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.
Rosy Oliver
Thanks, this recipe is just the way my mother in law used to make her biscuits 😍. I made them with my 11 years old daughter and my 6 years old daughter
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits, Rosy! 🙂
Shawn
Easy recipe, but very good!
Sam
Thank you so much, Shawn! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂
Kaye
! Delicious ! I doubled the batch and added savory ingredients to 1/2. Also, I was too lazy to cut, so I just used a drop method. They were gone FAST. I’m never buying Bisquik again. Thank you.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Kaye! 🙂
Cori
We didn’t have a regular biscuit cutter and wanted to try this recipe. We improvised with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter and the kids and I loved them. Now my son wants me to make “Halloween biscuits” everyday.
Sam
That’s a really cute idea, Cori! I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits so much. 🙂
S
DELICIOUS! Always thought homemade biscuits would take too much time. I’ve made this recipe twice and it’s very easy. First time I used a jar to cut biscuits. Second time I used a biscuit cutter. They both taste great but the biscuits using a biscuit cutter were much prettier:) Thanks so much for the recipe.
Sam
Yay! So happy to hear you enjoyed them, thank you so much for commenting!! 🙂
Rohn
If I am using a convection oven do I have to adjust the temperature or cooking time?
Sam
Hi Rohn! Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with using a convection oven. Maybe someone else can chime in with some insight.
Caydee
I have now made this four or five times. This is officially a go to recipe in our home. I took them to a BBQ tonight, Evans’s I needed to make something to take and a fast cooking time was necessary. I got rave reviews for them and there were none left to take home at the end of the event. Grating the butter is the best idea!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits so much, Caydee! 🙂
Cindy
Amber,
Thank you SO much for sharing this receipe!
Wonderful results. I’m on the east coast of northern Florida waiting for updates about hurricane Dorion. Due to the uncertain direction of the hurricane, and its delayed arrival, my family was in need of some true comfort food. Thank you for providing such an amazing, and easy recipe recipe. This will certainly be the only biscuit reipe that I use.
Cynthia Corona
Made these this morning. Delicious!! Thanks for the recipe!
Sam
So glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Cynthia!!! 🙂
David
Hello, is baking immediately necessary, or can you store the cut biscuit dough and pop in the over just before a dinner party?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, David! You do not need to bake the biscuit dough immediately. You can store them in the fridge for a few days in an airtight container. Just a helpful tip, I do usually cut the biscuits up before storing them. Let me know how they turn out! I hope that you enjoy them!
David
Yum, yum, yum! This will be my go-to biscuit recipe from now on. Easy to make and definitely a crowd pleaser. Thanks!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear this! Thank you for commenting, David!!
C Jordan
What do you do if no unsalted butter. I have shortening for making masa for tamales. Thank you. My biscuits never rise. What about using buttermilk. My mother always used it in her delicious biscuits. Thank you.
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Jordan! You can try shortening, however, I recommend butter for this recipe. If you have salted butter that will work instead, I would just cut back on the salt indicated in the recipe. Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
Kate
Been looking for the perfect Biscut recipe for a long time. Made a lot of bad Biscuts. This recipe is perfect! Dough is a little crumbly at first but comes together in the layering process.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for your comment, Kate! I am so happy that you enjoyed the biscuits! 🙂
Ben
Completely agree – been looking for a perfect recipe for a while and this is it. About to make up a batch now.
Anya
This is such a great recipe! It was so easy to follow and the biscuits turned out great. I’m definitely using this recipe again!
Sugar Spun Run
Anya, I am so happy that you enjoyed the homemade biscuits. Thank you for your comments! 🙂
Gina
Hi there, any recommendations for keeping fresh until the next day or reheating the next day?
Thanks!
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Gina! Yes, you can make them ahead of time. I recommend storing them in an airtight container at room temperature. They should stay fresh for a day or two. 🙂
Amber Colby
Found this recipe this morning and made them this evening. I had to immediately post amd let you know how happy I was that I finally pulled off a successful biscuit!!! I am a ittle bit if a baker myself and I can bake just about anything, but biscuits have always been my downfall. I followed tour recipe step by step even grating the butter (I only have a fancy grater) and it worked perfect! I was so excited when everyone asked for another during dinner. Thank you! Thank you!! I will definitely be making these many, many times in the future. I did brush the tops with salted butter, honey, and a touch more salt and they were incredible that way.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Amber! I am so happy that the homemade biscuits turned out so well. Enjoy! 🙂
Erin White
This is the best biscuit recipe hands down! So buttery and flakey! They don’t stay long in my house when made! Get me while they are hot!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that the homemade biscuits are such a hit in your house! Enjoy or should I say “grab them before they are gone!” 🙂