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
- 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 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.
Donna Marie
I forgot in my earlier post! bake biscuits on 500 degrees, yup 500 degrees 8-10 minutes or lightly golden. Also bake in a pan, just big enough for the biscuits, so they are close together w/ out a lot of air circulation. The biscuits rise high and do not dry out.
Enjoy! We did 🙂
Donna Marie
Awesome recipe! I made 2 changes, I used 4 tbl spoons of butter and two tbl spoons of butter flavored shortening, my mixture was a bit dry so I used 1 cup of low fat buttermilk and God blessed me with beautiful beautiful Sunday lunch biscuits.
I am so grateful for this wonderful recipe, until I have made my standing go to all of the time EVERYTIME BISCUIT RECIPE!
Amen and thank you 🙂
Sara
These biscuits are so good! The recipe Totally deserved the almost 3200 5-star ratings…
As one reviewer said: “better biscuits than KFC!” – A. KELLY (my daughter, 8yo)
Julie A MacFadden
Thank you for a quick easy biscuit recipe that is delicious!
Brittney
Oh my goodness!!!! My first attempt ever at making homemade biscuits, and these DID NOT disappoint!! I’ve never had buttermilk in my fridge so I used 2% and my kid gave these a “1 million out of ten”. They are so soft and yummy on the inside and a little crunch on the outside. I feel no need to look further for any other recipes.
Lindsey
This was my first time making biscuits homemade and it definitely won’t be my last! I only had salted butter so I cut the salt down to 1/4 tsp and they turned out perfect!
Mellany
I loved the recipe, for lactose intolerant people, I tried it with almond milk and vegan butter and I worked perfectly fine!!! I can’t believe I made flaky biscuits!!!
Tracy
Just wondering if i freeze a batch for later can I bake them from frozen and if so for how long?
Sam
Hi Tracy! Yes they can be baked from frozen. I haven’t personally done it so I can’t give you an exact time though. Enjoy! 🙂
Tim
These biscuits are great. I form them into a rectangle and cut it into 9 squares so I don’t have to rework the scraps and mess up the perfect layering.
I also modified the recipe into cinnamon biscuits by folding a layer of cinnamon sugar in at each fold, and they come out amazing. I also sub cinnamon sugar for the TBSP of sugar in the dough. Better than any time consuming cinnamon rolls made with yeast dough and so much faster. I top them with a glaze of powdered sugar, milk and chopped pecans.
Mo
I subbed almond milk (Almond Breeze – Unsweetened Vanilla) and unsalted vegan butter(Earth Balance) – it was so yummy!
Bernadette
I have never ever written a review of a recipe but just had to for these. These were the best biscuits I ever had and so quick and easy. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for the review, Bernadette! We’re so happy you enjoyed the biscuits 🥰
Stephanie
I make this recipe all of the time and my family loves them. They are super easy to make. I tried making them tonight with while wheat flour since I was out of regular flour. Not a fan. I don’t recommend substituting while wheat flour just in case anyone was considering it 😉
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Oh no! Whole wheat flour tends to be drying, so this makes sense. You might be able to get away with substituting some of the flour for whole wheat, but not all 😊
Christy
I made this yesterday because my children were begging for biscuits and gravy. I’ve never made homemade biscuits before and this was SO easy! The layers were the best part Andy mom even asked for the recipe after I sent her a picture. Thank you so much!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they were a hit, Christy! 🥰
Emily
I love these biscuits. They’re so simple and super easy on dishes which makes them a weekend staple here. I like to double or triple the recipe and freeze the uncooked dough for a quick breakfast (or dinner side) anytime.
I have one question! I always shred my butter up first, THEN I put it in the freezer while prepping the other ingredients. This way the butter stays nice and cold and doesn’t melt while I’m shredding it up right before adding it to the mix. The recipe is formulated differently, freezing the butter first and THEN shredding it. I was wondering if there’s any reason to stick to your method or if they’re fairly interchangeable. I’ve always had good luck!
PS- I keep saying I’m going to use these as a base to make something else like a cheddar jalapeño biscuit, but they’re so good as is that I keep just making them as is! I usually even eat them plain, no need for jam on these!
Sam
Hi Emily! I’m so glad you enjoy the biscuits so much! You can really do it whichever way you prefer for the butter. 🙂
Chantalle
Easy and delicious! The layers were exactly as you would expect from a great biscut.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
The layers are the best part! We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Chantalle ❤️
Kristy
Worked great. Loved using the box cutter for the butter. This is a keeper recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for the review, Kristy! We’re so happy the biscuits were a hit for you 🥰