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.
Aliera
Tried your recipe tonight and biscuits were beautifully fluffy but very bitter. I think I must not have blended my dry ingredients enough and ended up with pockets of baking powder in the mix. Any tips for how long and what you’re using to mix it in? I used a whisk briskly for about 30 seconds (and clearly botched it). Want to give this another go this weekend because they were the most beautiful biscuits I have ever baked, and I’d like to do them justice.
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this, Aliera! This is likely the result of the baking powder you have. I would try a different brand or a new thing. I have had an issue with a generic baking powder before. 🙁
Sarah
Hello! I was wondering if the tablespoon of sugar in the dough added any sweetness, or just balanced out the flavor. I want my biscuits to be as savory as possible.
Sam
Hi Sarah! It adds a very very subtle sweetness and some tenderness to the biscuits. You can leave it out if you prefer!
Will
Made the best biscuits I ever made. I used grated solid coconut oil from the fridge instead of butter. Chef’s Kiss!!!
Sue McNeilly
I made these biscuits to add with my dinner at last minute. So pleased how good they tasted!!
Deana
I followed the recipe. I even got the dough to resemble the consistency you said it should be. They weren’t bad. However, they came out small and it seemed as if they didn’t rise. My family likes monster biscuits. What did I do wrong?
Sam
Hi Deana! I’m sorry to hear this happened. If they didn’t rise, I would probably replace your baking powder and see if that helps with the rise. You can cut them to whatever size you’d like, it may just alter the bake time. 🙂
Karen
A little bitter for my taste, maybe I added too much baking powder. However, these rose beautifully, and are hands down 100x better than store bought. Thank you!!
Rena
I’ve made these biscuits quite a few times & they come out good every time. This is my go to recipe for biscuits. Thanks for sharing.
Dandi Thurman
These are the best homemade biscuits!! This is the only recipe we ever use, and they are simply DELICIOUS!! Our biscuits weren’t getting done all the way in the middle, so we cook them on one side about 7 minutes, flip, and cook for 3-4 more. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe! A must-try!
Local Yokel
I’ll never get biscuits from a franchise chicken place or even in a tube again after making these! I shaved the butter with a vegetable peeler and used 2 forks to cut it in. I got 8 or 9 biscuits out of the recipe. I cut them out with a 2 3/4 inch empty can!
Emily Scott
I love the recipe but with 2 littles I’m always looking for a shortcut! Could the dry ingredients be mixed in large quantities beforehand? I do that with homemade waffle/pancake mix; then only need 1 scoop per egg/milk/vanilla. Thanks!
Sam
Hi Emily! I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure how it would work. I think it would be easy enough to test it though. Let me know how it goes if you do try it. 🙂
Stephanie Adler
I a in the same boat! Have you found a good ratio?
Scooter
Have made these several times according to the recipe. Biscuits come out looking beautiful but are really crumbly. Fine for gravy but impossible for a sandwich platform. What gives?
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this, Scooter! Are you weighing your flour? It sounds like there may just be a bit too much flour in the dough. 🙁
Katie
This recipe is perfect. The tips were so helpful. THANK YOU!!
Sydney
I’ve made these before and they were delicious! I want to make them again, but only have margarine. Would that work?
Sam
Hi Sydney! I haven’t tried margarine. I think they could turn out, but won’t be quite the same. I don’t think they’ll be as tall and flaky. It may be hard to grate the margarine, even if frozen and the dough may be tough to work with. 🙁
Theresa
I make these at least 2x a month! They always turn out great
Barb
It didn’t seem to be enough milk for me. I had to add more to make it cohesive and by the time the dough was workable it had been handled too much. They were a failure but my husband ate a couple, I’m sure just to make me feel better. First time making biscuits so I’m going to try til I get it right.
Francine
follow the recipe but when you mix in the milk use a butter knife. The dough should be roughly mixed and not at all one cohesive mix. It should be chunky looking and barely hold together. Do not touch it until necessary to fold over on itself and then flatten lightly with your fingertips. Sprinkle only very lightly with flour before cutting and flour your cutter edge, as well. Good luck!!
TMC
Ok I had previously made the Drop biscuits and had great success so today I tried these cut out and they are equally awesome! Yes a little more work but oh my gosh, they are incredible! Mine had so many layers and so pretty and so delicious. Another home run recipe! And another great video which really helped! Thanks!
Becky
Love this recipe! Need to make a large quantity. Would it work to make the night before and cook them in the morning?
Sam
Hi Becky! That will work perfectly fine. I would recommend cutting out the biscuits and storing in an air tight container in the refrigerator overnight. 🙂
Lydia Crowe
They turned out great!!
Adrianna
Perfect!
Stacey
Excellent biscuits – they make me regret every time I bought canned ones