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.
Michelle Mendal
Could i use whole wheat all purpose flour?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Michelle! We haven’t tried it with the whole wheat flour, but we would probably use less wheat flour than all purpose flour as wheat flour is typically a “thirstier” flour. 🙂
Oma
These are so good, AND easy. The only thing I do different is after shaping the dough rectangle for the final time, I cut them with a pizza cutter into squares – one time down through the middle lengthwise, then crosswise. Makes six nice size biscuits, with no re-rolling.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So happy you liked our recipe, Oma ❤️
Trey
These are great! We used almond milk instead of dairy milk. And just added thin slice of butter on the top about 2 minutes before removing them from the oven. They were moist and fluffy. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you loved them, Trey! Love the butter idea 🥰
Lindsey
I use water in my recipe instead of milk, but I use more butter to keep the biscuits soft and moist. So for every 1 cup of water you add an extra 1 1/2 teaspoons of butter. I hope this helps! 🙂
Scott
Can you make them ahead of time and pop them in the oven when ready to bake?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Definitely! Just store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Enjoy, Scott 🙂
sally
this is the best biscuit recipe and soooo easy!
Nicole Rainey
I have never made biscuits from scratch. These were VERY easy to make and following the recommendations, they came out nice and fluffy! I highly recommend this recipe.
Carol
These are amazing!!! I grated the butter into the dry ingredients, tossing with a fork as I went. Worked the dough on my granite counter. I let them rest after cutting for a few minutes before putting them in the oven.
DebbieT
I made this per the recipe. How easy and they came out fluffy. Thank you for sharing. I will be making homemade biscuits from now on!
Marsha Ganey
I only have salted butter, so I cut back on the salt that you put in the biscuits. Easy recipe & yummy!! Thanks!!
Sara
I haven’t tried the recipe yet but can you use non-fat milk? If so, do you have to make any adjustments?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Sara! Non-fat milk will work, but the results will lead to a drier and more dense biscuit. If you have whole milk, we would recommend using that for the best results. 🙂
Tom
Would it work if I use half and half instead of milk?
Sam
I haven’t tried it personally, but I think they will still turn out. 🙂
Julie J
Quick & easy… These take 10 min to mix up so on the table in less than 30 minutes. Really yummy! I just use a drinking glass as a cookie cutter for biscuits, it is perfect size. I have made using buttermilk & another time using low-fat milk, both are great.
Jerica
Or could it possibly be me substitute baking powder and using baking soda because that’s what I had
Sam
Hi Jerica! The baking soda substitute is causing your issues here. 🙁
Ashley
Delicious biscuit! thank you.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So happy you enjoyed them, Ashley 😊
Heather
These were so tasty. I flattened the dough to about a 1/2” before cutting and ended up getting exactly 10 biscuits out of it. I wanted smaller (shorter) biscuits this go around, but next time I make them I will want to see how tall and puffy they get!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how they turned out for you, Heather! 🥰
Amy
These are a staple in our home. Any kinds of breads/biscuits have always intimidated me. These biscuits are delicious and easy. I cook them for 14 minutes for a slightly crispy top, soft middle. Wonderful recipe.
Allison
LOVE this recipe and how simple it is! Can the unbaked biscuits be frozen? If so do you defrost them before baking, change the baking temp, etc? If not, how long would they keep unbaked and refrigerated? note: I precut the biscuit dough into circles.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Allison! These biscuits freeze very well and others have reported baking straight from frozen. They just take an extra minute or 2 in the oven. 🙂