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.
Alicia
Can I use 2% milk instead of whole?
Sam
I believe other people have with success, but I have not tried it myself so I can’t say for sure.
Jerry
Used a non-stick
Pan sprayed with Pam heated to 425.
Bottom of biscuits were over cooked and crisp to hard.
Lower heat and regular cookie sheet will be tried next time.
Sam
Hi, Jerry. Is it possible your oven is running hotter than it says it is? That would cause the bottom to burn, but not cook the rest of the biscuits. 🙂
maria
Made these this morning and they turned out excellent! It was my first time making biscuits and your recipe was perfect. The family loved them.
Cheers!
Sam
Thank you so much, Maria! I am glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Jon M
I used the busciut recipe for the crust on a Chistmas morning kiesh. After pressinging the dough in to a oven safe fry pan I put in the freezer for a few minutes. Looks great!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Jon. 🙂
Jenn
I know my way around a biscuit…..but this recipe didn’t disappoint! This will be my go-to from now on! Made for a delicious Christmas breakfast!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Jenn!:)
Allison
This was my first time making biscuits. I was intimidated because my mother is from Alabama and grew up making biscuits. She wanted to turn making biscuits into a friendly competition this Christmas morning My daughters and her said I won-hands down. My mom then told my brother about them when he called to wish us a Merry Christmas. So now, he wants me to make them for his family when they visit this Friday. I am so excited! You gave me a wonderful Christmas gift. Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Allison! Sorry to ruin the southern biscuit tradition. 😉
Tracy
Just curious why all purpose flour instead of self rising
Sam
It’s just what I usually use 🙂 I wouldn’t recommend subbing self rising for all purpose for this recipe though, I don’t think it would turn out the same.
Neal
It’s Christmas Eve, I forgot to buy buns for Christmas Dinner tomorrow, stores are all closed, so I had to come up with something quick with the ingredients I had at home. I also only had frozen unsalted butter! So I searched ‘butter biscuits’ and your recipe came up and you call for frozen butter! Perfect match! I’ve never made biscuits before. These were so easy to make and turned out amazing! I doubled the recipe so I had to bake them for a few additional mins to make sure they were fully done. Thank you for saving Christmas dinner!!
Sam
I am so happy to help, Neal! I am glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Stephen
Can I use 2% or 1% in the recipe?
Sam
I personally haven’t tried it with 2% or 1% but I believe others have with success.
Diana
I tried these biscuits all I can say is delicious easy to make easy to follow taste great thank you
Sam
So glad you enjoyed, Diana!
Jessica
These are my husbands favorite biscuits. I can’t believe how wonderfully simple the idea of grating the butter is, and how much better the biscuits turn out doing this.
Sam
I’m so glad to hear they were such a hit. Thanks for commenting, Jessica! 🙂
LizB
I am making these on Xmas eve for dinner tomorrow!
Sam
Enjoy!
Marcy
OMG, these turned out AMAZING!! I woke up today and said I feel like a biscuit. I searched “quick easy biscuit” and I found your receipe. I watched your video, which I usually don’t watch the videos, and besides the fact that you are adorable, the video was quick and explained everything great! I whipped up the biscuits and we had a great Christmas Eve brunch! My friend also loved them, he’s said I don’t like biscuits but I love these. Thanks so much!! Merry Christmas!
Sam
Thank you very much, Marcy! I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, and I hope you continue to enjoy them for years to come. Merry Christmas! 🙂
nancy tobey
I am not a baker, but your guidance makes me think this is possible! I have 10 people for dinner tonight-can I double the recipe?
Sam
Hi, Nancy! Yes you can double the recipe without an issue. Enjoy! 🙂
Michelle
I want to make them for xmas morning but i have so much to do xmas eve can I make them 2 days in advance? Should i freeze them
If I do?
Sam
Hi, Michelle. They should be ok in the refrigerator for two days. I would make the dough, cut out the biscuits, and place in an air tight container in the refrigerator. 🙂
Michelle
Yes I did just that and as usual they came out great. I made this recipe before and they always come out great! This is my go to biscuit recipe. All your recipes are great. Thank you! Have a Happy New Year! Blessings to you and yours!
Sam
Thank you so much, Michelle! Happy New Year! 🙂
Samael
Hi, this is probably a little late, but that’s actually what I did! I just froze and grated my butter a few nights in advance and mixed all my dry ingredients day of, and they turned out great! Everyone loved them and it actually didn’t take a whole lot of time!