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.
ben
best biscuts ever!
Steven R Cristofono
I found your idea to grate the butter cold, was a home run for me! I just made these biscuits,finished with brushed butter, and I have to say I’m inpressed. fluffy,tasty strong. I’ve always seem to overwork the dough, but this butter grateing technique with frozen butter, wow game changer.. thank you. side note I did use salted butter ( American style) one stick. and lactate free milk..
Barbara Medina
Tried this recipe today. Doubled it. Substituted organic agave syrup since I couldn’t find any sugar in my daughter’s cabinets. Patted into a rectangle with rounded corners. Cut into slightly misshapen rectangles with a butcher knife. Turned out delectable!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they turned out so nicely for you, Barbara! Enjoy 😊
Zury M.
Best biscuit recipe ever! Everybody loves it!
Sherri Brawn
Absolutely loved this recipe! Biscuits were so soft, and buttery, plus I cooked them on convection bake in my little 7 in 1 air fryer. I highly recommend this recipe!
Amy
added 1/2 TBS Baking powder to make it more fluffy and tangy. made this many times now, my family loves it. goes really well with country sausage gravy
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you like them, Amy 😊
Janice Burrows
I used buttermilk and they turned out awesome! The best recipe ever!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Janice! Thanks for the review 💜
Dave Fullone
Omg these came out INCREDIBLE!! I will never buy ones at the store ever again. So easy with the tips and it was my first time baking my own!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they were such a hit for you, Dave! Thanks for trying our recipe 🥰
Lauren
Yummy! My 9 year old son helped me make these for breakfast! They are super simple to throw together. We are used to a less salty diet, and I think next time I will reduce salt to 3/4 tsp. Otherwise, these are perfect!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you liked them, Lauren 🥰
Melinda
Everything you post is always fantastic and this is no exception. I do add a pinch of baking soda and tend to cut mine into squares. Definitely need to have all cut edges as an uncut edge doesn’t rise the same. Great as always!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you’ve been enjoying everything, Melinda 😊
Melody Lamb
these biscuits are amazing and they make the best dumplings also
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you like them, Melody 🥰
Jaq
I’ve made this recipe twice now. The first time I even doubled it. Both times turned out phenomenal! Thank you for an easy and wonderful recipe.
Rebecca
I just made these and they were absolutely amazing! Thank you! A quick question about the calories was it 280 for each one or 280 for the entire batch of 6?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Rebecca! The nutrition info is for one serving, so one biscuit 😊
Kat
My favorite biscuit recipe. Kids request it every Sunday. Would it be possible to freeze these either before baking or after and still have good result?
Sam
Hi Kat! They can certainly be frozen before or after baking. Personally I like to freeze before baking and bake from frozen. They will need an extra minute or two in the oven. 🙂
Michael
I have been using this biscuit recipe a lot. They turn out amazing! These are the closest to my grandmother’s homemade biscuits that she used to make. She didn’t leave us a recipe, but these are so close I get the taste of nostalgia with them. Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed them so much, Michael! I’m glad to help bring back some of those wonderful memories. 🙂
Kimmy
thank you for this recipe. soooooo good and easy. I will be making these alot.
Darla
Thank you for sharing. These are simple and delicious.
Amanda
This recipe is now my tried and true! Matter of fact I make it so much I have it memorized and my 8year old daughter was making (the dough)them on her own earlier this morning. Thank you so much for providing a great recipe and as an added bonus life bonding moment with my mini!
Rossy boy
Never made biscuits or laminated anything. Did this as a surprise for my wife while she was getting her nails done away from our newborn baby for the first time with him in my arm the whole time. Simple and delicious. Wife was impressed with the flakeyness and she bakes a lot. Definitely a saver. Thanks sugarspunrun for this recipe
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy she enjoyed them! Thanks for using our recipe ❤️