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.
Leanna Dwyer
Has anyone used shortening in place of the butter?
Sam
Hi Leanna! It can be done, but it won’t have as much flavor. 🙂
Jacque
My first biscuits from scratch.
They were amazing. I can’t believe I made them. it was touch and go at first as there wasn’t enough moisture to make a dough. I kept adding a little buttermilk at a time, and tried not to over mix.
I didn’t have a biscuit cutter. So I used the open lid of a ball jar.
Aces! Will make them again.
Joi Patterson
How am I just now learning the tip of freezing and shredding the butter? Best biscuits I’ve ever baked and I am Southern!
Robert
Best recipes all around. Wish you had an app.
Alissa Dodge
I made with butter milk. I made a double batch. I put the butter milk in the freezer for 8 minutes. then I added melted butter to butter milk before adding to dry ingredients. I then made 89g balls and flattened them. I wore gloves so I didn’t have to use extra flour. amazing recipe.
Denise Everhart
This recipe made it into the household recipe box.
Wendy
Best baking powder biscuit recipe ever! I used full fat milk- worked well and I did brush the tops with some milk too – very nice buttery flavour and I did use European (French!) butter (and milk!) as I live in France – although I am dual nationality and grew up eating my mother’s recipe for years this is definitely the best! Thank you for posting this – wonderful with my homemade chicken and lentil soup for lunch as an instant and fast accompaniment!
Cass
I made these and they were perfect. I made some last night and my family already ate them all. The recipe is so simple and easy I made them again this morning. Would they be okay to freeze or should you make right away? Thank you!
Sam
Hi Cass! You can freeze these biscuits. You should be able to bake them from frozen just adding a minute or two to the bake time. 🙂
Debbie
Love this, so easy, and love the layers
Karly
Hands down the best biscuits I’ve ever made! They’ve been made for Christmas, Thanksgiving and just for a weekend breakfast. Do you have any suggestions on making them cinnamon raisin biscuits?
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Karly! I would just sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon in with the flour to mix it in thoroughly and just fold raisins. I don’t have any specific amounts as I haven’t tried it. I would just eye ball it and go by personal preference. 🙂
Tonya Miller
Can I make these, then freeze them, and bake them as needed? It’s just me and my husband, we don’t eat a lot of breads…
Sam
Sure thing! They may take an extra minute or two from frozen. 🙂
Joel Hailey
My first attempt at homemade biscuits, with the exception of the hockey pucks I made about thirty years ago. They were pretty amazing. Did a second round just now, and substituted half the butter for lard. A little less lift, but a more tender texture. For me, perfection.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you enjoyed them, Joel! Nothing beats homemade biscuits 😊
Olivia
Love this recipe. But a few mods. I feel that I need more milk to draw the mixture together, and I do use a rolling pin. Instead of a biscuit cutter I just cut out squares. Despite more milk and a rolling pin, we love the outcome every time.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you like it, Olivia! Make sure you are measuring your flour properly, as that could be the culprit for the extra milk. 🩷
Randy
Simple, few ingredients, light fluffy biscuits when not over working the dough.
Allie
I’ve made these multiple times with all-purpose flour and we LOVE them!! Ran out of all-purpose and was craving them… tried a half batch of these with bread flour and a half batch with a 1-1 gluten free flour mix. Both turned out great but dare I say the bread flour might have been even better than when we’ve made them previously with all-purpose?! So amazing! The gluten free were good, just needed a bit more time in the oven. 12/10 recipe!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Oh, interesting! Thanks for sharing, Allie! Enjoy 😊
Bridget Murphy
easy & really good biscuits. I use heavy cream as well…the best! also, brush with beaten egg mixed with a tsp of heavy cream. Browns really nice! makes tender & delicious biscuits.
Kimberly
These are absolutely delicious biscuits! My husband and friends will now expect these EVERY brunch! Easy and well worth the effort.
Candice Ramsey
Never made scratch biscuits before this recipe. They look ok for my first time. They taste amazing!!!! Thank you for the recipe and the video.
Kimberly L.
I made biscuits using this recipe for the first time. The only changes I made was using heavy cream in place of milk. I also used a lamination process from another recipe. These are the best biscuit recipe I have made to date! They melted in your mouth delicious! I will try with Buttermilk next time. I had heavy cream that needed a purpose is why I used it. Scones come out fabulous too with heavy cream. My husband will now expect these biscuits every time. He raved about the difference!