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.
Haley
Can you refrigerate this dough overnight for make ahead?
Sam
Hi Haley! That will work just fine! You will want to make the dough, cut out the biscuits, and store them in an air tight container overnight. 🙂
Shawna Orban
I’ve been looking for a biscuit recipe for almost 6 years that actually makes fluffy biscuits. This recipe is it!! Thank you for all the small tips that matter! I will be making these in bulk and freezing them but also, they’re so quick to throw together too which is nice.
Katie
As a southern girl who has lived away from the south for a very long time now, these biscuits are everything. They’re easy, they taste great, and they never fail to remind me of home.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you love them, Katie! Thanks for commenting ❤️
Toad Schmoad
I am NOT a baker. I am about as incompetent at baking as I would be building a rocket ship. I tried these biscuits anyway with no good way to shred the butter and no sugar on hand. Ended up using a knife to cut the butter in little bitsies and honey in place of sugar which I added on top of the milk after I poured it in. They came out as a masterpiece. A Mona Lisa of biscuits. Paula Dean would be envious and embarrassed of her own biscuits. I will definitely be building a rocket ship next with my new found confidence and unbelievable skill to conquer anything.
Nicole
What measurements on the honey did you do??
Sarah
These biscuits were easy and amazing! I made them with 2% milk and they turned out fine! I’ll definitely be putting this recipe in my normal rotation.
CiCi
They came out perfect!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy to hear it, Cici! 🥰
Sam
I’m wondering if you can freeze the dough (biscuits already cut out) and bake them the next day?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
You sure can! You can also just keep them in the fridge if you’re just planning on baking the next day 😊
Sinjin
They came out good but slightly bitter. Does this mean I put too much baking powder?? What could have caused that?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Sinjin! It sounds like your baking powder may actually be bad 🙁
Charissa
I’m not sure what I did wrong, but it felt like there wasn’t enough milk, the dough was very floury and dry, so I added 2 or 3 splashes more of milk to the dough. The biscuits didn’t seem to rise, they stayed flat and just tasted very dry and floury. Maybe I should have spooned the flour into the measuring cups? They also didn’t have much flavor, maybe also from too much flour? Do you have amy tips for me to make them tall and fluffy like yours? Thanks!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Charissa! It sounds like you may have over-measured your flour. We have a post on how to measure flour that should be helpful for you 😊
Diana
I made these today and they’re amazing and easy. I was too lazy to use a box grater so I used a food processor and that worked beautifully. I wanted to make this to freeze them, but they’re so easy and quick to make that it’s not needed.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Diana ❤️ P.S. They do freeze well, if you ever want to try that 😊
Michelle Grajkowski
OK, so I never leave comments on recipes/blog sites. But, I just had to today! I was always afraid to try to make biscuits – they seem so unforgiving. This morning, though, I decided to search for a recipe to try. And am I so glad I did! Your instructions were *so* helpful. Freezing the butter and then grating it? BRILLIANT! I cut my biscuits with a heart-shaped cookie cutter (mainly to remind my family these were made with love just in case they didn’t turn out.) Well, they didn’t need the reminder! The biscuits were flaky and perfect! THANK YOU for sharing the recipe, and more for the easy to follow tips. I created a pin just for this recipe so I never, ever lose it! 🙂
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
😂 We’re so happy you gave our recipe a shot, Michelle! Thanks for commenting!
james k cook
I tried this recipe. It wasn’t bad, but I think I accidentally over worked the dough. Ill have to try it again.
Betty
I have never made such picture perfect biscuits. I will definitely make these again and take a picture to post on IG. I followed the instructions exactly and they were tall and flakey!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they were such a hit, Betty! 😍
Zachary Hone
I’ve always thought that biscuits as a mouthful of the Savanna desert that sap all of your saliva and joy with so much as a nibble. The only glimpse of hope to survive such a monster was a grotesque amount of honey and/or butter.
But these biscuits were phenomenal. Flaky but moist enough to avoid xerostomia and emotional damage– without a bunch of condiments!
My one thing is that I didn’t understand the point of “no rolling pin”. We used one and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy our recipe convinced you otherwise, Zachary! We don’t recommend using a rolling pin because it can flatten the layers. Using your hands ensures that the biscuits will still turn out nice and fluffy 😊
JBird
These are the BEST and super easy to work with! My butter was too cold to cut in so I used the box grater and I would definitely use it again. I don’t think I quite flattened them down to an inch and ended up with 7 beautiful, flaky layered, delicious biscuits. Yet another 5 star keeper from sugar spun run😁
Thank you!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for the review, JBird! We’re so happy you love the biscuits 🥰
Glady
My family raves for this recipe. I also make some berry preserve to compliment it and it combines wonderfully! Great recipe
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yum! We love that idea, Glady 😋
Cheryl Lynn Tarkington
Thanks for all the extra tips along with the recipes. I am a fan though I don’t do much cooking. I prefer coconut oil in my cooking because it is better for cholesterol.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they are helpful, Cheryl! 😊
Katie
Turned out awesome! Had to add extra milk because the dough was way too flour-y and not coming together at first. Will make again!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Katie! Make sure you are measuring your flour properly–that could have been the issue here. We’re glad they still turned out nicely for your regardless! ❤️
Katrina Adamczyk
I use this recipe every time I make biscuits and they always come out great! Just a note, I always use salted butter, omit extra salt (or just add a dash), and use almond milk or coconut milk, whatever’s on hand. They’re perfect! I usually get anywhere from 8-12 biscuits.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad it’s a hit for you, Katrina! Thanks for the review ❤️
Lynn
Do I omit the baking powder if using self rising flour?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Lynn! We don’t recommend self rising flour here. 🙁