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.
Lori
These are the best biscuits! I didn’t have whole milk so I mixed a tablespoon of sour cream in 1% milk. I followed the rest of the recipe exactly. The biscuits were moist and delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipe and tips.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much, Lori! 🙂
Bob Thorman
Really good recipe. Doubled it and it worked great. Thanks for all the tips.
Sam
You’re very welcome, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the biscuits!
Kimberly
I just love these biscuits! Anyway I could add something in? I was thinking scallions and cheddar? Thanks!
Sam
Hi Kimberly! I love the idea of the additions, I think that would be delicious and would work just fine. Enjoy!
D Faul
Made this recipe a few weeks ago and they turned out perfect and extra yummy. Making again tomorrow for a church breakfast. Should be a hit. Thank you for sharing
Sam
You’re very welcome, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Karen Varney
Jules, I am very excited about trying this recipe but need to know: can the biscuits be made ahead of time and baked just before serving or can they be made and frozen and then baked at last minute? I want to make them for company and cannot be in the kitchen too long once my guests arrive.
Laura
I never comment on these things, but wow, these were as good and as easy as advertised! I followed all your tips and am SHOCKED by how well they turned out. Thank you!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Laura! 🙂
Vanessa
Ok I’ve tried no less than 20 recipes looking for the perfect biscuit. I’m done searching. LOVED THIS!!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Vanessa! 🙂
Megan
These were awesome. I put cooked sausage and scrambled egg and cheese in between two rolled out peices about a half inch thick. YUMMY!!thank you!!
Sam
Sounds so good! Thanks for commenting, Megan! 🙂
Jenna
These were absolutely delicious!!! I love them so much and they’re always on the side of supper.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy the biscuits so much, Jenna! 🙂
Penny Land
I’ve made these lovely biscuits twice now the second time was the charm thank you
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits! 🙂
Jeannine
These biscuits are by far the best recipe ever! My family is absolutely addicted. I am so thrilled that I found your website b/c I have now tried the pizza dough, cornbread, and brownies with complete success. Next up to try is the scone recipe. Now, if I am looking for a recipe I always look on your site first. Many thanks!
Sam
Thank you so much, Jeannine! I am so glad you have enjoyed everything so much. 🙂
John T Hill III
I’m the worst cook you’ll ever meet except BBQ.But anything else I have lots of trouble.Your Biscuits turned out great. I love them and so did my guests.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, John! 🙂
Jules
Hey! Thanks for this posting such a fun and engaging and simple post. I’ve now tried these out 4x. For some reason I always need 1.25c of milk. I’m curious if you might know why this is? I don’t level the flour, I scoop it… but should that make much of a difference? Today mine came out perfect, and also I veered from the recipe in a big way: 1c 2% milk, .25c cream, and baked for 20min? Thanks for any tips!
What do you think I’m doing incorrectly? I’m so curious. New to baking, so extra curious. Am sure whatever I learn here will apply to future baking.
Sam
Hi Jules! Scooping the flour would definitely do it, it packs in the flour and you end up using a lot more than you realize. I’d stir the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, then level it off, that should take care of it. I hope that helps! 🙂
Kristen Reites
I am a southern girl and have made many a biscuit but this one takes the cake. Shredded the frozen butter and it was so much easier than using a pastry cutter. Perfect biscuit!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Kristen! 🙂
Tracy Jones
Very delicious. Seriously, “you could serve these to .. people” as my mom would say. So I wanted to know what the deal was with no rolling pin. So I made half hands only, half rolling pin on the last smooth out before cutting the biscuits. No difference in texture, but the rolling pin ones definitely didn’t rise as much. So listen to the lady already, and NO ROLLING PIN. But they are nummers!!!!! And super easy. Thank you so much for this recipe!!! It’s a new go-to!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Tracy! 🙂