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.
Sarah
Love these biscuits – been using this recipe for a year and it is the best. My only modification is a little extra milk.
Isis Faught
I’ve tried a number of other biscuit recipes and this recipe has produced the most consistent biscuit every time I make them! I’ve even added jalapeño and cheddar to them and they are DELICIOUS!!
Rebecca Lanning
I used my homemade yoghurt whey for the liquid (with just a tad of yogurt added) and they were scrumptious!
Tiff
I’m sure this is a great recipe but I don’t know what I did wrong. They didn’t rise. They were just hard flat little biscuits with no color ontop. They did have layers though so I got that part right 😂😂
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Tiff! How fresh is your baking powder? Sounds like it may be bad 🙁
Evie
Bin makin a lot of biscuit,diff recipes lookin for a fav to stick to. We will see wher this one falls ther baking now.i used 2% milk n put butter on the pan that was warm frm oven.got that from another recipe .ther lookin good rising nice
Elizabeth
Up early on a cold (for Texas), rainy day. Making these biscuits again. They are my go-to weekend breakfast for my guys. They stand up to a good cream gravy, but are not hard or tough. I use your grater trick for my puff pastry now too! Thank you!!!
Yvonne
Great biscuits, recipe right on!
Kellie Snell
LOVE these! I can’t believe how easy and fast it was to make these for our breakfast this morning. Just a quick question… What do you recommend for freezing? I am going to be on maternity leave in three months and starting to prep my freezer – I would love to include these for an easy breakfast. The idea of grabbing some and baking fresh in the morning sounds wonderful.
I would like to make a big batch to store, I am just not sure how long they will last and how to store properly to keep the fresh taste. Do you recommend wrapping in wax, parchment or freezer paper then a freezer bag? Thawing out have any instructions as well or can I bake from frozen?
So many questions 🫣 but thank you for taking the time to answer them!!
Kellie S.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Kellie! So glad you enjoyed the biscuits! They will freeze will nicely for several months; just wrap them well in plastic before storing in a freezer bag or airtight container. When you’re ready to bake, they’ll need just a minute or two longer in the oven–no need to thaw first 😊 Enjoy your maternity leave!
Gail
I made these this morning so good.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed them Gail!
Natalie R
Can you make the dough ahead of time and bake later in the day, with the same result?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! Just store the cut biscuits in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to bake. Enjoy 😊
Kaeley
Mine always come out tasting flowery. I only had 1% milk. If I use heavy cream or buttermilk will that help with the flower taste?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Kaeley! It sounds like there may be too much flour in your dough, so definitely make sure you are measuring your flour properly. We’d suggest using buttermilk or whole milk next time 😊
Kim
I have never made biscuits before, was pretty intimidated, but these are amazing! So easy and tasted great too. I substituted heavy cream for milk and they came out well. Thank you so much! No more canned dough for me!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you gave them a try, Kim! 😍
LAUREN ANNE SCHAFER
These were great and so easy. My first biscuits! I was able to have them made and out of the oven by the time my hubby got out of his morning shower. Next time I will add a pinch more salt.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you tried the biscuits, Lauren! Thanks so much for letting us know how it went for you 😊
Natalie R
I wanted them to be great but they looked like fat little butter cookies, not biscuits. What did I do wrong? My butter was ice cold/partially frozen and still grated in flakes in the biscuit before I put in oven.
Sam
Hi Natalie! I’m not sure what you mean by fat little butter cookies? If they didn’t rise, your baking powder could potentially be bad. 🙁
Chloe
So, when I make mine, there’s too much flour. So there’s nothing to fold it’s just sinks through my fingers. Is adding more milk (2%) ok to get it to the right consistency?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Chloe! How are you measuring your flour? It sounds like you may just be adding too much. 🙁
Rich
Came out excellent. I usually use a buttermilk recipe with shortening and just brush the top with butter. But you included the butter in the recipe in place of shortening. I have found my new favorite. I also liked the cheese grater trick. Thanks very much.
Marcia
It took about 20 minutes for 6 even biscuits in an 8″ round. They rose up very nicely. I wish I would have used a little more fat and a pinch or two of soda and tartar. But I like a silkier biscuit.
Matthew
Thank you for the box grater tip! This works really well. The only ingredient I added was a 1/4 tsp of baking soda since I was using buttermilk just to give it a little bit lighter texture just for personal preference. I’ve made these biscuits so many times and they always come out good.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you found it helpful, Matthew! Enjoy the biscuits 😊