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.
Don
I tried out your recipe and I was amazed that it came out really good ,I did double the batch so I made 16 out of it. thanks very much. And to top it off this was the first time that I ever tried making biscuits
Sam
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the biscuit recipe, Don! Thank you for commenting 🙂
Mary Beth Puckett
Love this recipe – the biscuits were delicious and flaky. Thank you for the helpful tips as well!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Mary Beth!! Thank you so much for commenting 🙂
Tiffney
What a great recipe, my family and I enjoyed them.
Sam
Thank you so much, Tiffney! I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂
Aldene
I am going to try this recipe today. The butter is in the freezer now, I can’t wait to try the grated method…especially for my pie crust and of course your biscuits. Lunchtime
Sam
I hope you love the biscuits, Aldene! 🙂
Charity Crawford
Delicious biscuits!
Sam
Thank you, Charity! So glad you enjoyed the biscuits! 🙂
Jill
Unbelievable! These are mile high biscuits, there is no doubt. Thank you for sharing this quick and easy recipe, and for the helpful tips. Followed the recipe exactly – delicious and flakey biscuits.
Sam
Yay! So happy to hear the biscuits were such a success for you, Jill! Thank you so much for commenting! 🙂
Cheryl Wagner
We loved these biscuits more than any other ones I’ve made. I had to double the recipe because of our large hungry family and it turned out perfectly. Thanks so much for the recipe, it’s now a family favorite. They keep asking for them.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits so much, Cheryl. 🙂
Kevin
I made these and they were some of the best biscuits I have ever had. And this was the first time I have ever made homemade biscuits. I made a rustic version by just spooning a rough mound of dough on the sheet. The result reminds me of the biscuits you get at Red Lobster (which are some of my favs), but these were much better. Great when used with sausage gravy!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much, Kevin! I agree they are great with sausage gravy. 🙂
Crystal G Wheeler
Hello!😊 I have made this recipe around 5 times. I’m so glad I found a biscuit recipe that calls for ingredients I always have in my cabinet. Thank you!
I do have a question. My biscuits rise well, and have nice layers, but the issue I’m having is lack of flavor and butteryness. I added more butter this morning and it didn’t help.
I imagine the only ingredient that adds flavor in the biscuits, is the butter and salt?
So, I use Imperial stick butter. It’s salted. So I cut the salt in the recipe in half. Maybe I shouldn’t?
Also, I’m using a fine grater for the butter. Maybe I should use a grater that’s not so fine? I can put butter on top of the biscuits, but I want butteryness inside of the biscuits. So maybe a thicker grated butter will help?
Thanks so much!😊
Sam
Hi Crystal! I think the problem is the Imperial product, as far as I’m aware Imperial is actually a vegetable spread and not a butter and won’t work as well. I would use unsalted butter, but if you do use salted just cut the salt in the recipe to 3/4 teaspoon rather than to 1/2. I do think a thicker grate would probably also help but that would be more for the layers (and it sounds like you’re not having a problem with the layers) rather than the flavor. I hope that helps!
Kevin
I just chopped the butter using a small knife. I think if you had the butter finely grated it wouldn’t do well because the butter would be too easy to just blend in with the mixture. From what my aunt always told me you want chunkt butter. I left mine in pea size chunks.
Lorilee Bajema
I’ve never commented on recipes before. I’m excited to try this recipe, even on an early Sunday morning before any madness begins. Question – I don’t have biscuit cutters, just a Pampered Chef Press n Seal (like a circle sandwich cutter). Is that too large or what else can I use?
Comment – to the person using Imperial Butter, that is not butter, it’s margarine. Use real butter. Huge difference!
Sam
Hi Lorilee! Sorry for the delayed response. You can use whatever size cutter you would like, it just may take a little longer to bake. 🙂
Nicole
I was headed to the deli to pick up some chicken tenders when biscuits came to mind. It’s summer and grabbing a can of dough would’ve been the easy way but then I googled biscuits. Yours was the second recipe I saw. Glad I went with it. Super easy! I actually used butter flavored shortening because I just recently bought a package on clearance, and 2% milk because I never buy whole. I will probably use up my shortening making these over and over again. Loved them.
Sam
I am so happy you went with this recipe instead of store-bought, Nicole!! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how they turned out for you, I really appreciate it! 🙂
Ariel Ross
My first time making buscuits I was weary but I followed your recipe exactly and they came out perfect; flaky, tender, and best of all buttery. Wouldn’t change a thing about this recipe. Thank you soo much !
Sam
I’m so happy to hear the biscuits were such a hit for you, Ariel!! Thank you so much for commenting, I appreciate it! 🙂
Candice McNeely
Very good! I love the layers.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Candice!! 🙂
Alish
These are lovely and the trick of grating the butter is genius! My husband says they remind him of the scones in our favorite coffee shop (which we don’t love near). Thank you!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed! This recipe is actually pretty similar to my scone recipe (though I use a slightly different technique) if you want to try that one out, too! 🙂
Charlotte Schreffler
Hi I am a lady 75, in Oregon. I know how to make biscuits, but I always used Crisco cakes or oil. In the old days lard was used. Yours looked so easy and good. Nice and big and fluffy. My grandma and mama had an old biscuit cutter. And rolling pin. I use a rolling pin. Thank you so much.
Mary
Can you make these the night before and keep them in the fridge before baking? Also, could you make them and freeze them before or after baking?
Sam
I would probably keep them at room temperature in an airtight container rather than the fridge if you are just making them the night before. They can be frozen before baking 🙂
Vanessa
Hello the biscuits came out good the only thing I notice the bottom was a little crunchy and browner than the top. The only thing I notice I put them on foil because I didn’t have any other paper
Sam
I think the foil might’ve done it, unfortunately!