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.
Carrie
Just made these this morning. Really easy and turned out so good. This will be my go to recipe for biscuits. No more frozen ones. Thank you for all the tips. I will definitely be trying more of your recipes.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits, Carrie! 🙂
Janeane
I have never made biscuits before but I woke up this morning and thought “I’m going to make biscuits from scratch!” (Why??) I found this recipe and it was super easy and delicious! My husband loved them!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the biscuits, Janeane! 🙂
Jill
You can keep your flour in the freezer, it will last for 2 years. If your flour and butter are both frozen, think of the rise you you will get😘
Sam
Great tip, Jill! 🙂
Sam Pardue
Awesome biscuit recipe! My family loves them. This is my go to biscuit recipe from now on.
Sugar Spun Run
Sam, thank you! I am so happy that the homemade biscuits were such a hit among your family. I hope that you enjoy this recipe for years to come! 🙂
Gwen
I woke up this morning wanting homemade biscuits, and I am so happy I found this recipe. Ooh Chile! (In my best Southern drawl) These biscuits are #AMAZING. The best part is it took longer for the oven to preheat, than for me to make the dough. In 20 minutes (maybe less) I had beautiful, light, and fluffy biscuits. And the butter in the dough… Oh my… simply heavenly. I wish I could post the pictures here to show y’all how beautiful they WERE (because all of them were devoured by my family in a matter of minutes). Thanks for sharing the deliciousness!
Sam
Thank you so much, Gwen! I am so glad you enjoyed the biscuits so much! 🙂
JJ
Can they be frozen and then baked from frozen?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, JJ! Others have had success with this. 🙂
Rita
Tried your recipe! I made 7 they look almost as good as yours! I said almost! I will try the recipe again! I froze butter for a few hours! I found that the butter as you grate it seems to soften up! Is that normal? I used European unsalted. I put the grated butter back in the freezer hoping it would harden up a bit! Your video seems to make the dough work better for you than it did for me!
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Rita! I am so happy that your biscuits look “almost” as good as mine. As you begin to grate your butter, the warmth of your hand will naturally make the butter soften. This is normal. European Unsalted butter is fine to use as well. I hope you enjoy your homemade biscuits! 🙂
Robyn Mills
When I took the pan out of the oven the biscuits were sitting in pools of butter. Why did that happen? I froze the butter for 45 mins before grating it.
Sugar Spun Run
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that this happened to you, Robyn! This is first time I have heard of this happening. My guess is possible that the butter was not mixed into the batter enough. Again, I am so sorry. I hope you give this recipe another shot. 🙁
Christina Poindexter
This is such a simple and great recipe.
Sugar Spun Run
Hooray! I am so glad that you enjoyed the homemade biscuits, Christina! 🙂
Rebecca Swift
These are the best biscuits I’ve ever made..light and soft..other recipes I’ve tried cane out hard and tough..make them again today for biscuits with creamy tasty bacon gravy..so good!..
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that you enjoyed the homemade biscuits, Rebecca! Thank you for your feedback. Enjoy! 🙂
Lisa Mccloskey
I have always put jam in the middle and baked them then drizzled the butter before eating so good but careful jam will be hot
Sugar Spun Run
That is a good tip, Lisa! I will have to try that. I hope that you enjoy the biscuits. 🙂
Barb
Full confession: biscuits are not my favorite. I am a yeast roll kinda gal. But I offered to host a biscuit bar for a post wedding family breakfast because my husband makes GREAT sausage gravy, and it seemed like a fun twist on a brunch.
So I gave this recipe a try. Oh. My. Goodness. Easy for even me to make. I don’t have whole milk in the house usually, so I used 2% with a splash of cream. Mine were closer to 3/4 inch and I kept back two to freeze and cook later, which is what I’d like to do for brunch. They came out gorgeous and light and delicious. I’m now a biscuit fan! If these are as good after cooking frozen, I will be a biscuit hero. Thanks for sharing it!
Sugar Spun Run
Barb, thank you so much for your comment. I am glad that my homemade biscuits converted you into a biscuit fan! I am so glad you and your company enjoyed them! 🙂
Jessica
Barb, I’m planning on doing the same thing – pre-making baking biscuits to freeze for a biscuit bar. Please let us know how freezing then baking works out for you!
Barb
Hi Jessica,
I froze two biscuits, baked them at 400 (I think- didn’t want them to brown before they thawed). I think it took about 15 min. I was playing with the setting on my oven to use convection to see if that helped even out the baking. They rose as expected, same as the unfrozen batch. The only thing I noticed was that the bottoms were a little crispy. I didn’t find the texture offensive, but it didn’t appeal to my husband (who slathered it with sausage gravy anyway). I think some people might equate that to a stale biscuit. This could be the result of convection cooking perhaps. So I will make a repeat batch, freeze all but two and see what settings work best. I thought the interior texture was still good, but my husband’s perception was that it may have had more moisture, which he equates with “raw” or undercooked. I took mine apart to check texture and I didn’t agree. So more testing in the future. What are you serving with the biscuits, if I may ask?
Doug
I’ve never felt the need to leave a comment, but I had to. This is the fluffiest biscuits I’ve ever made. My family loves it.
Sugar Spun Run
Doug, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I am so happy to hear how much your family loves the homemade biscuits. Enjoy! 🙂
Thor
Trying to cut down on calories, could I replace the sugar with say Stevia or some other natural sugar.
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Thor! I have not tried it personally, however, others have tried to and have had success. Let me know how the homemade biscuits turn out for you! Enjoy! 🙂
Jasmine
Could I use almond milk in replacement of whole milk?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Jasmine! I don’t recommend it for this recipe. I hope that you enjoy the homemade biscuits. 🙂
Richelle
I’ve made some like this many times before with dairy free butter and dairy free milk it works just fine. If you want them extra fluffy use either plain soy milk or if you want to use almond add a dash of apple cider vinegar (let sit for one minute before adding to the rest of the ingredients). This makes a super creamy plant based milk that subs for whole milk or butter milk. Hope this helps 🙂
Britt
My family LOVES these super-easy-to-make homemade biscuits! The touch of sugar in them is fantastic as a breakfast biscuit with your favorite jam/jelly and that hint of sweetness is a wonderful counterpart to savory suppers or with sausage gravy. Cut your dough thick and you have biscuits and gravy that would make world-renowned restaurants envious. Seriously. I have made these with salted butter (and omitted the additional salt) with great results. I have doubled the recipe with great results. The only thing I find I always need a bit more of is the milk–just an extra splash or two to grab up the scant remnants of the flour mixture at the bottom of my bowl. I don’t weigh out my flour and I wonder if I maybe add just a bit more than the recipe calls for–either way, this recipe is forgiving and we still end up with—wait for it—great biscuits. YUM! I have tried a “perfect biscuit” recipe from a certain HGTV fixer-up guru (whom I greatly admire) but hers weren’t even in the same ball park as these. I’ve also tried a “southern buttermilk biscuit” recipe that delivers good biscuits but not great ones. These are the bomb. Make them and follow the suggestions for how to handle the dough. You won’t be sorry. Thanks for a super great recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
Britt, thank you! I am so happy that you enjoyed the homemade biscuit recipe. I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. I hope you enjoy these for years to come. 🙂
Rochelle
Can I substitute self rising flour in place of all purpose flour?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Rochelle! I don’t recommend self-rising flour for this recipe. I hope that you enjoy your biscuits! 🙂
Amy
This was my first time making biscuits from scratch and they are awesome and so simple to make! Thank you for the great recipe and wonderful tips!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that you enjoyed the homemade biscuit recipe, Amy! Thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment, I appreciate the feedback. Enjoy! 🙂