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.
Amena Larson
I have struggled with making biscuits for years (it’s a real shame when you’re southern), this is my go-to recipe now and it hits every single time!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Reviews like this make our day, Amena! We are so happy you found our recipe ❤️
Jeff
OK Karenolyn food blogs aways have a “jump to recipe” button at the top. Learn to use it and stop whining.
David Wade
I made these at work for some co-workers last week 9-19-22. Since then the biscuits are all anyone talks about. One co-worker even compared them to her grandmother’s. Excellent recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wow, sounds like they were a huge hit David! Thanks so much for choosing our recipe ❤️
Linda W
I made these biscuits last night to serve with chicken and dumplings. Since I happened to have buttermilk powder on hand, I added 2 Tbsp to the dry ingredients and used 2% milk. I opted to shred the cold butter and then freeze it before measuring out the dry ingredients. This is definitely my go-to biscuit recipe from now on. They should be called “Disappearing Biscuits.”
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love that name, Linda! 😆 So glad they were a hit!
Jamie
I made these twice , once with whole milk and second time with buttermilk . My family loves them !!! My husband just asked me to try to roll it out for a thick pizza dough crust because he loves these so much , so imma try and see if it will make a good pizza as well .
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much, Jamie! We’d definitely recommend our pizza dough instead 🙂
jamie
EMILY I was trying to reply back to you , I decided not to go with the Pizza dough recipe because , I did not have yeast . I did the biscuit dough for the pizza dough, the only difference was I rolled it out, then double the baking powder and sugar and cook it for 15 minutes in a iron skillet , then took that out the oven and flipped it so the cooked part would have the sauce on it and the toppings then placed it in the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes . this was to insure all dough would be cooked . When the timer went off i took it out and I ended up cutting it like pizza and being able to hold it like pizza , it did NOT crumble or fall apart.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like it worked out for you then, Jamie! Thanks for letting us know 😊
Jessica Pauley
Fast and simple, I had all the Ingredients on hand which is a plus, and the sugar did the trick for my picky other half. They turned out great, but I should have taken a few minutes to watch the video before. My problem is I over work the dough, I got the approval that they were delish. But anyone that cooks knows there is always room for improvement. But I’m learning it’s takes patience and practice. But this recipe was simple and clearly delivered. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad they were tasty, Jessica! ❤️
Linda D
These are great, best biscuits I’ve ever made! Liked the laminating tip!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! Enjoy, Linda ❤️
Detrah
Results were perfect! My mother use to make us biscuits with her Brunswick soup/stew. Thank you sharing this recipe! Now I can have them will my Brunswick Stew.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
That’s great to hear, Detrah! We love serving these with soups and stews–yum 🧡
Deb
These biscuits are absolutely delicious. Super easy recipe, minimal ingredients and perfect biscuits. What’s not to love!
Robin
My grandmother used part butter and part crisco in her biscuits. This recipe is amazing and I’m going to use it this weekend. I was wondering what your thoughts are on splitting the fats equally in this recipe like my grandma did in hers? Thanks!!
Angela
I used 4 TB of butter and 2 TB Crisco because I didn’t want to open a new butter and they turned out great.
Selena
So soft & delish. My go to recipe (and I bake ALOT). I sub coconut oil for butter. You know its goos when you don’t need to butter your biscuit when its done (but who are we kidding, I still do!).
Helayna lando
Came out amazing!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So happy you liked the biscuits, Helayna! ❤️
Carolyn
I wanted a simple recipe and got a dissertation. Back to Bisquick.
Sam
Honestly it sounds like you deserve Bisquick, Carolyn.
Kelly
Wow—that’s a shame, these bisquits are great—and she gives great instruction/tips
Alexa
Yeah definitely not sure what was hard to understand. Just made these and they were the easiest things ever and tasted wonderful.I agree that you should stick with your bisquick!
Holly
Enjoy your Bisquick biscuits. These were easy and VERY good. Definitely saving the recipe!
Bug
This was a very simple recipe. You mix butter with flour. Then add milk. Then cut the biscuits out. Bake. Done.
Michelle
I made some apple butter this weekend and had to have a biscuit to slather some on. I used a tip I read in a scone recipe; I put the buttermilk in the freezer for about 10 mins and melted the butter then poured the melted butter into the very cold buttermilk while stirring gently. The melted butter formed little globules that mixed into the dry ingredients easily. My biscuits are supper fluffy. I used all the same ingredients as called for. And if you don’t have (or can’t find like me) a biscuit cutter, a drinking glass works well. Thanks for a great vessel to enjoy my apple butter with!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love this combo too, Michelle! Thanks for giving our recipe a try 🥰
Ashlyn
I followed the recipe, but my biscuits came out with a bitter taste. The same thing happened when I made your scones. I googled and people suggested reducing baking powder. Any tips?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Ashlyn! If your biscuits and scones are bitter, your baking powder is probably bad. 😞
Walter Otto
I loved the recipe and enjoyed it a lot for my Sunday breakfast with my wife
Kelsey
A wonderful, quick, and forgiving recipe. I normally make a batch-and-a-half and tend to just eyeball the buttermilk. So sometimes the dough is a little wetter, sometimes a little drier. The final product seems to turn out tasty no matter how haphazard I am about my measurements, so long as I don’t overwork the dough.
I do recommend using buttermilk, the flavor is much better than using whole or regular milk.
I also recommend doing an eggwash on the top before baking. Just makes it prettier.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So happy you like the recipe, Kelsey! Enjoy your biscuits ☺️
Terrell
This is my go to biscuit recipe, and it never disappoints (don’t tell my Mum). I do old school on cutting the butter in because I always feel the grater just makes the butter too small. Flawless with delicious layers of goodness!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you love it, Terrell! 🥰
Dharris
Made exactly to recipe just now, came out great, I have never been able to put out good biscuits from scratch, usually use the frozen pillsbury biscuits. But I was out of frozen biscuits so I tried these with fingers crossed. So easy and my family raved! Thanks for the recipe. The grated butter must be the magic, because I always try not to overwork the dough, but i always use just a pastry cutter on the butter. Anyways, who cares? This is my new go-to biscuit recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are SO happy you enjoyed the biscuits! Thanks for coming back to leave a review 🙂