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.
C
Why are biscuits cut round and not made square with a knife? Less working the dough and no scraps…
Sam
Generally in America they’re shaped round, but you can cut them in any shape you would like. Enjoy! 🙂
Sherri Green
I was wondering if you can freeze these and still come out great? I’m always busy and don’t have the time to make them fresh everyday.
Sam
I haven’t, but I don’t think that would be a problem. I’d just wrap the individual biscuits in plastic wrap and then store them in an airtight container or Ziploc bag. They should be fine cooked from frozen (no need to thaw) but will probably need an extra few minutes in the oven.
Tamara Starnes
Can I use whole milk and salted butter? If so do I leave out the salt the recipe calls for???
Sam
You can use salted butter and just cut the salt in the recipe down to 1/2 teaspoon. As for whole milk yes, that is what the recipe calls for so that will be fine 🙂
Melanie
Thank you so much for the step-by-step instructions. I’m pretty helpless in the kitchen, but they turned out perfectly. I used my great-aunt’s recipe for chocolate gravy, so I got to share a taste of my childhood with my kids!
Sam
I’m so glad they were a success for you, Melanie! Thank you for commenting (and omg now I have to try chocolate gravy!).
Carlos
These were so quick to make, I love it! Simple ingredients. I used 2% milk because it is what I had available. I didn’t use a grater which I’m sure would have preserved the small chunks of butter. My biscuits did rise and although they didn’t brown very much on top I though they were delicious.
The simplicity of the recipe is an A+ Because I’ll be making these at the firehouse. We need simple, but delicious. This meets the criteria. 😉 Thank You!
Sam
I’m so glad to hear this, Carlos!! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how these biscuits turned out for you 🙂
Melissa Echols
I made this biscuits tonight. They were sort of hard on the bottom and they did’nt rise like yours did. Maybe I didn’t fold properly. I didn’t have whole milk, I had 2% lactose free. My dough didn’t seem to have enough milk. Next time I will follow more closely and have the correct milk and see if that makes them better.
Sam
I hope you’ll let me know how it works for you next time, Melissa!
Kelly
I made these! Super tasty!!! They came out great! I have never laminated before and have been wanting to so that was a great introduction.
Everyone at work gobbled them up! Will make again forever. Simple recipes are the best!
Sam
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe, Kelly! I 100% agree with you, simple recipes really are the best! 🙂
Bree
These are wonderful! Thank you!
Sam
So glad you enjoyed, Bree! 🙂
Rashell
Just realized I have been living life all wrong. Why oh whyyy have I never thought to grate butter!? You’re a doll for sharing this recipe. I can’t wait to try it out in my cast iron pan. Thank you! Happy Baking! 🙂
Sam
It really is a game-changer, isn’t it!? Thank you so much for commenting, Rashell!
Debi Gavin
I’ve never thought of doing this either! Definitely looking forward to making these in the next day or so!
Augustine
My first try was great,it made more biscuits than six .delicious!!
Sam
So glad to hear you enjoyed, Augustine!!
Mallory
I made this recipe and loved it! I’ve since bought the ingredients for the no bake cheesecake and the chocolate chip cookie bars. I LOVE this site and I’m thrilled to have come across it. I always feel like recipes I get online never taste as good as I expect. Also, I hate over complicated recipes. Your site is perfection! My boyfriend and I loved these biscuits! So easy to make! I will never buy the biscuits in the tube again.
Stephanie
I just made these. Outstanding! I actually used what I had on hand, fat free milk and salted butter. I think the key is the butter and I too learned something new with the shredded butter. Why didn’t I think of that? 🙂
Easy recipe and yummy. Thank you!
Jess
Great recipe! Super simple & fun to make with my little.
Perfect with breakfast or anytime.
Thanks!
Clarise
Good Morning,
First of all let me see that I like the fact that you went into such detail I made these biscuits this morning after reading your recipe last night I put my butter in the freezer overnight when I woke up this morning I realize I didn’t have any all-purpose flour so I use self-rising flour and omitted the baking powder and salt The biscuits were delicious this is going to become my go-to biscuit thanks for sharing
Melanie Johnson
These were the best biscuits I ever made- 5 stars! However, I didn’t find the butter grating technique particularly easy. I used frozen butter (which I always keep on hand, and which I was intrigued by in this recipe), and I think semi-frozen butter would have been even messier (but maybe I’m wrong about that). And, by the time the butter is all grated, it’s pretty soft–so I wonder if you’re supposed to grate it, then freeze it before mixing into the dry ingredients? OTOH it was certainly easier than cutting in chunks with a pastry cutter, and the biscuits turned out great! Thanks for posting this great recipe!