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.
Charissa
I make these biscuits all the time and they come out perfect every time! And I was a notorious biscuit ruiner and couldn’t bake biscuits to save my life before I found this recipe 😂 A few days ago, I tried making them “Cheddar Bay style”, like the ones from Red Lobster and YOU GUYS, they came out SO PERFECT! I felt like I was eating them in the restaurant! they came out so fluffy and moist and the flavor was spot on. I simply mixed 1/2 tsp of garlic powder in when I was mixing the dry ingredients, and then added 1 cup of extra sharp shredded cheddar cheese when I was adding the wet ingredients. Then while they were baking, I melted 2 tbsp of butter in the microwave along with another 1/2 tsp of garlic powder (you can add in herbs like parsley at this point, but I don’t care for herbs and did not add) then poured the butter topping over the biscuits as soon as they came out and served with salmon! AMAZING!
Autumn
Been on a journey to learn how to cook from scratch and save money on prepared food. Decided to give these a try to go with some sausage gravy. Absolutely delicious. Super easy. I make these for my toddlers in the morning with butter and jam on top and they love them. Now that I’ve made them a few times they come out so pretty (the trick is to make sure you don’t twist whatever you’re using to cut the biscuits). Will absolutely be making these anytime I want biscuits.
Olimpia
I have to use a food processor whenever I mix the butter since I don’t have a gadget to mix it by hand and using a rolling pin seems easier for me. The dough was easy to work with, with a little extra flour now and then. I had to bake mine a few minutes more. They were very good.
Charissa
I’ve made these many times and they always come out fantastic! I will leave a more detailed review later, but I have an interesting question. How could I make these into “Cheddar Bay Biscuits”, like from Red Lobster? Many of the recipes I’ve seen call for garlic powder and shredded cheddar cheese, and some call for buttermilk. but I was hoping to make this same recipe, as it’s the only recipe I’ve ever had success with making biscuits, but make it Cheddar Bay style. Thank you!
Sam Merritt
Hi Charissa! You can certainly fold in some cheese and spices if you’d like. 🙂
Charissa
Thank you so much for getting back to me! I will update after I make them tomorrow!
Mesa Guzman
I have a large family (12) and would like to make at least 24 biscuits. How would I change the ingredient amount to do that? Thank you.
Sam Merritt
Hi Mesa! You would just need to quadruple all of the ingredients. 🙂
Faith
They were amazing!
Paula McCracken
These are simple and quite delicious. Wonderful recipe!!!!
Elizabeth Smith
i wanted to try to make biscuits a couple months ago and this recipe looked easy enough. and i did it! and then 10 more times after. this recipe is super easy to follow and your biscuits taste and look incredible.
Irma G
Omg I just made these and they are delish !! Thank you so much!! Very simple recipe!! I wanted to post a picture!!
Dustin
Is it possible to make the dough and Reese some for future use?
Sam Merritt
Hi Dustin! You can certainly freeze the dough to bake later. 🙂
Linda
Probably my first successful scratch biscuits ever. I grate the butter and then freeze and it works for me.
Allison Goldsborough
I added some feta and parsley. My husband said they were amazing. I used heavy cream in the second batch because I didn’t have enough milk. That batch was great too.
Lisa
These are the best!!
Gayle O'Quinn
They came out great!
lily
yum!!! i didn’t have whole milk or 2% milk so i combined 0.5% with a little bit of heavy cream and these are heavennn. thank you!!!
Avery
Very solid biscuits, and so easy to make! I stuck them in the broiler for a couple of minutes after baking to make sure they were golden brown and they turned out great
Taylor
I used a food processor to do the work and cut the butter into half tbsp sizes before I dropped them in. I also omitted the sugar. I made them nice and thick so that the biscuits came out very tall, but I only got 4 out of the batch:( I did bake them for a few extra minutes to compensate. VERY yummy and visually pleasing.
Jenae Quine
I use this recipe all the time. So quick and easy.
Ava
First time I tried a homemade recipe where the biscuits actually rose and were super fluffy! The grater tip worked well, the butter must be frozen and no twisting your cutter. This is my new go to recipe for biscuits. Thank you!
Deborah Ligocki
I’ve been making biscuit for years if you want your biscuits to raise higher put a teaspoon of cream of tarter I have always used Betty crocker cook book but keep in mine that I got that cook book when I was 19 and I’m now 74 all Betty crocker books are different now.my book is almost falling apart but my go to book for all baking