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.
Sasha
These are easy and taste amazing
Ava
Love this recipe!! I’m having some leftover whey after making ricotta, can i substitute milk with whey? If so, is the measure gonna be any different?
Sam
Hi Ava! I haven’t tried it so I can’t really say for sure. If you do try it I would love to know how it turns out.
Vanessa
Hi. I am really big on eating healthy & watch what I eat, can I use this recipe for biscuits but substitute the regular flour for whole wheat flour. Thank you,
Sam
Hi Vanessa! The whole wheat flour has the potential to dry the biscuits out a little bit as the flour is a bit “thirstier”. I would probably start by subbing some of the flour with whole wheat.
Tamara Lewis
I made these for my family yesterday and they absolutely loved them! I’ll be making them again real soon!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! Thanks for trying our recipe, Tamara ❤️
Bob
I’ve tried to make homemade biscuits for years and have never had good results. Finally – perfect biscuits! Thank you so much.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you found our recipe, Bob! Enjoy ❤️
Peggy
When a recipe gets printed, laminated and magneted to my cooking area, it is a winner. This recipe finally got my husband away from canned biscuits. I hate canned, he thought they were real biscuits. He even drew a heart on the recipe.
We don’t keep milk on hand, so I mix up some powdered buttermilk and put it in the fridge and toss a stick of butter in the freezer. Then after a cup of coffee while birdwatching, I’m ready to make world class biscuits. At some point, I’ll try scratch gravy, but for now Pioneer packets are just hard to beat. I make them big, so we get 6 instead of 12, and leftovers get placed on top of casseroles. This recipe is perfection and I thank you for it.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thank you for the sweet comment, Peggy! We are so happy you were able to convert your husband away from those canned biscuits–homemade are SO much better 😍 Definitely let us know if you try our sausage gravy–it’s incredibly easy and pairs beautifully with the biscuits!
Isabel
These are the best biscuits I’ve ever had/made; I come back to this recipe time and time again and it never disappoints. These biscuits are wonderful with a slab of butter, with sausage gravy, or as dumplings.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for the review, Isabel! We are so happy you love our recipe so much ❤️
Matt
Hi Emily, I made these with fresh ground white wheat berries and they turned out great! Is it possible to incorporate cheddar into these biscuits?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sure thing! Enjoy, Matt 😊
Mark
Is bread flour ok or all purpose flour?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Mark! We haven’t tried using bread flour but think it should work here. All-purpose is what we typically use. 🙂
Jane
I’m in the middle of a snow storm and only have salted butter. Will they still turn out? Should I reduce the amount of salt?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Jane! You can just reduce the salt to a scant 3/4 teaspoon. Stay warm!
Mindy
I go to this recipe every time I need to make biscuits. I use self rising flour to cut out the salt and powder but everyone lives it.
Renee
I made these with My 4 year old today for our supper tonight. We had so much fun. Thanks for sharing this easy recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed the process, Renee! Hope you love how they taste just as much ❤️
Amanda
Easy and delicious biscuits. Whipped them up in no time and they rose beautifully in the oven with great layers. My go to recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love receiving comments like these, Amanda! Enjoy the biscuits 🥰
Brandi
I’ve been making these now for months, fresh. Can I make ahead of time? Keep in fridge or freezer?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes you can! Either option works just fine 😊
Missy kells
Super easy and fast to make. Came out very fluffy and flaky. Best biscuit tecipe i have ever tried.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed them Missy! Thanks for the review ❤️
Carrie
I made a few adjustments of my own, they turned out delicious. I made them a little too thin so I would not roll them out as much next time. Otherwise they were delectable.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Carrie ☺️
Jessie
Made 4 huge biscuits and they look awesome! Got creative with the butter. (It was too warm) but i dont think that will take away from thier flavor
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad they turned out for you, Jessie ❤️
Madelyn
This was sooo fun to do with the kid i babysit! My only complaint would be that the dough was hard to flatten with my hands. The kid had a lot of fun with it though. 10/10 would recomend
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so they were a hit, Madelyn! Thanks for using our recipe 😊