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.
Tom
Can you freeze this dough for later use?
Sam
I have not tried it, but I think it will work just fine. You will want to cut out your biscuits, wrap them individually and then store in an air tight container. They will probably take a minute or two longer to bake after being frozen. 🙂
Wendy
Yes these came out mile high, with layers. Because of the sugar, dense like a brick. You are obviously not a baker, and not from the south. Stay in your lane.
Sam
Hi Wendy! This is my lane 🙂 Sorry you didn’t like them, but a Tablespoon of sugar certainly wouldn’t make them dense. Not really sure how they could’ve come out “mile high” but still be dense, but sounds like it might’ve been a matter of over-baking?
Mh flanagan
Super easy. I did have to add a little more milk and bake 15 minutes. Super delicious! Thank you for your post!
Sam
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed!! Thank you for commenting! 🙂
Jess
I’ve never been able to make yummy homemade biscuits. I hate using processed and pre-packaged foods so I’ve always been saddened by using the canned biscuits when I make my biscuits and gravy. I even make my own breakfast sausage from ground pork. I made these and thoroughly enjoyed them with my hubby this morning. I layered a sausage, mushroom, and green onion frittata cut into the same size circle. Then added some shredded Monterey Jack, and topped it with some fresh bacon. The hubby ate 3!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing the secrets/techniques for making these delicious biscuits!!! No more canned biscuits in this house!!
Sam
I can’t stand the canned biscuits either! They just taste so fake. My husband would LOVE the cheese and bacon topping, I probably wouldn’t get any. 😂 I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them.
Gabby
Would using skim milk instead of whole milk work? I’m looking forward to using this recipe!
Sam
Hi, Gabby. I believe others have done it with success. I would be worried about the lack of fat causing issues, but if you do try it, let me know how it turns out. 🙂
Marla
Can I make these biscuits with buttermilk instead of milk?
Sam
Hi, Maria. I think that will work. Enjoy! 🙂
Dianne
I have tried and tried to master biscuits for years. This recipe did the trick! I didn’t have whole milk, so I stirred a tablespoon of melted butter into skim milk. I also subbed monk fruit sweetener for the sugar. They were quick and easy to put together, and baked up exactly the way I wanted them to: fluffy, flaky and light. Hubby loved them too!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Dianne! 🙂
Charlotte Hayes
They are wonderful! Yum!! Now I’m ready to make chicken pot pie!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Charlotte! Thank you for commenting!
Sarah
This recipe was a hit with my family and friends! I have never made biscuits from scratch so I was a bit intimidated at first, but this recipe was quick, easy and delicious!!! I have a big family so I doubled the recipe. I had family calling me when they got home still talking about how delicious these biscuits were!! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Sam
Yay! I’m so happy to hear it was such a hit! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you, Sarah! 🙂
Amanda
These turned out great. I think they are now my favorite biscuit recipe. On a side note, I was kind of frustrated with the layout of your webpage. I kept having to scroll up and down a lot to get to the information I wanted to see. I think having a separate link with the recipe would have made it easier. In spite of that, I still added it to my favorites. 🙂
Sam
I’m glad you overall enjoyed, Amanda! 🙂
Trish
These are amazing! I am new to baking and felt like a real chef making these! We love them, thank you for the recipe!
I feel better about making chicken and biscuits for my boys with this much healthier version (compared to canned dough)! Now if there was a way to make butter healthy;-)
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoys them, Trish! They are definitely way better than canned biscuits. 🙂
Thomi-Michelle Oladitan
Made the flour mixture with the butter in food processor stired in milk with a spoon and brushed with butter before baking. They turned out great yummy and toddler approved
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Thomi! 🙂
Kate
I also made these in a food processor and they turned out fantastic! Since I have used this recipe already 10 times the normal way, I have also substituted garlic salt and added 1/2 C finely shredded cheddar or colby jack cheeses to mix it up a bit. Still wonderful and super easy!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy them, Kate! 🙂
Christine
Hi Sam! Do you think these would come out ok if I make the dough the night before and bake in the morning? Thank you for the simple recipe and tips!!
Sam
I’m not sure how it would work. You would probably have to go all the way through the process to include cutting them out and then store them in an air tight container. I am not sure if it will affect them or not though. They may not rise as much as they should if made ahead of time.
JP
I used food processor to make the dough. Also, added a tad of butter on top before baking and they cane out great with very little effort.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them! 🙂