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.
MrPhil
My first attempt for making biscuits from scratch… I pretty much followed the recipe… No parchment paper, so I used a little avocado oil on the cookie sheet (high burn point) and I used a half-cup measuring cup to cut the dough… It made eight smaller biscuits that rose to about an inch high… Great buttery taste, not too sweet or salty… No more Pillsbury for me! Thanks for sharing…
Sam
I’m so happy to hear they were such a hit! Thank you so much for commenting, I appreciate it! 🙂
Gevay
I made these this morning for biscuits and gravy! They were fluffy and tender! Your tips were super helpful. I doubled the recipe. Thanks for taking the time and making the effort to share this recipe with us!
Sam
You are very welcome, I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed them so much, Gevay! Thank you for commenting, I really appreciate it! 🙂
Patricia Morris
Have you tried doubling or tripling this? I would like to make these for a large family dinner.
Sam
Doubling it works great! I’ve never tried tripling but I think that should be fine as well. The important thing is that the butter doesn’t get too warm or you lose some of that height/flakiness with your biscuits. Enjoy! 🙂
Brandi
My oldest daughter said they taste like Cracker Barrel, no thanks! High praise in my book, I could eat their biscuits all day 🙂 Made these because I didn’t go grocery shopping and I needed to feed the kids something this morning. These were perfect, soft, and flavorful. Putting these in our regular rotation!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Brandi! I am so glad that your family enjoyed the homemade biscuits and that you found something to add to your morning rotation. Enjoy! 🙂
Tamara
Biscuits turned out amazing!! Better than amazing. I substituted 1% milk because that’s what I had and used 1/2 cup gluten free flour as I didn’t have a full two cups of regular flour, with the swaps they were still delicious. I grated my frozen butter with my food processor grater attachment, super quick. I got 5 large biscuits from the recipe. I’m saving this one for all future biscuit recipes, the tips were great also, I’m pretty sure I’ve over mixed and was too tough handling the dough in the past, thank you. I definitely recommend watching the video to see how she handles and forms the dough.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Tamara! I am so glad that you enjoyed the homemade biscuits and that you found the video helpful. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Mary
I used to use Pioneer Mix to make biscuits until I happened upon your recipe. I make them frequently for my husband for breakfast because he loves them! They are truly the best biscuits!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Mary! I am so glad that you and your husband enjoyed the homemade biscuits. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Gina
What if butter is completely frozen? Will that still work?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Gina! Yes, it should work great. I hope that you enjoy the homemade biscuits. 🙂
Megan
Anything you can use as a substitute for the whole milk?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Megan! I have had others use 2% milk or buttermilk and have had success. I hope that you enjoy the homemade biscuits. 🙂
Alyson
I used 2 TBSP Heavy cream and the balance 2% because of what I had on hand and they still turned out wonderful! Best biscout recipe and tips, ever!
Sugar Spun Run
That is wonderful, Alyson! I am so glad that you enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂
Brandi
I only had 1% milk, so I added 1-2 tablespoons of melted butter to the milk to up the fat content. I didn’t have buttermilk, otherwise I’d have used that.
Mindy
Delicious! I didnt have time to freeze butter, and i just had salted. So didnt add any salt and i just chopped butter with knife and then hand blended it in flour mix. I only had 1% milk also. So i used 1/2 milk and 1/4 cup lowfat vanilla (kroger brand) yogurt. Im not a biscuit fan, 1st time ever making them actually. So I didnt have a cutter, just used a drinking glass turned over to cut roundness with. These turned out moist and yummy, and so easy to make.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Mindy! I am glad that they turned out well and that you enjoyed the homemade biscuits. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Jennifer
I made these using a gluten free flour blend and they turned out delicious! One of the best biscuit recipe I’ve tried
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Jennifer! I am so glad that enjoyed the biscuits and happy to know that it worked well with gluten-free flour. 🙂
Jackie
Good morning
I just took these out of the oven… They are Amazing (if I may say so myself,plus I already tried one :)) thanks for the video and tips, they really helped.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Jackie! I am glad that you enjoyed the homemade biscuits and found the video helpful. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Arlene Jones
I try this recipe along with the video and it came out perfect. It was my first attempt making Biscuits. love it!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Arlene! I am so happy that the biscuits turned out well and that you enjoyed them. 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Arlene! I am so happy that you enjoyed the homemade biscuits. 🙂
ted abrams
Thanks for recipe
Sugar Spun Run
You’re welcome, Ted! I hope you enjoy the homemade biscuits! 🙂
Elena Etcharren
Perfect recipe and guidance.
A box grater i interpreted to be simply my coarse cheese grater. Worked beautifully. I made them heart shaped and only needed to bake them 10 minutes.
Thanks for all your upfront prep advice – indeed easy – and delicious results.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Elena! I am so happy that you found the recipe enjoyable and easy to follow. Enjoy your biscuits! 🙂
Emma
Outstanding. I make biscuits regularly but these are now my ‘go to’ recipe. Thanks
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Emma! I am so happy that you enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂