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.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.
Emily Vanderoef
Can I use an unsweetened Almond milk as a substitution for 2% or buttermilk?
Sam
Hi Emily! Other people have done so with success. 🙂
Emelia Buffam
Perfect biscuits. I make with chili, for breakfast sandwiches or use as a top for chicken pot pie
Carla McKinney
Delicious and perfect!!
C4MILES2
I gave these a go and they turned out lovely. I used whole milk and salted butter but they turned out lovely just the same. Thanks for an easy to follow and delicious recipe.
Tiiu Garrett
This looks terrific. I am wondering if I make ahead but NOT bake, and then freeze until ready to use, would I need to thaw out first or just add a couple of minutes to the bake time? I have never made biscuits so this will be a first. I have made many of your other recipes and every one has turned out perfectly so I know these will, too. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Sam
I would just bake them from frozen adding a minute or two to the bake time. 🙂
Jamie
I have made these a million times and always the best! I have made the dough the night before when we’ve had an early morning and the biscuits were amazing. I also like to pop the sheet pan in the freezer for about 15 minutes before baking and it makes for big flaky layers. Great recipe!
Vanessa R
I was looking for a quick recipe and tried these. Not only did they turn out well, these are probably some of the best biscuits I have ever had! I even forgot them in the oven and they cooked for about 15 minutes. They were totally golden brown on the outside, but they were still fantastic on the inside and the edges were only crispy, not burnt. For me, this is a keeper! I’m adhd and love a recipe that is hard to ruin!
Dana Morrison
Absolutely delicious, light and flakey! We were so excited to eat them that I forgot to take a picture! The frozen butter grated on the box grater was brilliant, and I used buttermilk as the liquid. I gently worked the dough together into a ball and pressed it out gently by hand to approx 1″ thick. Instead of using a biscuit cutter I simply formed it into a rectangle and cut it into six square biscuits. This will definitely be my go-to biscuit recipe!
Tracey Haymes
Cutting the biscuits into 6 squares is a BRILLIANT idea! No waste and no over working the scraps of dough to make the rest. Thank you!
Lori Stock
Absolutely amazing! I pressed large spoons full gently in my hands and laid them on the parchment…..they baked up beautifully and tasted wonderful!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Lori! Thank you for trying my recipe! 🙂
Donna
can you use self-rising flour?
Sam
Hi Donna! I don’t recommend it. 🙁
Davannie
Awesome
Jean Hevenor
60 years old and have never made biscuits so fluffy and delicious until I found this amazing recipe . Thank you for sharing it!
Daniel
I’m trying this recipe, and I’m doing everything correctly, but it seems super dry. It’s not wet enough to form a cohesive dough.
Sam
I’m so sorry this is happening Daniel! Are you making any substitutions? Are you weighing your flour or measuring in cups? If you haven’t watched the video yet you can see the dough in the video right above the recipe. 🙂
Daniel
I measure in cups. I have since found out to spoon flour into my measuring cups to a get a more proper measurement.
Sonja
This worked wonderfully for me. I didn’t have a biscuit cutter, so after the dough was the right thickness I kinda finessed it into more of a rectangle with my hands and cut it with a butter knife. I got 12 pieces from this recipe. I popped the butter in the freezer to harden it up a bit. Maybe about 15 minutes, and grated it into the bowl with the flour while it sat on my kitchen scale to make sure I had it right. Then after it was grated I put the bowl into the freezer again for a while longer to make sure the butter was real cold! I actually turned on the oven light and sat crossed legged on the floor in front of it and watched them rise and turn golden 😂 it was kinda neat. Anyways, easy recipe to follow.
Scott
Easy ! They turned out great.
Heather Mariano
Can you make the dough ahead of time and put it in fridge to take out later in the day to bake?
Sam
Sure thing! I would cut out the biscuits and store in an air tight container. 🙂
Janelle
Could I bake these and then freeze them? Needing them on a trip where I won’t be able to bake them on location.
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
Steve
Amazing! To have this much lift with no buttermilk is incredible! Glad I keep butter in the freezer. 🙂
Evette M Drotar
Fast and simple to make. I cut mine in squares so save from reshaping the mix. Thanks for your recipe.
Bryan Blake
I also tried the square method, worked great for breakfast sandwiches.
Sharon Marks
How about an easy cobbler recipe?? Can’t find one anywhere
Need Easy recipe please
Want to make peach cobbler
Thank you much!!🙋♀️
Sam
Hi Sharon! I actually have a Peach cobbler recipe. Everything is made from scratch but there’s nothing overly complicated involved. 🙂
Shauna
Can you double the recipe? I’m only asking because I have recipes that suggest not to double, so I wanted to make sure. This family needs more than 6 biscuits at a meal. 😆
Sam
Hi Shauna! Yes this recipe doubles beautifully. Enjoy! 🙂
Emily
This is my third time making them. They are so good and easy to make. My family loves them with some honey on top or used as sausage sandwiches,:)
Krystle
I tried this recipe and these biscuits were amazing!!! I used salted butter and 1% milk since that’s all I had and they still came out delicious!! I will definitely be using this recipe again. Thank you for sharing