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.
Rebekah
This has become my favorite go-to breakfast biscuit recipe. Thank you so much, blessings to you and yours!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy to hear that, Rebekah! Thanks for coming back to comment 🥰
Joni
Came out really good! I actually got 9 in 1 batch. Smaller, but perfect with our menu
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! Enjoy, Joni 🥰
Elizabeth
I had given up on biscuits, the carbs and all were just not worth it until recently I caved and ate one for breakfast at a favorite restaurant a couple of weeks ago. I could not get my mind off biscuits since so I searched for “the best buttermilk buscuts” and yours popped up in the top three…since yours had the Most positive reviews I figured what the hay, will give it a shot. I hate to waste buttermilk and had a bit left over from a recent recipe self as fate would have it biscuits were eminent. These were so easy to make, I borrowed a trick from another site which is to cut the dough in half and stack, did this three times which made the biscuit layers even more prounounced. I also egg washed the tops which added a nice crunch to compliment the soft, buttery flakiness. They turned out perfect!!! I will definitely make these again, and again, will also use the grated butter method, a game changer for sure!
Hannah
This was my first time making biscuits and I can tell you it won’t be the last! This recipe was so easy and quick! The biscuits were soft, moist, buttery and delicious!
Kris
Excellent, easy, uses ingredients I often have at home. Using box grater to shred butter worked well. No need to buy biscuits any longer!
Annette
I made this recipe but made a birds nest in my bowl, added the ingredients inside the nest and slowly mashed everything with my hands, even the butter, we’re mashed with my hands instead of freezing them and eliminated the sugar they turned out absolutely buttery delicious! I think next time I’m going to swap the butter with crisco flavored butter and see how those turn out 🙂
Lauren
Easy biscuit recipe . Packed full of flavor. Absolute must try .
Rebecca
Finally someone else who uses butter, if you are going to make these little bits of puffy artery clogging heaven, might as well go the distance and make them rock!
Your tip for grating the cold butter with the food processor makes so much sense rather than my regular chopping into small squares. Again kudos this was an amazing treat to my over worked, under biscuited biscuit lover better half. This will be my go to in the future when a biscuit treat is needed.
David B
Easy to make and came out fluffy and moist. Grating the butter is brilliant!
Dani
Substituted the milk for unsweetened almond milk and it worked out well, didn’t lift but had a beautiful moist texture. Just incase folks don’t have milk or use milk in their homes 😊
Paul
I’ve done all measurements to your recipe except after mixing flouretc. I put that in the refrigerator I used 1 tablespoon more of butter because it was margarine and I used reconstituted low fat milk It did make 6 biscuits I did use 2 knives
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We hope they tasted great, Paul! 🙂
PJ
I’ve made these twice. Mine doesn’t rise as high, but they are delicious. Any ideas as to what’s going on? They’re not flat at all…just not high.
Sam
O no! I’m so sorry to hear this. I wonder if the dough may be getting slightly overworked here. 🙁
Melanie
Sift your dry ingredients together well and try placing your biscuits so that the sides touch while baking. Also press out with the palm of your hand and use a cutter. If you don’t have a cutter a coffee mug works just fine. They won’t rise much if you hand shape them.
Joe
I did not have success with these biscuits. They did not rise. I did EVERYTHING by the directions but it was a busy. Sorry. I won’t recommend.
Sam
O no! I’m so sorry! I would try a new baking powder next time as that is the most likely culprit here. 🙁
sharon
can they be made a few hours ahead and put in the fridge until ready to bake
Sam
Sure thing! Make sure to wrap them tightly so they don’t dry out. 🙂
Anne
I’ve been making biscuits my entire life, but today I decided to try a new recipe. This one has great reviews, so I proceeded to make them.
I’ve never heard of putting sugar in biscuits, and my grandma never would have used it, but she was raising her kids during the Great Depression. I can afford a tablespoon of sugar, so I decided to follow the recipe.
It also seems to have a lot of baking powder, but it does make them rise beautifully! Unfortunately, I think the large amount of baking powder gives them a slightly off flavor. I can’t quite describe it, but it gave my mouth a dry feel, similar to tannin.
They are beautiful and moist, but I won’t use so much baking powder in the future, and I might eliminate the sugar.
yvon
Thank you. Great recipe, easy but very tasty.
Jeff
I’ve made these twice now. The first time I followed your instructions to the letter. They were so easy to make and turned out delicious! The rose up so high in the oven. Fantastic. The second time I added about a cup of shredded cheddar cheese. They came out great that time too. I’ve been looking for a good biscuit recipe for so long. I’ve finally found it. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for trying our recipe, Jeff! Enjoy 😊
Doni
This is a very good recipe. Mine turned out just a bit heavy in the middle, although the exterior was delightful, and I am quite confident that it is not the fault of the recipe. I made mine in a microwave/convection oven to avoid heating up the whole house in the summer, and adjusting the temperature and time for that method is a bit of an art form. I also put them in the freezer while the oven was pre-heating as another poster suggested, and I think that contributed to the confusion. Next time I will just make these in my regular oven (or not make so many adjustments) as they were still very tasty. A couple of other hints for newbies… I put my mixing bowl and measured dry ingredients in the freezer for a bit right along with my butter to assure everything stays cold. Also, if you don’t have a biscuit cutter, no worries. Just carefully shape into a rectangle and cut into 6 equal squares. They still look great and less work and mess. Delicious with butter, fresh preserves or local honey, I’ll definitely make these again.
Gib
I’ve made these twice now and they are fantastic. Cold butter…GENIUS!
This last time however I premade scratch sausage gravey and then froze it in ice cube trays for 2 hrs. I cut biscuits about 3″ round and thinner 3/8″. I puts shredded parmesan cheese on it then a frozen clump of gravey. I put another biscuit on top and pinched the edges together. Sprinkled parmesan cheese on top and baked in the traeger. Took about 5 minutes longer but sooooo good!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! I love the idea of using the traeger! I’ll have to try that trick myself. 🙂
Regina
Biscuits were flaky but too salty! 1 teaspoon salt was too much. My husband could not eat them. I used unsalted butter, so next time I will reduce the salt significantly.