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.
Prescelia Dueck
I’ve been making biscuits forever, this is now my go to biscuit recipie. Just wow! Thank you
WM
I had never tried biscuits before, or anything involving lamination — these were easy and came out great! Thank you!
Debra
These biscuits are so easy and delicious, they are my go-to recipe when I need dinner rolls in a hurry. *not to mention, they smell amazing while baking 😋
Ann P
I struggle with making biscuits but this is my third time at this recipe. This right here is my go to recipe so far. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Jennifer
Just made these today. I was a little unprepared, but determined. They didn’t turn out perfectly, but that was probably due to me having never baked before. They tasted great and were incredibly quick to put together.
Ann P
You will do fine in baking. I’m still learning things at the age of 55 and I still struggle with baking but I keep at it.
Sharon dukes
My husband is a chef and he makes biscuits all the time, I made these this morning for him and he loved them,, thank you for the recipe 👍
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy he loved them, Sharon! Thanks for using our recipe ❤️
Susie Treat
I made these this am, and they are the best biscuits i ever tasted. Easy to make.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re SO happy you loved them, Susie! ❤️
Windy
I have made this recipe twice and it is easy but the biscuits turned out dry. I followed it exactly the first time and they were very dry. The 2nd time I added a little more milk which made it a little sticky but they were still dry. Any tips to make them more moist?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Windy! How are you measuring your flour? It sounds like you may be adding too much. 🙁
Windy
I am using a measuring cup. I use the same one for the milk. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I will try again and see if I get it right this time.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
If you can’t weigh your flour (our favorite method), definitely check out our post on how to measure flour the right way–it should be very helpful! And remember to always use a dry measuring cup for dry ingredients and a liquid measuring cup for liquids; they are different 😊
Shawn
Question… can I make them the night before and just refrigerate?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! Just store them in an airtight container 🙂
Wendy Erickson
Do you mean make the dough and then bake it in the morning?
Debbie
Amazing. Thank you so much Sam!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you like them! ❤️
Camryn
Hi!
Can I make the dough the night before, refrigerate, and bake them in the morning? Thanks!
Sam
Hi Camryn! That will work just fine! I like to cut out the biscuit shapes and store them in an air tight container in the refrigerator overnight. 🙂
Yt
Super easy to follow and turned out pretty good. Could I make these and freeze them for use later?
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! They do freeze well, either baked or unbaked. 🙂
Vic
Super easy! Came out amazing, super quick to make
Michele
This is a quick and easy recipe and delicious! Used the tip from a comment on freezing buttermilk for 10 minutes and then adding melted butter was in a rush and this sounded faster next time I will try with grated butter I usually don’t have good luck with that, but you gave me tips on that also I will be trying you other recipes in the future. My husband said they make him want sausage gravy and biscuit’s saw you have a recipe for that looks like I know what’s for supper. THANK YOU
Lynn
Yum. Mine turned out a little flat but it was operator error. I think I smooshed the dough to less than an inch and used baking powder that was out of date and probably lost some of its effectiveness. But they were still great and will make them again! My first time making biscuits. Thank you for this easy recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad they still turned out for you, Lynn! Thanks for trusting our recipe for your first biscuit making adventure ☺️
Winston
I’m new to baking as I never had the time to really dive into it before. This is a very simple recipe to follow with fantastic instructions and the whole family, what’s left at home, loves them! Great job Emily
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you decided to make our recipe, Winston! Enjoy the biscuits and let us know if you try any others ❤️