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.
Bol
These are superlative. The trouble is I’m torn between eating them all now, and sharing them with the others when they get back.5*
Sam
Thank you so much! I highly recommend not waiting until the others get back so you don’t have to share! 😉😂
Kailey
These were perfect! And delish! We made chokecherry jam, and needed something wonderful to enjoy it on, and these were just the thing!
Sam
Hi Kailey! I am so glad you enjoyed them!That jam sounds like an excellent topping!
Kassie
It was my first time making biscuits from scratch and they were delicious! The video helped out so much because I am more of a visual learner, so thanks for that! Can I make the dough and cut the biscuits ahead of time, and if so how would I store them? I’m thinking ahead to the holidays and would want to make the dough a day ahead.
Sam
Hi Kassie! Yes you could make it a day ahead of time. I would probably wrap it up or keep it in an air tight container in the refrigerator.
Naomi
I am so not a baker, but made these this morning following all tips. They were awesome! So fluffy/flaky and perfect. My kids have banned the store bought from now forward. Thank you for such an easy to follow recipe that turned out perfect.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them Naomi! I too ban the store bought ones in my house!
Melissa
I’m not very good at making biscuits or pie crusts so I don’t do it very often (perhaps more practice would change that!). I wanted to make biscuits & sausage gravy for dinner tonight so I tried your recipe and did it exactly as you said, except I cut the salt in half since I only had salted butter. I have learned the value of a good floured cloth and sifting my flour, and not overworking the dough, so they werent heavy or tough. They turned out perfect and the family gobbled them up! Thank you for the recipe – it’s a keeper!
Sam
YAY! Good work Melissa! Nothing like the success of a good homemade recipe! Thanks for the feedback! 😃
Jeanette
Made these for dinner last night and they were delicious, big hit with my SA. Will most definitely make them again.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Jeanette!! 😃
hasnah mohd akil
What if i use self raising flour? Will in cgange the texture?
Sam
I haven’t tried it so I am not sure how it would work. I believe other people have used self rising flour, but I couldn’t tell you how it will affect the texture. Sorry
Briggitte
I had never made homemade biscuits because I was intimidated.
Came across your recipe. So easy and so delicious.
I make these twice a wk.
Thank you so much!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy them Briggitte! They are a staple in my house! So good!! 😃
Djrianna
I made these with my 8 year old, and they rose beautifully! They were so easy for him to work with, and overall I’m quite happy. The only issue I had is that they were a bit dry for my taste. I make pastry dough all the time, and I followed this recipe to a ‘t’ (except for the butter, I always use salted and have never had issues), so I’m not sure where I went wrong. That being said, they were devoured within an hour of being baked, the kids were in high heaven eating these biscuits!
Sam
My best guesses would be the dough was over worked, too much flour was inadvertently used or they may have been slightly over-baked. Hope that helps and I’m glad everyone enjoyed them! 😃
Melissa
Followed your directions, and they turned out perfect! My bake time was a bit longer than expected though, mine were a bit thick. Thank you for sharing!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them Melissa!
Lianna
amazing recipe. first try they came out perfect your video helped guide me on technique. well done.
Sam
Hi Lianna! I am so glad the video was helpful! 😃
Sammy
I made these and they turned out absolutely amazing! I love the simplicity of them and the fact that there are only 6 ingredients!
Sam
Hi Sammy! I am so glad you enjoyed them!
Jim Vance
Im having shoes with them Rising enough and being fluffy any tips?
Sam
I would check your baking powder to make sure it’s not expired, make sure you aren’t working the dough too much, but make sure not to skip the folding over steps. 😃
Don
These biscuits were good. I over baked a bit and over worked the dough beforehand 😔. I never bake and barely cook unless grilling.
Sam
Sounds like you just need more practice! Any excuse for some more biscuits!! 😃
Crystal
Simple and delicious! I’m so glad I came across this recipe!
Sam
I’m glad you enjoyed them! I make them probably more often than what some would call healthy. 😂