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.
Tami Ali
They were SO good! Even the kids loved them!
Brianna
The biscuits are really good. My first time making biscuits. They didn’t get as fluffed up and flaky, though. I tried to use the tips. Maybe the butter didn’t get cold enough before I used it?
Sam
I’m glad you ultimately enjoyed them, Brianna! This can happen if the dough is over-worked a little bit, but it is important to let that butter be really, really cold. You may also want to replace baking powder as that could be bad as well. I hope this helps! 🙂
Tessa
This is my first time making homemade biscuits and found your recipe that worked for me. A lot of other recipes used crisco and I don’t keep that on hand. I did use buttermilk instead and used about a cup but the biscuits turned out amazing! It’s definitely going to be a staple around our house now.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Tessa! Thanks for the review 😊
Serenity
I love your recipes but this is the first one that didn’t work for me. It was incredibly crumbly so I made a second batch and added a tablespoon more of milk. Still so incredibly crumbly it was hard to form a dough shape with it. Still edible and the flavor was good but the texture isn’t right.
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Serenity! Ugh this one gets such great reviews too! Did you happen to weigh your flour? If not there may have been a bit too much flour if they were too crumbly. 🙁 I hope you’ll try it again. These really are incredible biscuits! 🙂 If I can help any further let me know.
Diane
LOL polite but true. I have made this recipe many times. It is in fact perfect.
I cube up the butter and put it in freezer until I need – then throw everything in a food processor, add half the milk, pulse a bit, add more, pulse etc continue until dough is just together and crumbly. Then dump onto floured surface, slap it together like I’m a sand castle, then begin the folding like the recipe calls for! It’s perfect as is, thank you for sharing!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for your review, Diane. We are so happy you love our recipe! ❤️
Janet
Just made these biscuits! Easy and delicious! They will be on my Thanksgiving table!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! Happy Thanksgiving, Janet 😊
Marina
This recipe is bad, I made these biscuits and taste toooo muchhhh baking soda, I throw all away to the trash, so bitter, sorry but never again use this website agsin
Sam
Hi Marina! The problem is that you accidentally used baking soda instead of baking powder. I am sure that did taste awful, unfortunately. If you try the recipe again as written (with baking powder) you will have much better results, I guarantee it. I hope this helps!
Jamie
The recipe was so easy to make, but they came out doughy tasting and had an tinny after taste. What did i do wrong??
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Jamie! 🙁 For the doughy taste, they may have needed an extra minute or two in the oven. The tinny taste is from the baking powder. I would recommend getting a new container and trying again. Some brands do have that flavor, but it’s most likely just old. I hope that helps. 🙂
Alex
Can you use salted butter?
And if so what are the measurements
Sam
Hi Alex! You can use salted butter. I would just cut the salt down by 1/4 teaspoon. 🙂
Jaime
Can you make these and bake the next day?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! Enjoy 😊
Alts
What size biscuit cutter are you using?
Sam
2 3/4 inches. 🙂
Ayo
My family loved these biscuits. And they are finicky, picky eaters. I will use this recipe from now on.
melissa
i don’t see a video?
Sam
Hi Melissa! You can see it on Youtube. 🙂
Serenity
Van the dough be made ahead ans just sit in the fridge until the day I’m ready for it?
Sam
Hi Serenity! That will work just fine. I recommend cutting out the biscuits and storing in an air tight container in the refrigerator. 🙂
Jessica
I’ve tried repeatedly to make biscuits & they always come out like a dense sponge. Not good. I used your recipe, more importantly your tips, and for the first time made wonderful, flakey, fluffy biscuits. My family thanks you as they no longer have to eat my atrocious attempts at biscuit making.
Beck
They were good flavor and consistency…mostly. I had a similar issue with the baking powder resulting in random sour bites. Maybe too much?
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Beck! I would try replacing your baking powder as it may be bad.
Sasha A.
These sound amazing! Would they work with self rising flour?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Sasha! We don’t recommend it 🙁
Rae Lynn
These are so good. She is correct, grating the frozen butter makes them soooooo flakey. Wonderful directions. Also, I added 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese after the milk when the ingredients were coming together…and then followed the rest of the recipe. My family loves them!!!!
Nicole H.
Love this recipe! So basic and the kids have had fun using cookie cutters. Can the dough be frozen, or the dough “cut” into biscuits and then froze for later?
Sam
Hi Nicole! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! I would cut the dough into the biscuit shape and freeze them that way. 🙂
Kendra
The biscuits turned out great and delicious. I made sausage gravy this morning with them . I will save this recipe and shared it on my Facebook.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! Thanks for letting us know how it went for you, Kendra 🙂