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.
Mary
Can you use these to make chicken and biscuits? Put them on top of the chicken mixture to cook instead of baking in the oven?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Mary! If you’re cooking the final assembled mixture in the oven, it would work (this is how we make our chicken pot pie!). If you’re cooking on the stove, we’re not sure how that would turn out. 🙁
Sarah M
This might be a stupid question, but can I double the recipe?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
You absolutely can, Sarah! Enjoy 😊
Meredith
While they tasted amazing, my biscuits didn’t quite rise at all, and were more like crackers. Any tips? I measured everything out precisely as well, but had to add more flour later as well.
Sam
O no! I’m so sorry this happened! I would try a different baking powder next time. 🙂
Fallon
Can you freeze the biscuits?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! Enjoy 😊
Sara
These turned out beautifully. I used cold butter and massaged it into the flour mix with my fingers until dough was flaky. I also put a tsp of vinegar in the milk. Baked on a pizza stone in the oven. They raised well and wonderfully flaky.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy they turned out so well for you, Sara! ❤
Kathy
Love this recipe. I make if often when making sausage biscuits for the family. They are in the oven as a type this. Lol
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yum! Enjoy your biscuits, Kathy ❤
Juliet
These biscuits are delicious and easy to make!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for your review, Juliet!
Jen
This is was so easy and delicious! I made a regular batch, following all the directions, and then after seeing how easy it was decided to try it with King Arthur’s gluten free flour. IT IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! We’re so glad they turned out so well both ways! Enjoy, Jen 😊
Rachel
Really excited to try these after our holiday in US where I ate far too many! Planning a big family barbecue and want to cut down on preparation on the day, Can I make these in advance and refrigerate over night?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Rachel! Yes, you can make them in advance; we suggest you cut out the biscuits and store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container. You can bake them directly from the refrigerator. Enjoy! 🙂
Karen
Can you freeze the cut biscuits for baking at a later time?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Karen! These biscuits freeze very well and others have reported baking straight from frozen. They just take an extra minute or 2 in the oven. 🙂
Tessie
Can you use coconut milk?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We haven’t tried it ourselves, but others have used coconut successfully 😊
Becky ortiz
I call these my insomnia biscuits because I make them in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. I always have a stick of butter in the freezer just in case. They always come out perfect, but this time I could not find my grater so I used my zester. They turned out amazing!!!!. Extremely buttery and flakey.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out so well! There’s nothing like a good biscuit to soothe you back to sleep 😉
Becky
I am a substitute teacher in uvalde, tx. Enough said. I probably won’t be able to sleep for a while.
Sam
Oof. I don’t really know what to say other than that my heart is with you in Texas right now <3
John and Renée Ford
Dear Becky,
My wife Renée and I just wanted to let you, the parents, other teachers, school personnel, families, friends and anybody else personally effected by the 24/05/2022 massacre how deeply sorry we both are for your losses. The sadness and grief that Uvalde is experiencing is also being felt by our entire nation. We are all in mourning.
God Bless you Becky along with everybody else who is mourning a loved one of friend. Please know you are all in our thoughts and prayers. Please share this expression of our sympathy with your community. We bid you peace and love.
Stacey
Easy and quick recipe. Better than my grandmother’s biscuits. And that’s saying a lot. Soft and flaky on the inside. Using a grater was a game changer for me. Thanks!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy our recipe exceeded your expectations, Stacey! Thanks so much for your review ❤
Paula
I’ve tried a couple different biscuit recipes, but I always come back to this one. It’s one of the easiest recipes but doesn’t sacrifice taste. My family loves it
Connie Hurt
Delicious easy to make biscuits. I did hold the sugar and with the butter it wasn’t missed
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad you enjoyed them, Connie! Thanks for trying our recipe 😊
Shoppergal760
Can you use salted butter and omit the salt?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
That will work fine, but you’ll want to reduce the salt by a 1/4 teaspoon, not omit it. 🙂
Shanice Anderson
Everything worked out exactly how this recipe explained. I feel like it was step by step and I’m thankful for the details. Measurements and the exact degrees all were legit.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad they turned out for you, Shanice! 💙
Stephanie Smith
My biscuits game out really good followed the recipe exactly and even added a few tablespoons of extra milk. But my biscuits tasted of flour and I don’t know why.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Stephanie! It sounds like you may have used a little too much flour, especially if you needed to add more milk. Make sure you measure your flour properly and maybe use less flour on the surface. You can also dust the biscuits off when you’re done cutting them, and they should be better. Hope that helps! 🙂