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 recipeย a few weeks ago,ย “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.ย 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.ย And then more butter once they’re finished baking because of course we need more butter.
I mentioned that these biscuits are easy soย do not be alarmedย by all the tips that I have for you below. These biscuitsย 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 ofย 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:ย 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.ย 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 andย 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 encourageย 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
- ยพ cup whole milkยน (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 ยพ" round biscuit cutter with flour.ย
- 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 ยฝ" apart on baking sheet.ย
- 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.
Michael Thomas
I’m 57 and started cooking at 10.I have NEVER,EVER made homemade biscuits that turned out,until now.These are THE BEST ever.Very easy except getting the hard,cold butter mixed well and broke down.lol.These turned out PERFECT.They are already VERY buttery and very flaky and moist.I think it was the hard butter that made the difference.And they have a slight sweet taste with the sugar.My permeant recipe for sure.TY.
Jenn
If you get your butter ice cold and milk makes them even better.. less handling is the key
Sally Smith
These were excellent. I made them to go with sausage gravy and they were perfect. I froze and grated the butter. I will always do that from now on!
Thanks for showing the world how easy and tasty homemade biscuits are!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you liked them, Sally! We love them with sausage gravy too ๐
sara
I made these biscuits I also put butter in freezer I’ve done that along time ago, I’ve never used the cheese grater but I will from now on I also used the powder buttermilk and it was absolutely great. Thank you for sharing.
Michael
By the way, my wife and I love this recipe. It’s just that she’s pregnant and I need a wheat recipe to cut down on the carbs to keep her sugar down until afterwards. Thank you
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Michael! We havenโt 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 โthirstierโ flour. ๐
Christa Neumann
Wow these were delicious and super easy! I added a couple tablespoons powdered buttermilk to the dry ingredients for that buttermilk-y taste. Yummy.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Christa! ๐ฅฐ
Regina
How many biscuits does it make?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Six ๐
Kate
My biscuits came out dry and had no taste. What did I do wrong? I didn’t have a food processor so I used a dough hook on my mixer. My biscuit dough was partly dry and crumbly and there were large chunks of butter because I couldn’t get the butter to mix in.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Kate! We’re so sorry your biscuits didn’t turn out ๐ We don’t recommend using a dough hook (or electric mixer) for this recipe, as it can lead to over-mixing (the most likely reason for your poor result). Next time, try either grating your butter or cutting it in with a pastry cutter to make sure it gets more evenly distributed. Also, make sure you’re measuring your flour properly. We hope this helps!
Dawn
I have tried 3 different recipes. This one is by far the easiest. However, I can never get my biscuits brown on top with out the bottom getting hard or over done. They are still the same color as when I put them in the oven. Oven is at correct temp and rack on the middle. Any advise/tips would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Sam
Hi Dawn! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! To get them to brown a little bit you can brush them with a little milk before baking, an egg wash would work too and would give you even a bit more browning. ๐
Daneisha
I made these biscuits and they turned out fluffy and golden brown ๐ค I made a beef pot pie and it was delicious. A great meal for the fall and winter months.
Mary
Tastes great, easy to follow. The only issue is that it wasnโt enough milk. I had to add extra.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Mary! If the dough was dry, you may have accidentally added too much flour. We’re glad you still enjoyed them though โค๏ธ
Lyna Kham
Amazing recipe!! So easy and quick and they came out perfect! I threw everything in the food processor and blitzed it up, then transferred the rest to a bowl and added in the milk by hand. Saved time and worked like a charm! Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed the biscuits, Lyna ๐ฅฐ
rachel
Our class prepared this recipe and it turned out great! my students love it! thanks for sharing this recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! Thanks for using our recipe, Rachel! โค๏ธ
Diana Rippy
These biscuits are so tender and delicious. I’m always looking for a biscuit recipe better than the one I have….and I have several. I am definately moving this one to the top of the list. Thank You so much !
Wendy Erickson
I love the rise on these biscuits. Do you use aluminum-free baking powder? I am really struggling with the aftertaste of the biscuits that use a large quantity of baking powder. this recipe is not so bad but I would like it gone all together
Sam
Hi Wendy! I do use aluminum free baking powder.
Tanya
Good morning making these this morning aluminum-free baking powder will it say it on the can?
Jodi
I did it! I actually made good biscuits! Woo Woo Woo. Thank YOU! ๐
Michael
Hello Wendy. Is it ok to substitute wheat flour and using the same measurements for the other ingredients?
Denise
Iโve never found what I think is the best biscuit until I made these for brunch this morning. Besides being easy, they are scrumptious. Thanks for the recipe.
Bill
Made for breakfast this morning biscuit and gravy, was excellent will not be Buying store-bought biscuits anymore
Nikki
So easy to make and so delicious! Iโve made biscuits a few times before, but none were this simple OR this delicious!
Seriously the best recipe Iโve made. Will be making again and again.
Thank you!
Diane M.
These are the best biscuits I have ever made! I threw away my Paula Deen recipe. Thank you!!
Allan R
My wife loves biscuits so I endeavored to make these as a starter for our Anniversary day. She loved them and they were so good!!! Thanks for an easy and basically foolproof recipe that I will continue to use. She was so impressed I may have a good chance of staying married for another 21 years using this recipe!
Amy
These were DELICIOUS!!!!
Melissa
Made these last night, and they were delicious! My husband, who has always claimed he doesn’t like biscuits, gobbled them up. Wanted to try to make my own to avoid the refrigerated processed ones in a can. Thanks for the video, too.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad we converted him to team biscuit, Melissa! Thanks for using our recipe โค๏ธ
Bunni
This was my first time to make biscuits, and they turned out so good! I donโt eat dairy, so I used plant based butter and the extra rich almond milk, and they were perfect! Tons of layers and so fluffyโค๏ธ
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! We’re so happy they turned out so well with those substitutions ๐
Zoe Underwood
Can I prep the dough the night before and keep refrigerated overnight to put in the oven in the morning?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
You sure can! Enjoy, Zoe ๐
Barbara
These were delicious and so easy!
As directed, I did freeze the butter and used a box grater. Made the step of cutting the butter into the flour super easy. Will definitely make these again! ๐