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.
Tara
This evening’s dinner was a raving success thanks to these absolutely amazing biscuits! This was my very first attempt at making them, and without a pastry cutter (I used a fork) they still were super flavorful and flaky. The tip about freezing the butter first was a great one btw, so thank you for that! My roomie thanks you as well. I had multiple pull apart layers similar to, but far superior than any store bought biscuits! I can’t wait to make these again.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Tara! 🙂
Adam
I just made them and they turned out perfect. Soo good!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Adam! 🙂
Maggie
Just Made These…Using almond milk. They are amazing! I can only imagine the taste using whole milk. Super simple recipe yet so yummy. Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Maggie! Thank you for the feedback using almond milk. 🙂
Kelly
Havent tried yet, but will be trying tonight. They look and sound amazing. Think Ill add a bit of chedder cheese.
Sam
I know everyone is going to love them! 🙂
Patricia Zwiers
Can buttermilk be used instead of whole milk?
Sam
Hi Patricia! Others have done it with success so there shouldn’t be a problem. 🙂
Mikaela
Made these for my grandma and she kept saying “you make great biscuits!!” Meant a lot coming from a great home cooking woman! Thanks for the amazing recipe. Already added it to my forever recipe box!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits, Mikaela! 🙂
Tami Bennett
Thanks for sharing!!! I absolutely love the way these turned out! At age 50, I have never found a recipe for homemade biscuits that turned out “perfection”😀.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Tami! 🙂
Cheryl lockett
So yummy. Made on a whim so I had to use salted butter but still turned out great. My 70 year old man said they are as good as his mothers!!! Score!!!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Cheryl! 🙂
Bobbi Dunne
Sooo easy and Sooo 😋 yummy
Sam
Thank you so much, Bobbi! 🙂
Tom
I’ve made these a few times and they are so easy and delicious! Thank you!
A question – I am making some for a dinner party this evening, and would like them to be fresh out of the oven. Do you think if they are made in advance, refrigerated, and baked later, they will turn out just out as well?
Sam
Hi Tom! You can refrigerate them before baking, just make sure they are in an air tight container so they don’t dry out. I would recommend cutting out the biscuit shapes first. They may need an extra minute if they are really cold when coming out of the refrigerator. Enjoy! 🙂
M
Withouse getting too graphic, I had some stomach problems from a bad dinner last night and when I woke up I couldn’t eat anything. The only thing that sounded good and was a biscuit. Weird but true. Instead of going to get a can of biscuits from the grocery store, I decided to give this recipe a shot. I’ve never made biscuits from scratch, ever never ever. Never even tried. These were incredibly easy to make! I already had all the ingredients on hand. OMG I’m so proud of myself. My whole family loves them. Thank you soooooo much! I took about 500 pictures of them before I let anyone dig in haha. Thanks again!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits! I hope you feel better soon. 🙂
Hatty
I’ve been trying to make biscuits most of my adult life, without success. Now finally at 64, I find one this easy that produces the results I’ve been looking for. Totally AWESOME!
Harry
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Harry! 🙂
Chantel
Super easy and by far the best biscuit recipie I have used. The tips were very helpful. I made a double batch and they were such a hit they were all gone within a day! Will be my go to recipie from now on.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits, Chantel! 🙂
Malik McMullan
I watched your videos and I followed your recipes and the easy homemade biscuits. Me and my little sister in enjoyed. It’s taste so good!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Malik! 🙂
Malik
Ohh Thank You!!
Missy
Im a first time baker, and this probably seems like a ridiculous question, but how thick do I make these when pressing the dough out? An inch??? I’m clueless…
Sam
Hi Missy! Step 9 will point you in the right direction. About an inch thick. 🙂
Bailey
Over the years I’ve tried so many homeade biscuit recipies and they never quite satisfied me because they never folded the dough. These are the BEST biscuits I have ever tasted.
Sam
Thank you so much, Bailey! 🙂
Carey
Made them and they were amazing! I doubled the recipe and added 2 sticks of cold butter. Super flaky, moist, and delicious! Thank you so much for sharing! ❤❤❤
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Carey! 🙂