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.
Wendy
Can I use gluten-free rice flour for this recipe?
Sam Merritt
Hi Wendy! I haven’t experimented with gluten free flour. I know others have reported success using 1:1 gluten free flour substitute with success. 🙂
Jesi
These are my go to biscuits. They are delicious and have never failed. I’m taking them to a Christmas party tonight and I know they’ll be a big hit. 😸 Thank you!
David W
This was my first time ever trying biscuits. My extended family has several hobby bakers and I have a baker heritage from dad & grandma. My niece is a chef/baker. My only baking efforts have been weekly pizza, one batch of cookies and 2 tries at cinnamon rolls. (Over the past 15 years)
All that to say, I love these biscuits!! They were easy to make and turned out great. Just one mistake. (From me) We use organic flour and you do not need as much for some reason. So they were a little dry at first. But got that fixed and they turned out great. Thank you!
mike
Did the biscuits last year and they were an instant classic! This year they are requested at my son’s house across town on Christmas morning. Can I freeze the biscuits the night before (today) after cutting into rounds? Then keep cool on the 10 minute drive over and then cook? Andsmane cooking instructions?
Sam Merritt
I’m so glad they were such a hit, Mike! If just saving overnight you don’t need to freeze the dough, you can just refrigerate it in an air tight container. If you want to save the dough for longer you can refrigerate the individual cutout biscuits. 🙂
Patricia Louise Brown
great as always thank you
Teresa Jacobs
These BISCUITS were not just easy to make and bake…they were Delicious!! Thank you.
I make them with lowfat milk, they were delicious. Will make them with buttermilk next time. I did not have any bread in the house and I wanted some biscuits. This recipe is wonderful.
Wendy Hamilton
Can I mix the dough the day before and put it in the refrigerator, then take out and bake as in the recipe? Will they remain flaky?
Sam Merritt
Sure thing! 🙂
Katie C
Do you recommend refrigerating the dough as a whole the night before or in cutouts?
Sam Merritt
I personally like to cut out the biscuits. 🙂
Kate Lamb
Sadly, these did not come together at all for me. I had to keep adding buttermilk until I had added a whole cup. All that extra mixing made crumbly rocks:( I guess they aren’t good for high altitude baking.
Sam Merritt
I’m so sorry to hear they didn’t turn out, Kate! Unfortunately I am not familiar with high altitude baking so I can’t say for sure if any alterations need to be made. 🙁
Krystal McKinney
I threw these together this morning using buttermilk. I grated the butter because I was worried about it mixing in well since I don’t have a pasty cutter. I cut them into 6 squares and my husband LOVED them. Now if I could just learn to make a delicious sausage gravy without screwing it up!
Sam Merritt
Thank you for trying my recipe, Krystal! I’m so glad you enjoyed these! I do have a sausage gravy you can check out. 🙂
Erika
I gave these along with some honey butter and jam to my secret Santa and it was a success! Thank you
Taylor Melton
I just made these for the first time, and I will never be using canned biscuits again. These are so simple to make, and they taste delicious!
Ker
hello! can I simply place the dough (after following all other steps) onto a sheet pan instead of making rounds? do you suppose it would cook as well? thank you!
Sam Merritt
Hi Ker! Do you mean without cutting it at all? Like just baking it as a slab? I’m honestly not sure how it would bake, could be a bit awkward and you *may* run into issues of the outsides/edges over-baking and the center not baking through well. However, I have not tried this personally.
Olivia Sjelin
if you don’t have a biscuit cutter, I used a jar lid!
Db
That’s smart. I just made little balls and flattened em out to an inch by two with my hands. I’m not a very good cook but wanted sausage gravy biscuits lol
Tiffany
I cut mine into 6 or 8 pieces, but leave them attached in one big piece. it takes about 20 – 25 minutes to bake. then we just pull then apart easily along the pre-cut “scored” lines.
Amy
I cut them with a knife and make square biscuits.
Rp
I normally cut the biscuit dough into 6 squares with no scraps
Tammy Loveland
I’ve been baking these for about 5 years. They always turn out great!
Michelle
These biscuits are delicious. The are so fluffy and soft. Everyone in my house loves them. Sometimes have to double or even triple the recipe so I do not have to make them every day. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Aidaris Yazmin Calderon
Just popped my second batch this week into the oven. So delish!
Shawn Yang
Can I freeze the dough to bake later? How long can I freeze it for? And what are the instructions for baking from frozen?
Thanks in advance
Sam Merritt
Hi Shawn! This dough can be frozen before baking. It will be good for several months. I would wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and then store in a freezer bag. They may just take an extra minute in the oven when baking from frozen. The temperature will remain the same. 🙂
Nathan
Easy recipe to follow especially with all the helpful tips. Turned out perfect, made for biscuits and gravy and my wife cleared the extras right after the meal stating how flaky they were. I was a star