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.
Shelly Mac
This is a great recipe. I followed exactly as written the first time. Nailed it and people said they were good. Second time I used my Kitchenaid lightly and added Mozza cheese. Third time cheddar. Turned out even better.
I usually cut up the butter first then freeze it until it’s ready to go. I’ve made these a dozen times now, I have this down to a science to 10 minutes of work. So simple and tasty. The best easiest recipe to follow. Thanks for posting, your tips work great. Store or cafe bought doesn’t even compare.
Jo the Rhino
Reading a novel where the main character kept making biscuits and got the urge to try my hand at it. This recipe was perfect when followed exactly as written and the biscuits were divine. Some were eaten plain, some with jam, some were made into an egg and bacon sandwich, but all were gobbled up immediately and raved about by the family. I so appreciate the care taken to provide so many detailed notes. When a baker bothers to do it, I make sure to read and follow! Thank you so much!
Jessica
First time making homemade biscuits for biscuits and gravy and all I can say is WOW! such a simple recipe and they taste fantastic. I actually forgot the sugar, but they didn’t even need it. I will never buy biscuits from the store again!
Karen
I made these tonight and they turned out so yummy! I highly recommend this recipe! The biscuits were light and flaky. I used regular butter because that is what I had here. We all loved them.
Shannon C
I want to make these in a double batch and freeze them. Would you recommend baking the biscuits and then freezing? Or freezing the unbaked dough? Thank you!
Sam
Hi Shannon! Personally, I would freeze the unbaked dough. They can be baked from frozen and would likely just need another minute or two. 🙂
Christine Mitchell
I have never made biscuits before. I am also not a very good cook and a ok baker. My new husband asked for biscuits and this recipe helped me deliver. Everything was easy and worked out great. I did grate my butter but I froze a bit more than the recipe since I figured I would lose some in the process and thank God I did.
Andi
Perfection! These were genuinely easy, quick, and delicious!
cs.parker
I have been making the dough for these great biscuits in a food processor. Add dry ingredients and give it a whirl. Then 1/2” cubes of cold butter. Finally the milk until suddenly it forms itself into a clump of dough. Also, I just might have seen Ina Garten cuts her biscuits into squares, making them a bit more rustic but just as delicious. Have made these often. Thank you for a well written recipe.
Reina
I loved these biscuits! I enjoyed making these with my 4 year old.
Vicki
I’ve tried multiple biscuit recipes with results, results varied from disastrous to probably edible with enough sausage gravy. This recipe nails it! Finally, the perfect biscuit!
Michael Boyd
Made this for my wife and I. Then have made them again and again. A definite win.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for the review, Michael! Sounds like you love the biscuits as much as we do 🥰
Emily
Just made this recipe for biscuits and they turned out AMAZING! It’s so simple, and very well explained to follow along! So grateful for this recipe; now it will forever be a staple in my home!
Sam
This is so wonderful to hear, Emily! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and for letting me know how it turned out for you, I hope you find more recipes on my website that you love just as much!! 🙂
Mary Kelley
I am a horrible baker, but nailed this recipe. Made them for dumplings in a chicken and dumplings recipe. Refrigerated the remainder overnight and made biscuits this morning with them. Fantastic! Everything is better with butter. Thank you,
Denia
can they be frozen
I want to make egg bacon biscuits sandwiches and freeze for my husband to take to work
Sam
Hi Denia! That will work just fine. 🙂
Darcy Crouse
my daughter and I loved these. I recently moved, and decided to start fresh in my kitchen. I don’t have a box grater or a pastry knife, so I chopped the butter then froze it. that seemed to work well. I also did not have milk, so replaced with 1 egg and water. the biscuits we a bit more yellow, but we awesome. Thanks!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad they still turned out for you, Darcy! Enjoy 😊
Debra McKay
I used oat milk and they turned out great! The frozen butter grated and then mixed with a fork was the ticket. This was so easy, unfortunately I just may do this often.
Sam
I’m so happy to hear they worked out so nicely for you, Debra! Thank you for letting me know how they turned out!