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.
Cheyenne
No matter what recipe I use, my biscuits never rise. This is the ONLY recipe that provided me tall, flaky, and delicious biscuits. Saving to use again and again. Love them.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy our recipe was a hit for you, Cheyenne 😊 Thanks for the review!
chalene thompson
I’ve been making these biscuits for over a year now and my kids ABSOLUTLEY love them! Wondering if they can be made the night before and kept in the fridge? Or would the freezer be better?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Charlene! Either option will work just fine here. So glad the biscuits are a hit for your family ❤️
Scarlett
I love these biscuits ❤️. They are so fluffy and delicious not to sweet which I like.
Thank you for make this recipe!
It was so easy to make!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Scarlett! Thanks for coming back to leave a comment ❤️
Pattie
Finally, I ended up with the biscuits I was hoping for. Thank you,
wayne washburn
Work nice with frozen butter and that tablespoon of sugar 😋
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed, Wayne! 😊
Deidra Adams
My biscuits came out sooooo good. They’re nice and flaky, with the right amount of sweet and salty taste. I did add a tspn of cream of tartar, which almost gave it a cookie-like taste. I’ll def be doing this same recipe from now on.
Camryn
THE BEST BISCUITS EVER. I used a little under a stick of butter and they are so good. I can’t stop eating them.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you love them, Camryn! Enjoy 🥰
Deborah
I am interested to know if you’ve tried freezing the biscuits before baking, to be baked from frozen later?
Sam
Hi Deborah! I have not personally done it, but I know others have done it with success. 🙂
Jess
I always freeze some of the batch and bake them later. I actually prefer them from frozen
Becky
Turned out great. 14 min in my oven but I’ll never buy a quick biscuit again. Thanks.
Jeanie
So yummy and easy. My family loves these.
Velvet
I have tried many recipes over the years and I believe this one will be the one… I have to make them with regular butter not Irish… that’s what I had on hand and definitely make them an inch tall because if taller they brown more because I had to bake them a little longer. I can’t wait to make them again to perfect them. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for the review, Velvet! We’re so happy you found our recipe and loved it so much ❤️
Donna D
These biscuits were very good for such a simple recipe. I didn’t have a pastry cutter so I used two forks to crumble the butter into my recipe. I also used 1% milk because that’s all I had. Next time I’ll try buttermilk. Served them with a little butter and strawberry jam to my husband and he liked them. This recipe is definitely a keeper. This is my new go to recipe for my Sunday morning breakfasts.
Kate Wilson
I used buttermilk and would recommend cutting down the salt a little. Mine turned out a bit salty from the buttermilk switch. Otherwise, very good!
Laurie
Turned out perfect. I am not a great baker so I was pleased. Using them for crab eggs Benny, So much better than English muffins from the store. Thank you!
Tresa
Best biscuits I have ever made and ever eaten! And so easy and fast to make! Made these while soup was simmering on the stove
Lisa K Clark
I’ve had great success with this recipe after years of failed biscuit attempts!
Do they turn out ok if I make them the day before and store them in the fridge before baking?
Sam
Abosolutely! Enjoy! 🙂