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
I am a fellow food blogger and I am always hesitant to make the first recipe on google because normally they’re extremely disappointing and I think the reviews are made up. This recipe was easy, works well with your given adjustments and overall unfussy. If I could give one suggestion that I didn’t see, it’s to use aluminum free baking powder. This will eliminate the possibility of having a metallic taste with using a higher amount. Thanks for the great recipe!
Cat
This was my first time making biscuits and this was a super simple recipe to follow and turned out perfectly. The fam loves them- thank you!!
Laurie
My family says these biscuits are “10 out of 10!”
Lori
I have used this recipe over 50 times now!!
These biscuits always come out light, flaky, and delicious! Thank you for a FANTASTIC recipe!
We frequently make a very large batch of these, cut out the biscuits and freeze in an airtight container
When my kids need a few they pull them out and bake from frozen. They come out perfectly!
Shelby Mckinney
my biscuits turned out flat on your recipe it says all purpose flour you might need to go and change that for self-rising flour
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Shelby! We can assure you that the recipe works well as written with all-purpose flour, and we have thousands of positive reviews that agree. It sounds like either your baking powder was bad or you flattened the dough a bit too much. Let us know if you need any other help troubleshooting–we are happy to help!
Amanda Smith
First time making biscuits and they were AMAZING! So fluffy and so many layers. I’m excited to use the leftovers for bacon, egg and cheese biscuits tomorrow morning! I loved your video. Helped me understand the folding process. Thank you!
Terri White
My body tends to run very hot so I need lots of help keeping my hands from melting the butter. I grate my butter onto a paper plate then stick it in the freezer until I’m ready. I also put my measured milk into the freezer for a bit and run my hands under cold water before working the dough. I’ve made these several times, always with success. Thank you Sam!
Tracy Harvey
double for sure ! I cut into 2×2 small biscuits . Slightly crispy on bottom but tender inside
Kiera
Hi can I use honey to substitute for sugar ? Will it mess up the recipe ?
Sam
Hi Kiera, you will likely need to add a bit more flour (just eyeball it/add as needed) to keep the dough from being too sticky. I’d whisk the honey in with the milk and add it that way.
Alysha Archie
Can I make these with almond milk buttermilk?
Sam
Hi Alysha! I have never used almond milk buttermilk so I can’t say for sure how it would turn out. I think it could work, but let me know how it goes if you do try it. 🙂
Parker
I didn’t want to be mean and leave a really bad review but this recipe did not work out well at all. They were pretty dense and gummy. I followed the recipe exactly I think so I don’t know what went wrong. I’d love to try again so please let me know if you have any ideas about what could’ve happened:)
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so sorry this happened, Parker! It sounds like you may be overworking your dough. Also, definitely make sure your baking powder is fresh, as that could also cause these issues 🙁
Kayla
I have made these many times with almond milk and they are excellent. I imagine almond buttermilk would be just as good.
KATY
These sound fabulous! Is there a way to make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate till time to bake? I want to do these christmas morning but i know things are going to be crazy. It would be great to make them the day before.
Sam
Hi Katy! You can make the dough the night before, cut out the biscuits, wrap tightly and refrigerate until the morning. 🙂
Jessica
These biscuits are amazing and easy to make! The family begs for more! Thank you for sharing.
Gpearl79
My family loves this recipe and so do I! it comes out lovely and delicious each time. I did alter the salt to a pinch. We have hypertension to be mindful of in our family. But we do love these biscuits warm from the oven or reheated if they didn’t come fast enough. They go good with a touch of butter, jam, or as they are.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks so much for the review ❤️ Enjoy!
JoeBKS
This recipe made a batch of light and tasty biscuits (6). It is quite easy and fast. This is the first time I have grated the frozen butter and it worked very well. I will grate frozen butter more often now. Thank you for your website. Happy Holidays!
Sam
Thank you for your kind words, and for trying my recipe, Joe!
Kellie Miller
Best biscuit I ever made. Swapped GF flour for regular.
Ariana W.
I’m curious what kind you used,
I want to try to make them gf for a friend.
Pam
What GF flour did you use?
Kellie
I used up two packages I had, one of Pillsbury GF flour, and one of King Arthur. I’m partial to whichever is on sale! LOL.
Diana Beall
Can you freeze these biscuits?
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
Natasha J.
I made these but I didn’t use a biscuit cutter. I sifted the flour, then added the rest of the dry ingredients, gave it a quick whisk, then scooped the partially mixed dry ingredients back into the sifter, and sifted all dry ingredients again. I grated the butter but had to keep putting it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes in between each grating session. Then when I was done, I mixed all the wet ingredients into the dry. When it mixed enough to form a haphazard ball, I flattened it and chucked it into the freezer for 10 minutes. Then I made folds, flattened it a bit, and tore off pieces of the dough into loose balls. I did chuck everything into the oven but wound up baking it for 15 minutes because I live at the base of Casper Mountains, WY. I made a Milk & Bacon gravy to go on top. I wound up with 11 biscuits because I prefer drop biscuits. These biscuits are so good, my hubster ate 6 of them. I could only 3. Thank you for this recipe! You ROCK!
RK Royston
Growing up I made biscuits with my mom all the time but not this kind. My husband is from the south and they’re pretty funny about their biscuits lol I made these today and he loved them! Thanks for the recipe 😁
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed! Thank you so much for trying my recipe!
Veronica
This was amazing. Had an hour before work (once I get more practice I’m sure I won’t need so much time) and didn’t have any Pillsbury available. I like the premade frozen biscuits southern style. This recipe was *just* like them.
I didn’t have the recommended tools for the butter and I only had salted butter. So I thinly sliced the butter with a serated knife and followed the recipe as best I could and they turned out GREAT!
I really liked that it didn’t need time to rise and no yeast as those are things with baking that escape me.
Easy and delicious, I will be making this again!