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
- Biscuit cutter
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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
Luke
Woukd it be alright to use 1% milk? That’s all I currently have on hand.
Sam
Hi Luke! You can but they may not be as tender. Enjoy! 🙂
Katy
This recipe caught my eye because it was simple and easy it was to make! I had all the ingredients at home and the biscuits were in the oven in no time at all. The biscuits looked stunning and tasted even better than they looked! Thank you so much for this recipe…I cant wait to make my third batch of biscuits. These have become a family favorite!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Katy! 🙂
Bryant
Hi Sam,
Thanks for the great recipe,I’m a guy that likes to cook for me and my girl.
I’ve always struggled with making biscuits but now it’s so simple to do.
They came out flakey and soft.
Thanks again
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Bryant! 🙂
Alyssa
These turned out amazing! Followed the recipe exactly, and they were so fluffy and soft – great with sausage gravy or just a little butter. Thanks for sharing!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Alyssa! 🙂
Lisa
This were so easy to make and turned out delicious. They were so good I had made them for dinner and in the morning I doubled the receipe and made biscuits and gravy. Thanks for a wonderful reciepe.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them Lisa! 🙂
Christy
So my husband is known for making great biscuits. I woke up determined to make them better! Found this recipe and My family loved them!! Even my husband!! 😮😊 I will continue making these for our family for years! Thanks for passing it along!!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Christy! 🙂
Dave
Wow, these are nice and flaky. And thanks for the trick of grating the cold butter — this saved so much time and effort compared to cutting it in with two forks.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits Dave! 🙂
Kathleen Fallon
Best biscuits ever, light and flaky. But how can I store the leftovers. Shocking I know but I can’t eat six biscuits in one sitting.
Sam
Hi Kathleen! You can store them in an air tight container at room temperature for several days. 🙂 A nice way to warm them back up is to pop them in the microwave for a few seconds. 🙂
Be
Dreadful, used exact measurements and it had too much dry ingredients and would hardly stick together, had to add more milk partway thru just to get it to work partly. Now way too dense and couldnt fold it
Sam
Hmmm I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the biscuits. It sounds like there was probably too much of the dry ingredients added. Did you happen to use weight measurements when making the biscuits?
Mary
Hi. I would like to modify this recipe to incorporate a cup of whole wheat flour (half of the required flour). Have you tried this?
Sam
Hi Mary! I have not tried this substitution. It may make the biscuits a little dry. I would recommend starting with less than 50% and see how they turn out. 🙂
Lynda
Hi, my biscuits came out somewhat thin and crunchy on the tops and bottoms even though they were only lightly golden brown. Any suggestions? Thank you
Sam
Hi Lynda! Is your oven temperature accurate. It sounds like the heat may have been a little high, and that crisped the outside a little bit. I hope this helps. 🙂
Tara
Getting ready to make these again …as they have been requested. I was wondering if I could make the dough the night before and refrigerate overnight.
Sam
Hi Tara! That would work fine. The best way to do it is to make the dough cut out the biscuits then cover them tightly in the refrigerator so they don’t dry out. 🙂
Malea Wilson
I have been looking for a good biscuit recipe and these did not disappoint! They are flaky and fluffy. I used buttermilk instead of whole milk since I bought some before deciding on a recipe. I am going to add honey to one for my dessert. 😀
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Malea! 🙂
Gayle
Can you make biscuts up early and let them sit covered until ready to bake at dinner time?
Sam
Hi Gayle! That will work fine. I would cut them out and place them in an air tight container in the refrigerator so they don’t dry out. They may need an extra minute or two if they are really cold when going into the oven. 🙂
Anne
I just made these! They’re better than my Moms and she made biscuits everyday! Light and flaky..the very cold butter is key and less handling. Folding the dough over made the flaky layers! …most biscuits are heavy and dense, these are the best!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them Anne! 🙂
Vickie
This is a great biscuit recipe. I’ve made once and about to use again. Have always had hard time making biscuits, but not anymore. Thank you so much!