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.
Maria
Great idea to use grater for butter. These biscuits were very moist and flaky. Mine didn’t brown much after 12 mins at 425, but were delicious just the same.
Sam
It really helps you work the butter in with it grated so nicely. I’m so glad you enjoyed them. 😃
Erik G
Thanks for this awesome recipe! These went perfectly with my bacon and grape jam. This is my first time making biscuits from scratch.
Sam
Ooo I’ve never had bacon and grape jam! Sounds like an excellent topping for these biscuits! 😃
James
Wow! I’ve made more biscuit recipes than I can remember. That said this recipe is hands down my favorite, both in preparing and final product.
For the 1st time every person in my home loved them without complaint.
Not having unsalted butter on hand I used sweet cream butter. These we’re light, flaky, and a great vehicle for biscuits and gravy or any other meal where biscuits are desired.
Thank you , thank you, thank you, for sharing this recipe! This will be the fore go to for homade biscuits!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear this! Thank you so much for commenting, James!! 🙂
James
Sam,
Of course! The thanks belong to you! I’ve a relative in Colorado (Mile high city). She’s asked what changes need made for the higher altitude? Is there a suggestion for this circumstance?
ZG
Grating the butter is a genius suggestion, so easy. And the biscuits came out great. They puffed up so high my kids laughed at them (before devouring them, haha
Sam
It’s one of my favorite tricks! I’m glad everyone enjoyed them!
Mariah
These are the best biscuits I’ve ever made! I used cake flour since I was out of regular all purpose. Your recipe and tips are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing ❤
Sam
Thank you so much! I’m glad to hear you like them!
Hannah
I forgot to mention that I don’t have a biscuit cutter so I used the top of a drinking glass that I greased with butter. Worked like a charm!
Sam
That’s always a great option! I’m glad you were still able to enjoy them!
Hannah
OMG! So delicious!! Already shared the recipe. We only had 1% milk and the biscuits were still amazing. I froze the butter and grater for 15 min.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them Hannah! 😃
Sarah
These were such a hit! I took them to our neighbor brunch and everyone thought they were “wow”. I was so nervous since I’ve never made biscuits from scratch and they were so flaky, light and buttery. I didn’t have a biscuit cutter but a glass worked great. We doubled the recipe and I halved the dough when putting it out on the cutting board so that I wouldn’t end up overworking it in a higher pile. Thanks for this recipe!
Sam
That’s awesome! I’m glad everyone enjoyed them!
msm3697@gmail.com
So these taste awesome! Visually, mine were a mess. 2 rose so well they toppled over. 2 rose perfectly, and the other 2 didn’t rise at all. I am sure it was with my technique somehow.
On the 2 that toppled over, I could see the layers. I used a 2″ cutter because it is all I had. Maybe the base was too small to support the height.
I was a little intimidated at the recipe when I read about folding for the layers. But I watched your video and saw how easy it was. Thanks for all the tips. They were really helpful.
I can’t wait to try again, after I buy the right size cutters. This is recipe that I think I can get my daughter to help with too!
Thank you!
Sam
I really don’t know how you got different results out of the same dough but I am glad they turned out for you! Sounds like you need a second try to ensure they are good 😉
Sammy
If you dont have a biscuit cutter (other than a small one and you want bigger biscuits) you can just use a cup! I dont have ant biscuit cutters yet and I just use a water glass 🙂
Margaret ragle
I’ve tried several recipes, made yours and they were easy to make. I’ll use this recipe again.
Sam
I’m glad you enjoyed them! 😃
Bonnie Wood
These turned out GREAT! I’m not the best baker, because I always think I can “improvise.” (You can’t, unless you REALLY know your ingredients, because baking is, after all, a chemical process, and depends on very specific ingredients and procedures!) However, even I couldn’t mess these up! So quick, easy, delicious – and frugal, too. I especially appreciate the tips, such as GRATING FROZEN BUTTER! That’s just genius.
Sam
You are so right Bonnie, substitutions must be carefully thought out when baking. I am so glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for the kind words!
Kathy
My mother always made amazing biscuits to go with my dads sausage gravy. I mastered the gravy but was always afraid of biscuits, so I always chickened out and bought canned biscuits. 🙁
My husband is now on a low sodium diet so I am learning to make different things from scratch and decided to try your recipe (using “no salt” instead of real salt) I was so happy with the turn out. This is the recipe I will continue to use.
Thank you!!
Sam
I am so glad you decided to try the recipe Kathy! In my opinion things are always better when made from scratch!
D Hill
We are in love with this recipe! We have made it many times just this month. Thank you for sharing!
Sam
I am so happy to hear you enjoyed them, thank you for commenting!! <3
ST
This webpage is so buggy on mobile, it’s nearly impossible to read the recipe.
Sam
Really? What issues are you having with it? I will try to get them sorted out I just need to know what the specific problem is. I just tried it on my phone without issue.
Keli
Can I use 2% milk? My fridge contains 2%milk and heavy whipping cream as of now.
Sam
Hi Keli! Other people have made that substitution with success!