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.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.
Kenneth Krueger
Hardware…the buscuit cutter for a couple of generations around here has been a dinty moore beef can with the bottom ring removed…be real careful doing it or find a side cutting can opener! Tuna fish cans work equally well for smaller biscuits. Merry X~mas!
Jennifer Caraway
The best biscuit recipe I’ve ever tried! Thank you for sharing ❤️
Mary
I love this recipe and make them all the time, instead of buying the cans. Have you ever premade the biscuits and then baked them the day before?
Sam
Hi Mary! You can make these the day in advance. I, personally, would cut out the biscuits and store them in an air tight container in the refrigerator overnight and bake the next day. There’s nothing better than a fresh biscuit. If you do bake them the day before they just need to be stored in an air tight container at room temperature overnight. A few seconds in the microwave will warm them back up nicely. 🙂
Sandra
Awesom
M K Ellis
“Please make these biscuits again!” my husband stated! I made them as a base for Beef Stew. The biscutis are scrumptoud. The only thing I will change next time is to 1/2 the salt.Due to high blood pressure, I usually eliminate salt but have found in baking certain things, salt is needed, However, I could really taster that full teaspoon. So glad I found this recipe.
Meg
Delicious easy to make biscuits that made our beef stew dinner taste even better! I was wondering though if it was possible to use less salt in the recipe and have it still turn out okay? I am sensitive to salt so the less salt for me the better. Thank you!
Sam
Hi Meg! You can reduce the salt, but the salt does a lot for the flavor.
Megan
Okay. Thank you Sam!
MB
I have made these several times now. They are so good. Thank you so much for the recipe. I do have one question. After you cut the butter with a box grater, do you just need to stir it in or do you still need to do some cutting in with a fork or your hands? Or is just mixing it together fine?
gridflash
Salmon, eggs, and biscuits. My grandmother taught my wife how to make this dish. However, the biscuit part has undergone a lot of experimentation over the years. This recipe has a lot of potential. We made our first batch with oat milk and Saco’s buttermilk powder. Next time I would add more buttermilk powder or sour cream. But all in all, this is a keeper.
Anne Candela
These turned out so great! I love how simple the recipe is and I appreciate the easy to follow tips to make these as good as restaurant made biscuits.
Jan Clevenger
Perfect biscuits!! The extra chilling of butter in the freezer and box grater made all the difference from the traditional way I grew up making biscuits!!
Gen
These biscuits are really good! I made a dbl batch, halved it and added jalapeño and sharp cheddar. They turned out great! I’ll definitely use this recipe again and again.
Fred
The recipe for the biscuits was excellent, and I found the method to be spot on. However, I feel that the suggested cooking time of 12 minutes was not long enough. I baked them for 15 minutes, and they still didn’t achieve a golden brown color. Additionally, I appreciate recipes that provide ingredient measurements by weight.
Vickie
I used evaporated milk since I had some to use and the biscuits turned out great.
Julia
Just made these using buttermilk and they came out great. I’ll definitely make them again!
Francine Lubeck
I made them using heavy whipping cream instead of whole milk and they were flaky and delicious!
Heather
Great recipe! I also cook at a higher temp for shorter period of time when in a hurry, and the moisture of the biscuit is just as good!
Lona
425 degrees was far too hot, overcooked the tops and bottoms while the middle was still doughy. FAR TOO MUCH BAKING SODA! That’s all you can taste. Please do not make these and please remove this recipe as to not fool anyone else.
Sam
Hi Lona! I would consider investing in an oven thermometer as your oven may be running hot. I would also recommend making these with baking powder as indicated in the recipe, and not using baking soda.
K
Turns out it’s a great recipe! My sleepy brain just misread an ingredient at 4 am😅
Jessica
Fantastic biscuit recipe! They are scrumptious!
Deborah
Great and easy recipe.
Thanks