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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
Danielle P.
Wow. Made these and they are darn good! First time making biscuits from scratch and they are amazing, flakey, buttery, soft and delicious. So glad I tried this recipe. 5 stars!!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Danielle. 🙂
Cathy
This is the first time I have tried making biscuits, other than the one time 25 years ago in cooking class in school (and those turned out flat, I remember!) So I had always assumed it was something very difficult to do to make proper biscuits, and hadn’t attempted again since. Until this morning when I came across your recipe and super easy to follow instructions! My biscuits turned out near perfect, flaky, fluffy, and a hundred times better than store bought canned biscuits. The only thing I need to work on is making the dough more level so the finished product isn’t lopsided – but really who cares? They were slathered in homemade bacon gravy anyway 🙂 Thank you so much for this recipe and easy to follow, very clear directions!
Sam
Thank you so much, Cathy! I am glad you enjoyed them. The homemade bacon gravy sounds like an incredible topping! 🙂
Kristie Morales
Can u make these ahead and refrigerate
Sam
Hi, Kristie. If you do make the dough ahead of time, you would need to cut out the shapes then wrap them tightly so they don’t dry out in the refrigerator. 🙂
Star
Thanks so much for this recipe and the tips! I’ve been craving biscuits but am gluten free. The ones i’ve tried in the past haven’t come out well. I used your recipe but with Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour and they came out great! Husband, daughter and friend approved as well. This is my go-to biscuit recipe from now on! And freezing and grating the butter is brilliant!
Sam
Thank you so much for letting me know how your substitution worked out. I am so glad everyone enjoyed them. 🙂
Lea
fun, easy , clear and well spoken Thanks
Sam
Thank you so much, Lea! I am glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Cat
Never made biscuits from scratch before and they came out perfect. I couldn’t go back to premade if i wanted to 🙂
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Cat! 🙂
Nick
Excellent
Sam
Thank you, Nick! 🙂
Liesl
These were the best biscuits I have made and rose higher than any others! We loved them.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Carrie
These were the best biscuits I’ve ever made! Flaky on the outside, soft on the inside! Thank you for sharing your recipe and tips!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Carrie! 🙂
Mona
Absolutely love these!! Usually use recipe with self-rising flour but was out this am. Googled recipes using all-purpose, came to yours it sounded good so I thought I would give it a try. Followed your directions and put butter in freezer and used box grater. These are the best biscuits I’ve ever made and my husband agreed! Thanks!!!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed them and they were such a hit, Mona!! Thank you for commenting, have a wonderful weekend!
Renata Sjoblom
Love this recipe! I made these with sausage gravy and eggs for Christmas breakfast! Goodness to be sure! I used Irish butter! A must! So yummy, all Christmas breakfast was gone! Thank
You!
God Bless
Sam
I love using Irish butter! I am so glad everyone enjoyed them. 🙂
Chantal
These biscuits are now my ultimate favourite. I did add some crumbled pre-cooked bacon bits and onions in the mixture and 😮 boy were they delicious this morning with slices of cold butter layered on top when it came out of oven. No calorie counting today lol
Sam
Those additions sound amazing! Going to have to try that myself! So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe, thank you for commenting, Chantal!! 🙂
Lean
This biscuit recipe resulted in a tasty biscuit. Substituted buttermilk for the milk. They didn’t rise like the ones in your illustration, but they were tasty. Is there something else I can do to allow them to rise more?
Sam
Hi, Lean. If they didn’t rise enough, the dough may have been slightly over-worked. 🙂
Kathy
I just tried your biscuit recipe. Yum! Crispy exterior, fluffy interior! Pull apart and spread with more butter…a keeper!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Kathy! 🙂
Brooke Pratt
Best biscuits I’ve ever made! The super cold butter grated in was something I’d never tried with biscuits, I will never go back to the old way! I’m saving this recipe! So simple, super fluffy and oh so tasty!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Brooke! 🙂