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.
Emily
The best biscuits I’ve ever had! My husband always wants me to make them. Such an easy recipe too. Thanks so much!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Emily! I am so happy that you and your husband enjoyed the homemade biscuits. 🙂
Carolyn
This is similar to the recipe l’ve used for yrs. I swap out buttermilk instead of milk, 1 & 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup cake flour, 1/2 tea baking soda & 1/2 tea cream of tartar. Nothing better than biscuits 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
Glad you enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂
Amanda
can i make this dough they day before? teaching this to a class and their wont be enough time to do all in one class
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Amanda! Yes, you can. I recommend storing it in an airtight container. I hope that your class enjoys the homemade biscuits. 🙂
Alicia Santerre
These are probably the best biscuits I have ever had!! I have to make them weekly in our home!!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Alicia! I am so glad that you enjoy the homemade biscuits. 🙂
Madison
Can I make the dough in the morning and bake it for dinner? I plan on making the dough rounds and keeping them in the fridge until it’s time to bake.
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Madison! Yes, you can. I would just store it in an airtight container. I hope that you enjoy the biscuits. 🙂
Eugeania
Everyone at church loved them, I used two and half boxes of butter and almost half a gallon of milk but instead of making 54 I ended up with 34
Sam
I’m so happy to hear they were a hit, Eugeania!! 🙂
Eugeania
I have to make a lot of biscuits this morning (about 54 biscuits) how much butter and milk should I use?
Sam
Hi Eugenia! This recipe makes 6 biscuits so you will need to scale up from there. I have never scaled up the recipe quite that much though and would worry about the butter softening too much if you are working with that much dough at one time.
Ayesha
Can you add herbs and cheese to this recipe?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Ayesha! I haven’t done it personally, but that should be fine. I hope that you enjoy your biscuits. Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
Karen Hanson
Made it vegan: I had the urge to make biscuits & hadn’t in awhile, so I googled basic biscuits – liked the looks of this recipe, and OH BOY they are yummy! I think your directions for folding the dough rather than rolling out really made a difference. I used good quality organic white flour. A vegan shortening/butter cube ( 8 Tb instead of 6) and some coconut almond milk. 👍👍
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Karen! I am not used to baking vegan so your comment will be helpful to others who have asked. Thank you! I am so glad that you enjoyed the Homemade Biscuits. 🙂
Brittney
If I don’t have parchment paper can I use aluminum foil? Should I use nonstick spray?
Sam
Hi Brittney! I would bake them directly on a nonstick pan. If you don’t have a nonstick pan you could very lightly spray it. I use the parchment paper for really easy clean up. 🙂
Brittney
Thank you! My fiancé loves homemade biscuits & gravy. So I’m gonna make it for him tonight!
Sam
Will you be using my sausage gravy recipe? My husband eats like the entire batch of biscuits when I make it with sausage gravy!
Amelia Berkholder
Taste is fabulous! Used “creamline” fattier than whole milk from a local dairy (what I had on hand). I’m high altitude, so I left them in for an extra 1.5 minutes but wasn’t quite enough. I’ll play around to find the right high altitude time because this one is a keeper!
Sam
I’m glad you enjoyed the biscuits, Amelia! 🙂
Rose
Does it have to be whole milk? I only buy 2%. Thanks
Sam
Hi Rose! You can use 2% milk. The biscuits will just be a little drier than they would be if you made them with whole milk. 🙂
Linda
Can I use buttermilk instead of whole milk?
Sam
Hi Linda! That will work just fine. 🙂
Lauren
Gross! Too much baking soda. They tasted awful.
Sam
Hi Lauren! This recipe does not use baking soda. If you used that instead of the baking powder they definitely would taste awful, so I think that’s where things went off the tracks for you.
Bill
Haha, I made blueberry biscuits yesterday using similar recipe that I’ve used for years out of Betty Crocker cookbook. They always come out wonderful but use Crisco instead of butter. I’ll have to try this recipe. We love blueberry biscuits in my house. I will confess that some time ago I made two batches of biscuits that were awful they didn’t rise and were terrible. I thought the baking powder must have been old so I pulled it out to look at the date and realized I had used cornstarch!! Seems stupid I know but we had recently bought cornstarch and it came in small metal can that looked just like the baking powder. Embarrassing and I still hear about it, in a joking way.
Jennifer j littlejohn
dert da der….NOT baking soda, baking powder!! Good grief.
Bree
Can you use self-rising flower and cancel the baking powder?
Sam
I would not recommend it, sorry Bree!
Bree
I took the chance and it worked fine! Yay! Also, after I shaved my butter onto the flour mix (used the box grater) I put the entire bowl, prior to cutting in, in the freezer for about 15 minutes, only because I noticed the butter was pretty soft by the time I was done grating. It’s pretty humid where I live. I used the exact recipe except cancelling baking powder because I only had self-rising flour on hand. I’ve been told I’m now making the biscuits from here on! 👍🏻👍🏻 Two thumbs up! Thank you for the recipe!
Sam
I am so glad they turned out so well. 🙂