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.
SunLi
I made biscuits this morning, and I love them! Easy and normal ingredients that I always have at home. I didn’t have whole milk, used 2% milk, It was delicious! Thank you for the great recipe! The first time ever, I made biscuits that I really liked!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, SunLi! 🙂
Kim
I made these and loved them!! I got 7 out of the recipe. I wish I could include a picture of how fluffy and perfect they were!
Sam
Hi, Kim! I’m glad you enjoyed them! Unfortunately it’s not very easy to get a picture attached in the comment thread. If you join my Facebook Group, you can share all of your pictures from all of your cooking adventures. I’d love to see them. 🙂
Bryan Oliver
Well, my wife says that I’ve done it; found a recipe that results in biscuits close to the ones that my grandmother used to make. Grandmother never could really share her recipe since she had no idea how much of anything went into it. I guess 70 years of cooking everything from scratch can do that to you. These biscuits are as good as you’ll find anywhere and once you try this recipe, the search is over. Thanks, Sam!
Sam
Thank you so much, Bryan! I am so glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Lisa Stoner
I made these tonight for dinner with beef stew! Easy and delicious! Definitely will be making more often.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them Lisa! 🙂
Leona
I made these with my daughter Emma Louise we bake all the time together we just love this recipe thank you so much Happy New Year everyone!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Leona! Happy New Year! 🙂
Anne Carter
My family LOVED them 👍👍👍👍👍
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Anne! 🙂
Bridget
I have used this recipe over and over..it’s the ONLY biscuit recipe I make to go with soups, on top of casseroles etc. It is SO good..it really tastes like McDonald’s breakfast biscuits! Only better! My family loves them! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoys them, Bridget! 🙂
Joan
Your recipe is delightful and delicious! I have one suggestion … to chill the grater while freezing the butter. I thought about this after the fact, but it might make the butter grate more easily. Thank you for all your hard work in developing tbis recipe.
Sam
This is a great suggestion, thank you, Joan! Anything to keep the butter cold for as long as possible, so I think that’s a great idea! Happy New Year!
Kim T
I’ve never, in all my 60 years, been able to make a respectable biscuit…until I used this recipe. I think I overworked the dough a little too much because they didn’t rise quite as much as the recipe’s pictures. But, they tasted great and I now have a recipe that I can trust. Thanks!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Kim! 🙂
Janice DOHERTY
Thank YOU for the COLD tips!! Happy New Year from Alaska!
Sam
You’re welcome, Janice! Happy New Year!
ross
Can you double or triple this recipe?
Sam
That will work just fine. 🙂
Lena
Wow I’ve always made homemade biscuits, but always struggled with cutting in the butter! Your tip for using a cheese grater is genius!!!! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe it’s amazing! And happy New Years to you and your family!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed! Happy New Year, Lena!! 🙂
Sharon
I was wondering if you could use buttermilk with this recipe. I will be trying g the original one as you have posted here today. Fingers crossed. I’ve never had a biscuit turn out for me. Lol. Thank you for sharing.
Sam
Hi Sharon! I haven’t tried with buttermilk but I do think it would work quite well. I hope you love the biscuits!
Rhonda
Can you use buttermilk instead of whole milk?
Sam
I haven’t but I think that would work well! Enjoy, Rhonda!
Jennifer
Have made these biscuits a number of times now and they always come out buttery and fluffy with lots of layers . I’ve found that using a high protein flour (like Bob’s Red Mill pastry flour) gets me the height – my husband says they’re better than his grandma’s. Great with sausage gravy. Thank you for posting this!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy the biscuits, Jennifer! 🙂