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.
Momma Happy
The flavor is sooooo good. But, they were crumbly instead of flaky. It was a bit of a struggle to hold them together around our bacon and eggs. We will try again. Perhaps not use as much flour?
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened! Did you happen to weigh your flour? If not there may have been a little too much flour in the mixture. 🙁
tpgh
These sound wonderful. Could I make them an hour ahead and then store in the fridge until ready to bake?
Sam
That will work just fine! 🙂
Missy
Could you use coconut milk or flax milk in place of cows milk?
Sam
Hi Missy! I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. The lower fat content may dry out the biscuits a little bit, but it should still work. 🙂
Charlene
I have been making biscuits for about a year with no luck. Each time I have tried they come out flat and dense. I came to your site looking for a fruit tart recipe to make for my sister’s birthday and stumbled upon this biscuit recipe and decided to give biscuit making another try. For the first time my biscuits came out light and fluffy, beautiful and delicious !! Thank you for all the tips and the video. Both helped me make these absolutely amazing biscuits. I can’t wait to take some over to mom’s later. She will be impressed! Thanks again. I will now use your site as a go to for recipes when I want something different from my own.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you found our recipe, Charlene! It sounds like your biscuits turned out perfectly. We look forward to hearing about your future bakes 😊
M
I did exactly to recipe. They tasted great but did not rise
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened! Is your baking soda expired by chance or maybe just a bit old? I’m glad you still enjoyed them! 🙂
Jenjer
Mine did not rise much in the oven but they tasted amazing. Not sure what I did wrong.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Jenjer! Is your baking powder still good? That’s typically the culprit for biscuits that don’t rise. We’re glad they still tasted great though! 😊
Jenjer
Yes it is still good.
Britt
Finally I made biscuits that’s sent flat and tasteless! Family loved this recipe and I even added to the cookbook!! Wonderful!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like they turned out perfectly for you, Britt! Enjoy 😊
Carrie
These were a delight to make and came out wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
Melissa
Perfection! I did mine in a cast iron skillet. So good!
Lindsay
Can’t wait to try these! Can I make the dough the day before and keep it in the fridge until I’m ready to bake it?
Sam
Hi Lindsay! That will work just fine. I would cut out the biscuits, then make sure to store the cut out biscuits in an air tight container. 🙂
CookinWithToddlers
I tried this recipe in a rush. I clearly messed up and I’m not sure what I did wrong. They tasted salty. I used blue bonnet margarine instead of butter (it was all I had unfortunately). Maybe that has salt? Maybe I put too much baking soda or too much salt?
Sam
Hi! Blue bonnet likely does have salt added which will contribute to the saltiness and generally I do not recommend using margarine with these biscuits for best results. However, I see that you mention you may have used too much baking soda. This recipe does not call for baking soda, it calls for baking powder, and if you were to accidentally switch the two the biscuits would definitely turn out pretty badly, unfortunately, and would also taste salty from the baking soda, so it sounds like accidentally using baking soda is probably the issue. I hope that helps, and totally get how distracting it can be when cooking with toddlers so I get it!
RB
This is my go-to breakfast biscuit. My partner and I love them with sausage gravy, with some jam or plain. This morning I’m adding a little dried chive and cheddar, they are fantastic.
Max
These were tasty but mine looked and turned out like dry discs. Any suggestions? The mixture felt pretty dry and I wanted to add a bit more milk but held back. I’ll try it again but not roll them as thin.
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Max! Did you happen to weigh your flour? It sounds like there may have been a bit too much flour in your mixture. 🙁
Scott Allen
These biscuits are so good. I like to cut mine square and then roll the edges into florets. The square biscuits rise so well!!!
Jeni
How do you floret the sides? I want to use these for breakfast sandwiches that i make ahead and the eggs are a square cut also. Could be perfect?!
Scott Allen
I just roll them up. Keeping the cut side inside and they end up looking like little flowers. I usually get 3. 1 from each long side and then combine the two short sides to make the 3rd.
Amanda Tittle
The best biscuit recipe I’ve ever made!
Amanda Tittle
I cut out the sugar and they were perfect!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love hearing that, Amanda! Thanks for coming back to leave a review 😊
Judy b
The absolute best biscuit recipe ever! I lost this recipe, awful- I tried 2 others & tasted quite terrible. This easy recipe is fabulous – I wrote it in an old recipe book just in case.
This is the only recipe I must have or I will not make biscuits.
I give it 100 stars!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you love them so much, Judy! Thanks for your review ❤
Molly
So easy and SO GOOD! I busted my sister in Austin and went to a southern restaurant for dinner that had the best biscuits I’ve ever had. I’ve been craving them since so I made this recipe. Fully hit the spot! I added some lavender honey butter too.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy our recipe measured up, Molly! Thanks for giving our recipe a try 😊
Ashley
These were so quick and simple to make it blew my mind when they came out of the oven. Hands down amazing!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for your review, Ashley! We’re so happy the biscuits were a hit for you 😊