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.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.
Christy
Can you make these ahead of time and cut and freezing for latter baking? Or is it best to bake and then freeze for later eating. I like to prep meals for later eating an I would love to have these ready to go just needing to bake. TIA
Sam
Hi Christy! Freezing them ahead of time shouldn’t be an issue.
Delaney
These worked really well and my siblings loved them
Sam
I’m glad everyone enjoyed them! 😃
Beverly Nykreim
I love this yummy recipe,and so does my hubby,I will make another batch today,We have never had such wonderful biscuits.thank you so much.
Beverly
Sam
I am so happy to hear this, thank you for commenting, Beverly <3
Angela
Great video and instructions.
Thank You!
Can’t wait to try them.
Sam
I hope you love the biscuits, Angela!
AMANDA L Reyes
these biscuits come out beautiful they are fluffy they are huge and I put the bowl and the greater in the freezer as well they are the one of the best biscuits I’ve tasted thank you so much
Sam
I’m so glad to hear it! Thank you for commenting, Amanda!!
Denise M Lawton
So Delicious! I’ll be making these a lot!!!
Sam
Glad to hear it! Thank you, Denise! 🙂
Mary
Sam,
I was skeptical. You were right. These are super easy and they tatste good!
I have a few questions:
1. Have you made these with buttermilk?
2. Can I make them the night before and store them in the fridge so all I have to do is bake them in the morning?
2. The are pretty dense. How can I make them lighter?
Sam
Hi Mary!
1 – I haven’t but I have a feeling they would be good!
2 – Yes you can! store in an airtight container in the fridge before baking.
3 – if they’re dense then most likely the dough has been over-worked. Just handle it less, but don’t skip folding the dough over itself, that’ll help give them light flaky layers.
Hannah
Hi! Can these be made ahead of time and refrigerated with the same results?
Sam
Yes you can make the dough and chill it in advance. Just store the dough in an airtight container or tightly wrap with plastic wrap.
Debra A Stewart
These are fantastic! I served them with my homemade minestrone soup, they were perfect!
What would be the best way to store these biscuits?
Sam
So glad you enjoyed them!! We just store them in an airtight container, either Tupperware or a Ziploc bag at room temperature.
Ruth Boyce
I am not a homemade bisquit person but these were so easy and tasted so good. Thanks for your recipe
Sam
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thank you for commenting, Ruth!
Zazo
i’ve been learning to cook lately after never getting much of a chance to before, and i used your recipe for my first batch of biscuits, ever – it came out AWESOME, and especially i appreciated all the different tips you took the time to write out; as a novice they helped me immensely.
i was home alone and couldn’t eat them all before they cooled, so i went around and gave my surplus to some of my neighbors, and all of them told me later how much they loved them!! so, great recipe and instructions! thanks again
Sam
I am SO happy to hear this, thank you for commenting and letting me know how they turned out for you!!! <3
Jayne
Turned out perfect!! Will make these on a regular basis!
Sam
So glad to hear it! Thank you for commenting, Jayne!
Lloyd Turk
Just made this for my hubby! Said it was better than his grandmother’s!!!!!
Sam
WOW, that is a big compliment! Thank you for letting me know what a hit they were!! <3
Helen
I made these for my US DiL for her birthday ( she married my Australian son). I was astounded at how much they rose, they doubled in height and some tipped over sideways they got so high in flaky buttery pillows. I’ve made many scones in my life and thought they would be pretty much the same thing but the method really does make a difference and my DiL loved them too. I also made her sausage gravy from scratch to go with. I want to make another batch of biscuits today to see if I can duplicate it or if it was a fluke 😄
Sam
Yay! So glad they were a hit. Thank you for commenting, Helen! 🙂
Alissa
What if I use 1% milk?
Sam
I have seen others use 1% and have success so it should work for you.
Kelly Lee
I made these tonight and followed the directions to a “T” and my family thought they were scrumptious. I’ll be making these from now on. Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad they were a hit, thank you for commenting, Kelly Lee!
Kimberly
I just got my dough made im letting it rest b4 i continue on because I’ve learned to do that and something can not be subtitled for other ingredients