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.
Richard Culbreth
Came out perfect
Will definitely use this recipe again
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Richard! 😊
Allison
These were very good! my husband actually said they were possibly too buttery! I laughed about that. Guess I’ll just leave out the brushing with butter from now on.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy they were a hit, Allison ☺️
Elly
This is my first time making homemade biscuits and they turned out amazing! The video was very helpful and they were quicker to make than expected. I used a pastry cutter and worked just fine. Also, I didn’t have a biscuit cutter so I just cut them into squares and they still turned out delicious, maybe just not as pretty 🙂 Will definitely make again!
Phylicia
I’m trying this recipe for the first time this morning. Can I add a tablespoon of honey to give it more of a taste?
Sam
Hi Phylicia! I’m not sure how mixing honey into the dough will work. Since it’s more liquid it could cause some issues. You could certainly drizzle it over the top after baking. 🙂
Walter
Ensure that your baking powder is not out of date for we take for granted that it is good. This makes the difference between a great biscuit and a bad one.
Merry
So thankful we found this recipe! These are the BEST biscuits! I’ve read that you can cut and freeze the biscuits before baking. How long would they last frozen? Thanks!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! The dough will be good in the freezer for several months. 🙂
Sandra
This is my go-to biscuit recipe. The only thing I do differently ingredient wise is using bread flour instead of all purpose. I also use the buttermilk. I had an issue with my butter not staying cold enough to get a good rise so I make the dough, cut the biscuits, put them on the pan and place them in the freezer before I start the oven. Once the oven hits 425, I take them out of the freezer and bake them for 18 minutes. They turn out perfect every time!
Natalie
Has anyone tried this recipe and froze the cut unbaked biscuits?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! They will just need a minute or two longer when baked from frozen. Enjoy 😊
Jim
Works great! I made them the night before for eggs benedict and they were amazing. Real buttermilk – not sure about milk/lemon juice
Amy Dupree
I make these biscuits all the time in my air fryer. So delicious!!!
Question…Can you use this biscuit dough for homemade dumplings (Chicken and Dumplings)? I no longer will buy canned biscuits when you can make them this easy and they taste way better.
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
Desperado Rodney
All I can say is WOW!
I have made Biscuits withe many recipes over the years. Some were too easy and made a dry flat biscuit, others were complicated but made good biscuits and other just did not work.
Then I found this recipe!
Very easy to make and made a superior Biscuit over all others with few ingredients.
To my surprise they were fluffy and delicious.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy our recipe was such a success for you, Rodney! 🥰
Ashley
Hello! I see you can make the biscuits ahead and store but can you make the dough a day ahead and wait to cook it?
Thank you!
Sam
Sure thing! I typically cut the biscuits out store them in an air tight container in the refrigerator. 🙂
Donna Ryder
I appreciated your tips about cold milk and butter, and not using a rolling pin. The biscuits were delicious and very light and flaky. Best recipe I have found! Thanks very much!
Paula Codwise
I am on Keto and have been searching for a Keto biscuit recipe that actually tastes good and have not been successful. Then I decided to use a regular biscuit recipe and substitute. I loved all of your recipes before I went on Keto so I decided to try your biscuit recipe and substitute for Keto and OMG they turned out AMAZING! If anyone else wants to use your recipe, but either needs it to be Gluten-Free or is also on Keto then they only need to make a few exchanges on this recipe to make them. I cut the recipe in half because I was trying to make a 1 person serving (plus I didn’t want to waste ingredients in case they didn’t turn out, lol!). I switched the All-Purpose Flour for Finely Ground Almond Flour. It was a little more than a 1:1 ratio. I ended up with about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups of flour because I had to add more when I was forming the biscuits. I started with 1 cup in the recipe so I would suggest going with 1 1/4 cups in the recipe and then more as needed when “rolling” out. I added 1/2 Tbsp of Xanthan Gum to help it bind. I used Fairlife Whole Milk to help with the sugar/carb content versus regular Whole Milk. For the sugar, I used Besti brand granulated “Sugar Substitute”. It uses Allulose instead of Stevia and tastes just like regular sugar and works the same way and with the same ratio in recipes. I did use Salted Butter instead of Unsalted since I usually only buy salted so that is what was in the house. I still added the salt listed in the recipe as well. For the milk I used Fairlife Whole Milk because it has less sugar and carbs. I know this is a long comment, but I just wanted to share how people could still use your amazing recipe even if they are Gluten-Free or on Keto. Thank you for all of your awesome recipes. I haven’t figured out the nutrition facts yet with the substitutes, but am happy to share with you once I do (if you are interested).
Sam
Thank you so much for your feedback, Paula! It’s very helpful information to have! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Delphi
Can you adjust this recipe to high elevation? I want to make these really bad but I live in Colorado and I’m worried they won’t be the same 😕
Sam
Hi Delphi! I don’t have much experience with high altitude baking so unfortunately I cannot say for sure if/what changes would need to be made. Some have reported success with no alterations, some have reported success with minor adjustments like a little more milk, but I can’t say for sure what to do without having tried it. 🙁
Michele Haider
Hi Delphi,
I am Colorado born and raised. I only use High Altitude Hungarian Flour Unbleached for cooking and baking. (as did my mother) I haven’t had to make adjustments for the altitude. I made these biscuits without any adjustments and they turned out great. I hope this information helps you. 🙂
Sincerely,
Michele
Joshua johnson
Taste awesome but I have a question. Everytime I make these my biscuits kind of fall over as they rise. What am I doing wrong?
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoy them so much, Joshua! Is it possible your cuts aren’t completely straight down and are somewhat angled? I like to set my cutter on top of the dough loosely and then push straight down firmly. I hope this helps. 🙂
Carrie
Almond milk? I’ve searched the comments and see no milk subs. My son is anaphylactic to dairy. These biscuits look and sound amazing.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Carrie! Others have used almond milk successfully. We hope your son loves the biscuits 😊
Laura
Can you make this with margarine instead of butter
Sam
Hi Laura! Unfortunately I do not think it will work as well. 🙁