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.
Treat yourself to a FREE E-BOOK!
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
- 3/4 cup whole milk (177ml)
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.
- 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 3/4" 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 1/2" 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.
Nutrition
Penny likes to supervise the photography process. Fortunately, this setup got her vote of approval.
Burt says
Hey, looking forward to making this recipe. I want to make a top crust for a chicken pot pie. Since the pot pie sauce is essentially gravy, could I use this biscuit dough as a top crust rather than the traditional pie crust? I am thinking a biscuits and gravy vibe. Does this recipe freeze for future use? If I use for a top crust, would I need to put on an already hot filling since your bake time is so short, or could I put on a cold filling, refrigerate and then bake at a later time? This would put the biscuit dough in the oven much longer than the 10 minutes or so that you recommend here. Finally, If I can use as described, could I roll out and place on top of the baking pan vs. using individual round biscuits? Thank you in advance for any reply. Burt
Sam says
Hi Burt! Sorry for the delayed response! I think it would work as a top crust here. I would probably cut out the biscuits and place them over the top of the pot pie. I am not sure how long it would need to bake for though. If you try it, I would love to know how it turns out. 🙂
Laura says
I am an abysmal failure at making biscuits. I’ve tried hundreds of recipes and they never come out right. But this one works! Yay!!! I do use the food processor because I am a lazy cook and it’s just so easy. All the tips are super helpful. Thank you!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Laura! 🙂
Dave says
Great, easy recipe for a flaky biscuit with great flavor. I freeze my 6 tbsp of stick butter for at least 1 hour, cover it in ice for less time, then carve or “whittle” the butter into long thin strips. The hardness makes it easier to cut the butter into the dry mixture.
Sam says
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the biscuits, Dave! Thank you for commenting, I appreciate it 🙂
Cassandra Staley says
Can you use buttermilk instead of whole milk?
Sam says
I think that would work great! Enjoy!
Justin says
Excellent recipe! I added about 2 TBSP of lard and used 1 cup of buttermilk instead of 3/4 cup regular milk. For those in a hurry like me, I had excellent results doing the following. I cut the butter into smaller pieces and froze it with the lard. In a blender I placed all the dry ingredients and blended until mixed, then put the blender in the freezer to make everything cold. Once the butter was cold enough to snap in half, I took it out and placed it in the blender with the dry ingredients and blended on high, about 10-15 seconds, until smooth. (Blending too long would cause excessive heat, you don’t want that) After that I poured it into a mixing bowl and stirred in my buttermilk with a fork. Then I put the mixture on a floured cutting board and pressed it out for cutting of my biscuits. Since I didn’t do any folding, I wonder how much flakier the ones are that are folded. But these came out perfect and fluffy!
Ada E Guerrero says
Just used your recipe today and I absolutely love my biscuits…perfect!!!!
Sam says
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Thank you for commenting, Ada! 🙂
Jane Worthington says
Hey Sam!
This morning I was craving biscuits and came across your recipe.
Because I didn’t have any milk, I used half and half. 😊 The biscuits turned out fabulous!
To accomodate my granddaughter, Penelope, I used a shot glass to make small biscuits. For her Mom, Sam, and I, I used a larger glass.
Loved the box grater idea! Thank you!
Jane
Sub Zero Wolf and Cove
Sous Chef
Chicago
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Jane! 🙂
Dave says
I never comment unless a recipe is unique or beyond expectation. These were seriously the best biscuits I have ever tried. The reaction to the first bite was ‘oh, wow!’. It echoed around the table. A completely different texture to any biscuit I have made before. Light, fluffy, delicate and rich. Reminiscent of a butter cookie without the sweet. Thanks for the share. I am saving this recipe. It will be my go to from now on.
Sam says
I am thrilled to hear that the biscuit recipe was such a success for you, Dave! Thank you so much for commenting, I really appreciate it 🙂
Dave says
You are welcome. They should come with a warning, though. I made them again tonight, 2 days after my first batch. With stew this time. They turned out a little fluffier and it was even simpler not having to go back to the recipe to make sure I was on track. Somehow cheese got in there this time. I can’t say which I prefer. There is something to the simplicity of the recipe that speaks for itself. They truly don’t need to be played with, I just couldn’t help myself. Thanks again for the share.
Lyssa Bayne-Kim says
These look great, I have been looking for a biscuit recipe bc the preservatives – the salt! – in the packaged ones weve had a few times just blows my mind. Can you mix the dough to the point of cohesion the night bf, refrig, then fold, flatten, and bake in the AM?
Sam says
Hi Lyssa! If you want to refrigerate them overnight, it is probably best to fold out and cut out the biscuits and then store in an air tight container in the refrigerator overnight. Then you won’t have to make any mess in the morning either, just pop them in the oven. 🙂
K Johnson says
I’ve tried many different biscuit recipes and this is by far the best and easiest one! Thanks so much!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Csndsce says
I made this recipe for strawberry shortcake today, and even though I seemed to do everything wrong, some on purpose (added extra sugar and butter to make shortbread), they turned out light and fluffy and flavorful. No more bisquick for me, these are better.
Sam says
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed! I actually used this for the base for my own Strawberry Shortcakes if you want to see the adjustments I made there. Thank you for commenting!
Candace says
I’ll definitely check it out, thank you!
Cynthia Kinsinger says
I just made these. I love the grated butter trick. Makes it so easy and they came out great!
Sam says
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the biscuits, Cynthia! Thank you for commenting 🙂
Arnie says
I love how simple this is! We don’t have whole milk here due to dairy intolerances, but I DO have buttermilk for recipe purposes. I hope it turns out just as good!
Sam says
Hi Arnie! I haven’t tried it personally, but I think it will turn out just fine. Enjoy! 🙂
Brit says
I made a half batch and they turned out lovely! Beautiful layers
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Brit! Smart thinking to only make a half batch, then you don’t have to eat all of them. 😂
Jessica says
I have a bag of flour I had bought specifically for making biscuits and I just realized it’s self-rising. What adjustments (if any) do I need to make to use this for this recipe? It is White Lilly self-rising.
Sam says
Hi Jessica! Unfortunately I haven’t tried it, and I’m not sure of the exact make-up of the flour, so I wouldn’t be able to advise on any substitutions. I’m sorry. 🙁
Cassandra says
This was my first time making buscuits and the recipe was perfect! Easy to follow directions especially when you combine them with the video. The biscuits are so delicious!! I would NOT change a thing. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Cassandra! 🙂