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.
Erica Maver
Can you freeze these prior to baking? Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes you can! Enjoy 😊
Dana
Oh my goodness. Absolutely delicious. For those who can’t do whole milk, I used almond milk and the biscuits still came out delicious.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed them, Dana! 🥰
Leah
I never trust 5-star recipes BUT I trust this site, so this Southern Girl of a certain age – two grandmothers and a Mom in Heaven all disappointed because the biscuit making ability skipped me. I can make a mean doorstopper, though. About once a year I give it the ol’ “try, try again” and lo – after 53 years and my own lazy and personal preference spin… I MADE DECENT BISCUITS!!! Pretty? Absolutely not. But so, so good!! ••• My lazy ‘spin’ is dumping the dry ingredients + the refrigerated butter, cut into tablespoons or smaller, into my food processor and whirl til mealy. Add the milk, another few whirls. Then 1/3c ice-cream-scoop blobs onto the pan and give ’em a slight smoosh to flatten & spread so they’ll cook through. I’ll be gaining about 170 pounds now, thank you very much 🙂
Sam
🤣 “A mean doorstopper” 🤣 I’m glad you enjoy Leah! 🙂
Karen
about the best biscuit I’ve ever had in my 70+ years. I used half cup sour cream and quarter cup milk for liquid. Sour cream makes everything better💚
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you enjoyed them, Karen 😊
Lauri Salow
this is by far the best biscuit recipe I have come across! and very delicious!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you like it, Lauri! Thanks for trying our recipe 😊
Michelle
They were so delicious!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed, Michelle! ❤️
Rob Ridley
Great results for this biscuit rookie. When flattening, I think we differ on what an inch looks like. They kept rising so high they’d lean and fall over. Latest batch started much thinner and turned out very nice. Going to try freezing dough next. Thanks
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you like them, Rob! For the falling over issue, is it possible your cuts aren’t completely straight down and are somewhat angled? That is usually the culprit. We like to set the cutter on top of the dough loosely and then push straight down firmly. Hope this helps! 😊
Mae
Thank you so much for the video! it was super helpful! I’ve always failed at making biscuits. I realized by watching your video I was rolling them too flat. I figured a marble rolling pin would be cooler than my hands, but I realize now it was making them too flat. they came out great this time! Thanks again!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy it was helpful, Mae! 🩷
Franchesca
Instead of a baking sheet, can you use a round cake pan?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We don’t see why not! Enjoy 😊
Stephanie Alley
PERFECTION!! So easy & delicious. This recipe will be my go-to from now on, & am looking at how to make a sourdough starter to try those biscuits when it is ready. THANKS!!
Mandy
Have you ever froze the dough and storing them in freezer?! If so, how was that. My kiddos love homemade biscuits but some mornings it would just be easier to pull out of freezer and bake for fresh biscuits like the pillsbury frozen ones
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! You can bake them straight from frozen; they might need a minute or two longer. Enjoy! 😊
Harriet
This was my first time making homemade biscuits and they were so easy and so good. I used salted butter because it’s what I had and also a cup instead of a biscuit cutter since I didn’t have one. It was so easy I kept thinking I was screwing it up but nope, turned out great! Thanks for the recipe.
Helen Morrison
easy to follow and a great taste, what more do you need. These are good!
Keller
Perfect! My go to. Shredding the butter is key!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
It’s a game changer! So glad this recipe is a hit for you, Keller 😊
Tabitha
So delicious