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.
Amanda
I am new to making homemade biscuits but my family loves these. I’ve had to make them 2 days in a row. 😃 Is there a way to make them in bulk and freeze them for later?
Sam
Hi Amanda! I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits so much! I have not personally tried freezing them, but I know others have with success. You would need to make the dough, cut out the biscuits and then freeze them. Bake time will probably be a little bit longer from frozen. Enjoy! 🙂
Anna
My first time making biscuits ever! Not to mention quick & beginner friendly! They came out perfect & were an instant hit for biscuits & gravy. I had mine with honey & butter. I took the tips & used grated european butter but I only had half/half on hand. Came out light & fluffy not crumbly or doughy. Great recipe & great tips! This is a keeper for my bed & breakfast beach house! Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits so much, Anna! 🙂
DSnyder
I didn’t have enough liquid with the 3/4 cup milk. It wouldn’t even stay in a big dough ball. Added another few drops of milk and it sort of worked rolling into all individual balls. Tasted great and flaky but not too pretty.
Sam
That’s very strange! Is there any chance the flour might’ve been measured a bit too heavy? When measuring (if not using a scale) you would want to gently spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level it off. I hope that helps!
Matt Watson
Definitely! Baking is a mixture of heart and science. Weighing ingredients is key to consistency.
Pammela Jackson
Ah-yummy-mazin!! I’ve been making biscuits for a very long time with southern roots (recipes passed down from my mom, her mom, and my great grandmother). What intrigued me about these biscuits were several tips; put butter in the freezer, and shred the butter with grater. Fantastic!! These biscuits are definitely a winner! I totally believe that those two things (along with ice cold milk…I always use freezer cold old fashioned Carnation can milk) are the reason my biscuits came out “Ah-yummy-melt in-yo-mouth-mazin!!” I’m definitely tweaking my biscuit recipe with these new tips!
Thanks for a great top-o-the-charts biscuit recipe!
Sam
Thank you so much, Pammela! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits. I hope you will pass the recipe down for generations to come. 🙂
Jessica Lewis
Absolutely a great recipe.
Sam
Thank you so much, Jessica! 🙂
Beth Rivers
Perfect & I loved grating the frozen butter. A new tip to use for life.
Thank you,
Beth
Sam
Thank you so much, Beth! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits! 🙂
Casey
I’m going to try these tomorrow hopefully the kids like, they are very picky eaters!
Sam
I have a feeling they will love them. 😉
JT
These biscuits were very good. I added a tsp of baking soda also, and used buttermilk because I didn’t have milk. I’ve been trying to duplicate biscuits I had in Lake Tahoe while visiting my Mom. These are close. I did get some sideways wonkiness. How do you fix that?? Will make these again. Great recipe.
Sam
I would recommend leaving out the extra baking soda that you added and using regular milk. 🙂
Cassandra
I’ve made hundreds of biscuits over the years, this recipe is super easy and really tasty. My husband loves a biscuit for breakfast and these come together in no time!
Great recipe, thank you!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much, Cassandra! 🙂
Beth
Can I make these the night before, and refrigerate the uncooked biscuits?
Sam
Hi Beth! As long as you wrap them tightly so they don’t dry out, that shouldn’t be an issue. 🙂
Jennifer Palmer
Delicious!!!
Holley
I can’t say this was my first time ever making homemade biscuits, it was however the first time ever I enjoyed doing it, I think it was because my results after each tip and step, looked like the photos, one ecstatic biscuit making rookie here this morning, I’ll be sure to never let this little gem never escape me, thanks a million…
Sam
Thank you so much, Holley! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much. 🙂
Hanna in Asheville, NC
Going to try these this morning on the fly! What great reviews! Hope mine turn out as well as y’alls! Happy biscuits coming right up!!
Sam
I hope everyone loves the biscuits, Hanna! 🙂
Taylor
Needed a recipe that didn’t use self rising flour-and was easy-and found this one. So good!! They were flaky, fluffy, and had layers! My husband liked them better than the layers biscuits in a can. Saved this recipe and sticking to it in the future! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear the biscuit recipe turned out so well for you, Taylor! Thank you for commenting! 🙂
Eric Crown
What a great presentation! Love the video, the pace was perfect.
Wow, I was truly unaware that the butter and milk had to be cold. Shredding the butter is an awesome idea. I usually make scratch pancakes and waffles. Usually takes 10 minutes to get a stack of chocolate chip pancakes in front of my son. This recipe is so simple, I will try it this afternoon; I have the ingredients, well I have 2% milk, and my butter is salted.
Sam
Hi Eric! Thank you so much. If you use salted butter, just cut the salt used by about 1/4 teaspoon. I know others have made them with 2% milk without issue. Enjoy! 🙂
Holly
This was my first time making biscuits from scratch, so the tips were definitely appreciated. The flavor was great, but they didn’t rise very high. Did I probably overmix?
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed the biscuits overall, Holly! Most likely if they didn’t rise much the dough was over-worked or it’s possible your baking powder could be bad.
Amy J Little
I did not know baking powder could go bad.
Sam
Yup. It actually has an expiration date on it, and it can be very frustrating when you use expired baking powder. 🙂
Rebecca
Made these this morning. My youngest son (14) said, “0h my gosh mom.” What? “These are really good.” Thanks for making me look good!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits, Rebecca! You still had to make them so you are the star here. 🙂
Lisa in Austin
I’ve made these countless times now, no better recipe out there- PERFECT every time! Been sharing with all my friends and family. Thanks so much!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear you love the biscuits, Lisa!! Thank you so much for commenting, I appreciate it 🙂