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.
Ashley
Biscuits are delicious 😋 I have taken this recipe and made cheddar Bay Biscuits so yummy 😋
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you love them, Ashley! Definitely give our Garlic Cheese Drop Biscuits a try 😊
Ashley
These biscuits are so good! I Have even started making cheddar Bay drop biscuits from this recipe my family loves these biscuits 😋
kim
made using margerine instead of butter and two percent milk the bisquits were dense heavy used no name baking soda as well. Re worked recipe using magic baking powder adding one tsp. of baking soda and 10 tsp margerine as well
Susan
Finally! After 25 years of marriage to a Southern boy, who LOVES a good homemade biscuit, I can actually do it thanks to your recipe and technique. I’ve made these several times and they come out perfect every time. They are light, flakey and they rise so high! Yum! My husband thanks you.
Karen Terragno
Fantastic!!! I am not a biscuit person, but these were delicious!!! Made just as written. Froze the butter and I only had 2% milk which worked just fine.
Tonya
Tried my hand at home made biscuits for the first time using this recipe, and it did not disappoint! They were so tasty and a hit with the fam. Very easy, will definitely be adding to the rotation.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out so well for you, Tonya! Thanks for trying our recipe 😊
April
This recipe is the best biscuit recipe I’ve tried. My whole family was ranting on them! I made them and the next day they asked for them again!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they were a hit for your family, April! Enjoy ❤
RUTH J
Love this biscuit recipe! My kids and I love it as pizza dough
Scott Allen
Made these yesterday and OMG they were amazing.
Family went nuts.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like these were a total hit for you, Scott! We’re so happy you gave our recipe a try. Enjoy 😊
Tanya
So tonight for dinner we decided to make biscuits and gravy. I pull out the jiffy biscuit mix to make the biscuits and see that it is about six months expired. So I found this recipe and figured I would give it a try. The only thing different I did was I doubled the recipe and added 4 tbsp of butter. (On accident) but it turned out amazing! Thank you so much for the recipe everyone enjoyed them! My oldest was even excited that they had layers. Normally she wouldn’t even bother trying a biscuit.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like the biscuits were a real success, Tanya! We’re so happy you found our recipe and your family loved them. Enjoy! ❤
Gloria Folds
These are soooooo delicious!!!!!!!!! They turned out great, and everyone was begging for more after they were gone.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like the biscuits were a real hit for you, Gloria! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review–we really appreciate it 😊
Sarah
Your video talking about how to fold the biscuits was great. I can now make these biscuits in 30mins, 15 to mix and 15 to cook. This recipe does work with oat milk and plant butter for anyone that is curious.
Cynthia Jaworski
Excellent easy buttery and flaky! I use this wonderful recipe often and they’re always perfect! Thank-you Emily ❤
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Cynthia! We appreciate your sweet review ❤
Shaylen Gray
Does anyone know if I can do lard/tallow instead of the butter?? Or margarine?? Such as smart balance, or a plant based butter??
Lindsey
I make these all the time for my boyfriend’s breakfast. My only critiques is adding an extra teaspoon of baking soda for fluffier biscuits. Then, if you don’t have milk, I found that water works well. Just add four extra tablespoons of butter to keep the biscuit moist.
Lindsey
An update on the recipe that I use now which, was founded by accident, is extra butter. For my recipe I do half of it and use water still. But now I add 8 tbsp of butter, which makes the biscuits extra tender. Then I use a small mason jar lid to stamp out the biscuits.
Debbie Wheaton
I have never been able to make biscuits that weren’t heavy and dense. These are AMAZING! I made a double batch and they were gone the next day (and it’s just the 3 of us in my family). The husband and child couldn’t stop eating them! I am making another batch now to freeze so we can just pop them in the oven whenever we want some fresh, hot biscuits. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy our recipe was a success for you, Debbie! Thanks for coming back to leave such a sweet review ❤
Elizabeth
First time making biscuits and they were fantastic! Followed recipe as directed (down to freezing European unsalted butter) with the one exception of using buttermilk instead of whole milk. 3/4 c was not quite enough liquid to get all my dough to stick together, so I added a splash of 2% milk. Baked them 12 minutes and turned out PERFECTLY! I can’t believe it’s so easy to make such tasty biscuits. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy to hear that the biscuits were a success for you, Elizabeth! Thanks for giving our recipe a shot ❤