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 recipeย a few weeks ago,ย “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.ย 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.ย And then more butter once they’re finished baking because of course we need more butter.
I mentioned that these biscuits are easy soย do not be alarmedย by all the tips that I have for you below. These biscuitsย 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 ofย 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:ย 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.ย 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 andย 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 encourageย 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
- ยพ cup whole milkยน (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 ยพ" round biscuit cutter with flour.ย
- 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 ยฝ" apart on baking sheet.ย
- 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.
Serena Fleener
This morning I starts for biscuit recipes and I ran across yours anytime I try to make them in the past I’ve never been able to get them to rise I just got done with yours and they turned out absolutely wonderful I didn’t have milk so I made it a variation there I use water and one one tablespoon of butter and because of my past experiences I doubled the baking powder and the sugar they were so fluffy and good almost can’t believe how well they turned out I’m trying to make them several times thank you so much
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Serena! ๐
Barbara Ray
Iโm trying these now. They smell good & are a great consistency…. OMG,THEYRE DELICIOUS!!!๐๐ปMy new โgo toโ. Thanks for sharing this recipe!!
Sam
Thank you so much, Barbara! I am glad you enjoyed them. ๐
Luke
Can I use 2% milk and salted butter??
Sam
Hi Luke! Those substitutions will be fine. The biscuits may not be as moist as if you were to use the full fat milk. ๐
Jonathan Moody
Can you use 2% milk? Adjust volume?
Sam
Hi Jonathan! Just a straight substitution on the 2% milk. The biscuits may not be as moist but they should still be really good. ๐
Tomekia
Thanks for sharing this easy biscuits recipe… So easy I had to share it with my coworkers….
Sam
Thank you for sharing it, Tomekia! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits. ๐
Zoe
This was an amazing biscuit recipe! I loved the idea of using a box grater for the butter! I will never use another recipe for biscuits. Thank you so much. My family is so happy.โค๏ธ
Sam
Thank you so much, Zoe! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits. ๐
Erin
Laminating! Oh my gosh, how did I not know this secret?!! On and off over the past 5 or so years I’ve been trying to figure out how to make yummy homemade biscuits. My mom and dad are from New York, but we grew up in a small town in Ga. You could easily buy biscuits from country stores and restaurants, but I never learned how myself … Now, that I live in Massachusetts, I can’t buy them at the store, so I’ve been trying and trying myself. I’m so happy about how these biscuits came out on the first try… the flakey layers are everything. Thanks!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits! I’m glad you are able to enjoy biscuits again. They are really essential for a happy life if you ask me! ๐
Rounder
I used 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour & 1/2 c all purpose. Increase milk by 1/4 c. Folded 5 times. They were lovely. This recipe is a keeper.
Sam
Thank you so much for the feedback! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits! ๐
Jonathan Moody
How do you incorporate 2% as opposed to whole milk? Should i just use less milk? Thanks!
Sam
Hi Jonathan! You would do a straight substitution. The biscuits may not come out as moist as if you were to use full fat milk, but they should still be delicious!
Kim Overly
I am 63 years old and married 40 years. My dad was from the south and my grandmother made the best biscuits. I have NEVER been able to make biscuits until I made this recipe! They were so easy and delicious! I also made your sausage gravy and we had a wonderful southern breakfast on this snowy Sunday morning.
I have never posted comments before until this one! Thank you for both easy and delicious recipes!
Sam
Thank you so much Kim! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits and gravy! It’s the perfect snowy morning breakfast. ๐
Cyndi
Love, love, love these biscuits. The video made it so simple and took no time at all. My family loved them. Highly recommend ๐
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits Cyndi! ๐
Margaret
I really enjoy trying your recipes. Always well written and the results are very successful.
However I think we may have a language problem with this one! I am English but live in SW France and this recipe produces nothing like what we call a biscuit. Instead it is the recipe for what we call a scone. These are very famous especially in the coastal holiday areas of Devon and Cornwall where they are sliced in half, horizontally, and the interior fill with clotted cream and jam (usually strawberry.) The two counties disagree on whether you spread the cream on first or the jam!
I also like the savoury scones with grated Cheddar Cheese and a pinch of mustard powder added to the dry mixture. You could also add little snips of crispy cooked bacon and or a few snipped chives. When cold, cut in two and spread with butter. With a good ‘cuppa the above make a delicious afternoon tea. Enjoy!
Sam
Hi Margaret! I’m so glad you are enjoying the recipes! Truthfully there’s not a great difference between biscuits and scones, but I think you are right, there’s a little bit of a disagreement of language in England and France vs USA. Generally (but not always) scones are a bit sweeter in the US, but the technique for making the two is very similar. You can check out my scone recipe here if you’d like to compare/contrast the way I make the two of them. I use a grater here and a food processor for the scones but truthfully you could use either technique for both recipes.
Thank you so much for commenting, I appreciate it! And now I’m considering making my own savory scones with cheese and chives and bacon… yum! ๐
Oretta Rodriguez
This is the best biscuit recipe that I have tried. Exactly the way she said they would turn out, fluffy and delicious.
Thank you for working on the recipe for weeks. It is perfect.
I would like to try some more recipes of yours.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits! ๐
Serena
Can I use half and half? I donโt have milk and I really donโt want to make a trip to the store. Thanks!
Sam
I think you’ll be OK using half & half, enjoy!
Zak
Thank you! I had a craving for biscuits and you helped me satisfy it. I subbed in whole wheat pastry flour, a narrow drinking glass for the cutting, and a cast iron griddle with olive oil for baking (I try to not create trash when I can!). They turned out just like I’d eat at my grandma’s, crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and perfect with melted butter and strawberry spread.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Zak! ๐