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.
SaSunshine
As always, making good biscuits depends more on technique than anything about the recipe. Specifically, you do not want to overmix. Work quickly and start with very cold milk and butter. This recipe helps you achieve a very flaky, soft on inside with a bit of crunch on outside biscuit. My favorite combination. I did use 2% organic milk and shredded the very cold butter, then brushed tops with butter when I removed from oven. Used to make a chicken strip with honey biscuit breakfast sandwich. Perfection!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like a heavenly breakfast! Thanks for your review–we really appreciate it ♥
Orchidacae
Thanks so much. I’m BAD at baking and this came out fantastic. ❤️
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out for you! Let us know if you try any of our other recipes 🙂
Rosemary
These came out fabulous. I didn’t have any milk, I used half and half. I rolled them out with a rolling pin into a rectangle, put the rectangle on parchment paper, cut it into 15 squares, leaving them side by side just as they were cut, and baked as directed.
Unbelievably fabulous and delicious and wonderful, will totally do this again, thanks so much for the recipe!!
I’m just curious, why do you direct us to not use rolling pin? I can’t imagine them coming out any more perfect than they did, and I used rolling pin!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out so well for you, Rosemary! We don’t recommend using a rolling pin because it can flatten the layers. Using your hands ensures that the biscuits will still turn out nice and fluffy 😊
Rosemary
Interesting. Mine came out many layered and fluffy! And I was able to control the dough so much better. Thanks for the recipe.
Jessica
I’m huge on homesteading and making food from scratch. I will say this is the first recipe that I’ve done that have turned out wonderfully. Had one of my kids make the first batch. I just guided him, and will say, these are better than any canned or bagged store bought biscuits. Thank you for sharing.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out for you, Jessica! Thanks for trying our recipe and coming back to leave a review ❤
Margaret
Delicious. I just put my dry ingredients into a metal bowl,grate my butter into my dry ingredients and place in freezer with my measuring cup of milk until the oven is up to temperature. Take out my bowl and milk, mix together and Viola…easy!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Margaret! Thanks for trying our recipe 😊
Kelsee
I am not a baker. But this recipe was easy to follow and the biscuits were so yummy with my sausage gravy! Perfect for our snow day!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you tried our recipe, Kelsee! Enjoy your biscuits 😊
Patricia
These were so easy & good. I will try them again
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Patricia 😊
Chris
Yesterday my wife wanted me to pick up some biscuits for breakfast this morning. But the Kroger where I live had exactly 0 biscuits in stock. That’s when I said “screw it I’m making my own”. Googled how to make them, this recipe popped up and they turned out great! I was told that I have to make them from scratch going forward.
Thank you!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you found our recipe, Chris! We think homemade is always better, and it sounds like your wife agrees 😂 Thanks so much for commenting!
Connie
Sam has won my family over again! Another one of her recipes is a requested favorite!!! These are simple enough and healthier than store bought. They are always consistent!!! Thank you ☺️
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you like the biscuits, Connie! Thanks so much for trying our recipes ♥
Cwell
My little family just devoured the first batch and have requested a double batch to follow. We had 6 deliciously huge flakey biscuits and a tiny biscuit with the leftover dough (my daughter always thinks the tiny bits are the best).
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
That’s great to hear! We’re so happy they were a hit for your family ❤
Gail
Thank you for the recipe. I made these this morning and my husband and I both enjoyed them. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to use a rolling pin.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you both liked the biscuits, Gail! Thanks for giving our recipe a shot ❤
Lea
Wonderful recipe. I did not have milk, so I used 2 tablespoons of sour cream mixed with water. Worked out perfectly! Easy recipe. Yum!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out for you, Lea! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review ❤
Cindy
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve tried many biscuit recipes over the years and haven’t been happy with the results. These biscuits are so easy to make and they are absolutely delicious…so light and flaky! I’m hooked!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy the biscuits were a hit for you, Cindy! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review 😊
Nicole
Can’t wait to try these! How do you suggest cutting them if you don’t have a biscuit cutter?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Nicole! You could use a drinking glass or even a sharp knife. Hope you love them 🙂
Kelly Seay
this recipe was so easy and very simple to make and my family just loved them they were melt in your mouth delicious.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy your family loved the biscuits, Kelly! Thanks so much for trying our recipe and coming back to leave a review ❤
Debbie
I made these for my husband who is a HUGE Grand Biscuit fan. Due to shortages at the grocer, I opted to make yours. We are VERY happy with the results; soft and fluffy with mild crispy exterior. I did double the Baking Powder for a great rise and used the remaining 2T of frozen butter for the top. I simply heated the butter and added a pinch of salt. Yum. Will make again…..and again. Will even try using Bread Flour for more chew. Thanks for all of your great tips!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy that the biscuits were such a success for you, Debbie! Thank you so much for trying our recipe and coming back to leave a review–it means a lot to us! 😊
Sharon
Can you freeze the biscuit and cook later?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! We suggest you wrap each biscuit individually and store in an airtight container. They will just take a few extra minutes in the oven when baking. Enjoy, Sharon! 🙂
Kelly
So easy and so delicious!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you think so, Kelly! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review ♥