some sweet memories for you 😊 Enjoy the biscuits!
Rebecca Ortizz
It is 1am and I can’t sleep so I made these biscuits for tomorrow mornings breakfast. This is the only recipe I have tried for them and is perfect every time. Husband loves them too.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so honored to hear that our recipe is a favorite of yours–even at 1:00 in the morning! We hope you were able to get some sleep before enjoying your breakfast, Rebecca. 🙂
Candee
I made your biscuits tonight to go along with my husband’s chicken soup. They were delicious!! I loved your cheese grater recommendation! Thank you so much for sharing! I look forward to trying your other recipes!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy that you enjoyed them, Candee! Thanks so much for trying our recipe and letting us know how it went for you. Please let us know if you try any others! 😊
Alyssa
Hello! Any idea if these can be prepped the night before and then bake the next morning? Or would they rise too much? Thanks!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Alyssa! That should work just fine! You can just roll out the dough, cut the biscuits, and store them in an air tight container in the refrigerator overnight. 🙂
Alyssa
Thank you!!
Tamra
Do you think a pizza cutter and making them square biscuits would work?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Absolutely! A sharp knife or even a round glass will work too 😊
Angela
I’ve never made biscuits before and these were soooo easy and very, very good! Thank you so much for the recipe! This snowed-in Southerner’s belly is full and happy!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Congrats on making your first biscuits, Angela! We’re honored that our recipe was the one you chose. Enjoy, and stay warm! ❤️
DAVID V
Yes, as written, a great biscuit recipe! Since I love to experiment with “bread” recipes, I couldn’t resist some minor tweaks…
Used about 2/3s AP and 1/3 Bread flours (KAF). I don’t use milk for much so I do have whole milk powder (Judee’s). Mixed in approximately 1/4C of sour cream when mixing the milk powder (a buttermilk variation?). Timing was off, so when the butter went into the freezer…so did the blended dry ingredients. 90 minutes later…the dough was created (frostbite cold, lol). Folded approximately six times…freezer for 15min, then six more foldings (dough still frostbite cold!). To simplify things (and have no waste), I just formed the dough into a rectangle and chef’s-knifed it into six portions…Yep! square-ish, not round. Came out beautimous! Too many layers to count! Thank you for a great, simple recipe!…and my tweaks were successful too!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re happy they turned out for you, David! Enjoy your biscuits 😊
Suzan Schneider
Perfection! True comfort food. Grating the frozen butter is genius!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how you like the biscuits, Suzan! Enjoy 😊
Emily
I just made these biscuits and the are perfect. Now I will save money because supermarket prices are high. My grandson loves them He was reluctant to try them. But now everyone is happy
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy everyone enjoyed them, Emily! Thanks so much for trying our recipe 😊
Desiree Steele
Currently snowed in and craving biscuits… But all I had was milk and butter and found this recipe… Perfect!!! I won’t make biscuits any other way now thank you so much!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you found our recipe, Desiree! Thanks so much for commenting–enjoy the biscuits 😊
Cheryl H
I did the same thing today! I happened to have buttermilk so I used that instead of whole milk. Delicious!
DM
I was in the mood for biscuits and gravy. I thawed the sausage and started cooking it while drinking my coffee. It was a little bitter today so I added a little milk and flavored sweetener. For sausage and ground beef I use one of those tools that chops the meat as it cooks (a long handle with an ‘X’ at the business end). I thought, “Hummm.” I finished the sausage gravy and had more coffee. I keep my butter in the freezer already so I was ahead of the game with that. I measured the dry ingredients and whisked them to reaerate and blend. I grabbed the box grater and stared at the recipe. I stared longer. I then increased the measurements since the changes would be easy. Why not use the entire stick of butter? So 2 2/3 cups of flour, 4 teaspoons of baking powder and sugar, 1 1/3 teaspoons of salt, 1 stick or 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, and 1 cup milk. I grated the butter using the box grater. I used the Sausage/Ground-Beef-Meat-Breaker-Upper-Tool to blend the butter with the dry and it worked really well. It kept my fingers (body heat) away from the butter. Then CRAP! Between the gravy and my coffee I used almost all the milk, so I used evaporated milk (I keep a can in the fridge for emergencies). I used the bench scrapper to help fold the dough and turn. Since I had the scrapper out, I used it to make square biscuits . I got seven from the first working of the dough and then two more from the reworked dough. They turned out really well! A couple of them really made me think of the refrigerated ones the way they separated in layers
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Lisa Villalpondo
Made these this morning! They are perfect and thank you for sharing recipe! So easy too..
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for trying our recipe, Lisa! We’re so happy you liked the biscuits 😊
Cheryl Anderson
These biscuits were so yummy! I brushed butter on them and sprinkled a bit of course salt on top! I made them for my beef stew, but next time, I’ll make them for biscuits and gravy. I doubled the recipe and ended up with about 15.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you like them, Cheryl! Thanks for giving our recipe a try and letting us know how it went for you 😊
Mj
Quick and easy. I didn’t have 2% or buttermilk, so I had to use skim. They still turned out great!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they still turned out for you! Enjoy 😊
Kathryn Zuba
Haven’t baked much in years, but my daughter and I love biscuits. Gave this recipe a try and turned out almost perfect biscuits the first try. I’ve also found I need to bake them a minute of two longer to make sure they are not underdone in the middle and so they are golden brown on top, even though my oven runs a few degrees hot.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy our recipe was a success for you, Kathryn! Enjoy 😊
Melanie Rodgers
Followed recipe exactly and measured the ingredients and these are the best biscuits that I have ever had. They come together really quickly and are fun to make. I didn’t use a biscuit cutter just cut them into 6 equal squares. Grating the butter is just BRILLIANT! I will try that the next time I make pie dough. Thank you for beautifully delicious biscuits! A little crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. And those flaky layers! My family gobble them up right out of the oven.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy to hear that, Melanie! Thank you so much for trying our recipe and leaving such a sweet review; we really appreciate it. Enjoy the biscuits 😊
Blaise
I am not a baker but I really like biscuits I decided I wanted to try it, I did it! Not too hard, not too messy, and they taste pretty dang good. I used a jar to cut them into circles so I came out with a dozen biscuits but they turned out great!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out well for you, Blaise! Thanks for giving our recipe a shot. Enjoy 😊