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.
Beth
First attempt at biscuits and they turned out great! Love the grating trick with the butter. Thanks for a fantastic and easy recipe.
Sam
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Beth! I hope you’ll come back and check out more, and that you love them just as much!
Dona
Do the cut uncooked dough freeze well? would like to make some before my milk goes bad.
Sam
Hi Dona! Yes it should freeze just fine, enjoy!
Cynthia Mciver
I so excited to try your recipe I’ve not had good luck so I’ll let you know 💜😁💜
Tam
Can you make these a couple hours in advance and chill them in tbe fridge?
Thanks
Sam
That will work just fine. Make sure they are in an air tight container so they don’t dry out. 🙂
Jessica
I’m interested in baking these, but I accidentally got wax paper at the store instead of parchment paper! Am I able to bake them on a nonstick baking sheet without issues? Thank you in advance 🙂
Sam
Yes I would bake directly on the baking sheet. Enjoy!
Jen
my family loves it when I make these! I sub the milk for almond milk and it still comes out great! I also add a 1/4 tsp of baking soda just because I remember my Gramma always adding it to hers for “sky high biscuits”
thank you for the recipe!
Karen Wallock
These are fabulous! Made them for the second time and patted them a little thinner and got nine biscuits. The first batch was a little too doughy when the tops were golden, I just ate 4! OMG!
Carol
These are the best and I have been making biscuits for many, many years!
Thank you for this amazing recipe.
K.M.
I’m sure after 4000+ reviews, you don’t need another, but my family just agreed that these biscuits were the best they have ever had. My husband, who doesn’t eat bread, ate several. They were flaky and had perfect, buttery layers. This recipe is going to be printed. Many thanks.
Laura
Best biscuits ever! Wow wow wow
Dee
I followed the recipe as written. My recipe gave me 6 large biscuits. I believe I am going to make them a bit smaller the next time so I can have 8 smaller biscuits instead of 6 large ones. They were very good, soft and flaky. I think I am going to pitch the store bought biscuits and use this as my go to whenever I make biscuits. I topped my biscuits with homemade honey butter.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed them, Dee! Thanks for the review 🥰
Mamie
I just want to say thank you so much for this recipe. I have never been able to make a proper biscuit and thanks to you I got it right on the first time. I did have to add about 2 tablespoons of milk and use 1/2 teaspoon since all I had was salted butter
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how it went for you, Mamie! So glad our recipe was a success ❤️
Courtney Burnside
I made these this morning for bacon egg and cheese biscuits. Recipe was easy and the biscuits were excellent. Flaky and buttery! Will be using this as my go-to recipe.
Taenia
Best butter biscuit ever my flaky layers were wonderful. I got accolades from my husband and it is a win-win for this recipe.
Janne
I’m in the process of making these. I live in a mountainous dry area. Not sure what I did wrong but the dough would not stick together without putting abit more milk into it. I had a really hard time with the dough. What could I have done differently?
Sam
Hi Janne! Did you happen to weigh your flour? If you did, it could have just been your altitude. 🙁 I hope you still enjoyed them! 🙂
Renee1908
I used this recipe to make my first batch of biscuits ever. This recipe is amazing. The tips and video were spot on. It has been over a year since I last purchased store bought biscuits and there was literally little to no flavor and kinda tart. Despite them being made by a big name brand I found them tasteless and undesirable. I followed the instructions almost to a T. I used an ice cream scooper as my dough cutter and it worked perfectly. Lastly, somehow I lucked up and my batch yielded 8 instead of 6 biscuits. I will definitely be using this recipe on a regular bases. I can’t wait to see if you have a dinner roll recipe as good as this.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Renee! I do have a great dinner roll as well, but they are a tad bit more work than the biscuits. 🙂
Sam A
Loved this recipe! Super easy. I made sure to use baking powder without aluminum or alumina? It gets rid of the tinny taste. And push down without twisting when cutting the biscuits to not seal the flaky layers. Worked amazingly!