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.
Caroline Ackley
Best homemade biscuits!!! Easy to make and the hubby loves um!
Michelle Scott
Made these for the first time ever! They were amazing! The box grater was magic.❤️
Jill Goldsborough
Wow, so easy and tasty. I retired a couple weeks ago and decided start cooking and baking now that I have time. I’ve tried several biscuit recipes and had horrible results.
These are super easy. They were perfect the first time and will be my “go to” recipe.
Thank you for making me look good in the kitchen.
Dana
Can you leave out the sugar ?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Dana! The biscuits would not have quite as much flavor but they should still turn out. 🙂
Dana
Thank you so much!! I want them for biscuits and gravy 😋 They don’t need to be sweet!
Kl
Girl! Amazing recipe. My husband is not a biscuit eating kind of dude, but he has me making these for him twice a week. I found out through a bad experience that not all recipes can be doubled, I’m not super experienced in doughs so can you double this? Will they come out the same or no. I have a collection of your recipes in our rotation now. Thank you so much for sharing!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you’re both enjoying them! This recipe doubles nicely ☺️
Jenn
Quick, easy, and delicious! We substituted plant butter and oatmilk in place of butter and dairy milk. We also skipped the rolling step and just dropped spoonfuls on the pan.
Excellent.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad you enjoyed them Jenn 🙂
KJ
What a great recipe! Light and fluffy biscuits. I’ve been less than happy with other recipes tried in the past and was hoping this one was it. Well, it was! My husband thought the same. We’re so happy to finally find a great biscuit recipe. By the way, I only had 1% milk so I used 1/2 cup and added about 1/4 cup of heavy cream that I had. Worked perfectly to add the necessary fat for fluffy biscuits!
Kim
Oh my deliciousness!! Wanted to recreate the biscuits from the maple street biscuit company and needed a good biscuit recipe. These are so easy and so delicious! Thank you!
Christina
Oh my goodness! These were perfect and so easy to make. Thank you so much! And all your tips really helped. To others who plan to make this, follow the recipe as is.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for trying our recipe and coming back to leave a review, Christina! We’re so happy they were such a success for you ❤️
Frank
Very good overall recipe but I found it too dry so added more liquid …I used heavy cream instead of milk.. 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup water 😎
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad you still enjoyed them, Frank! It sounds like you may have just added too much flour to the dough 🙂
Kathryn Slaydon
I made these last night and the whole family loved them. I haven’t made biscuits from scratch since high school but with this recipe I don’t think I’ll buy them ever again.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love receiving comments like these, Kathryn! Thanks so much for your review ❤️
Sheryl
I made a “test batch” this morning to practice for Christmas for my Southern in-laws and my wife approved! Question, is there any way to prepare the dough in advance and leave in the fridge? So the only steps left are cut and cook? Trying to time manage Christmas morning. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Sheryl! You can definitely prepare and cut the dough in advance. If freezing, wrap them individually with plastic before storing. If refrigerating, you can just store them in an airtight container. Hope that helps!
Sheryl
I will give it a try and keep you posted. Thank you so much.
Christina
Is the baking time still the same if the dough is refrigerated? Or should it be baked longer? I also plan to make ahead and bake the morning of my brunch party.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Christina! Yes, they should bake in the same time. If they were frozen they might need a minute or two longer 😊
Michael
This worked! I am not a baker and I did this with an air fryer! It was fun and easy.
If I can make this, so can you!
Josie
Made these on a whim this morning and doubled the recipe. I used 2% because that’s what I had. I got 13 biscuits and they were fantastic! My family devoured them! Thanks for this recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed! Thank you for commenting, Josie! 🙂
Mona
These were so very easy to make and so darn delicious. I didn’t have unsalted butter though so next time I make them, and I definitely will, I’ll adjust the salt in the recipe to 1/2 teaspoon. Thanks for the easy and delicious recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad you liked them Mona! Thanks for the review ❤️
Lexi
I was just wondering before I make these if I can use them for monkey bread?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Our monkey bread recipe is a modified version of this recipe, so that should work just fine. Enjoy, Lexi!
Kate
I’m a terrible baker AND gluten free, but these turned out amazing! Love how easy they are – will be making them over and over again
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they were a hit for you Kate! Let us know if you try any of our other recipes ❤️