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.
Lauri Ziemba
Should leftovers be stored on the counter or in the refrigerator?
Love these btw!
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Lauri! I am glad that you enjoyed the biscuits. I recommend storing the leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature. 🙂
Kelly
Yummy. Used leftover turkey to make biscuits & gravy. Biscuits were lovely.
Sugar Spun Run
I love the idea of turkey gravy, Kelly! A perfect way to use leftovers for sure! Thanks so much for using my recipe. I am happy you enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂
Sandra
Hello I’m just going to try this recipe as we are having Thanksgiving dinner tonight and my question is, if I only have salted butter can I use that and cut out the teaspoon of salt? I’ve actually had this recipe saved since June lol as soon as I read the reviews I thought I have to save it for Thanksgiving dinner!!! Thank you for the wonderful recipe I know they’re going to come out yummy unless I mess something up lol hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving!
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Sandra! Yes, that will be fine. I hope that everyone enjoys the biscuits. 🙂
Kathy Nicholas
Amazing! Best biscuits I have ever tasted and such good directions on how to make them. Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the biscuits, Kathy! Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Polly
Wonderfully smooth and fresh taste! This recipe was so easy. I watched the video after I made these so I didnt mix the dough as much once the milk was added; they were shorter and chunkier rather than thick and tall but nonetheless flaky goodness!!! I put my unsalted butter in the freezer for 20mins or so and used the box grater. Loved those tricks!! It helped to mark my 6 tablespoons on my butter stick and then grate away until I hit that mark and had 2 left to melt for the biscuit tops (my box grater is So sharp). Thank you Sam for the lovely recipe!!! Definitely my goto recipe now!! 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that you enjoyed the biscuits and found the tips helpful, Polly. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Rachel
I never leave comments…. but I had to come here and thank you for this!! I’ve never made homemade biscuits, but this was great!! They are delicious and wayyyyy better than the canned ones! I also appreciate all the extra tips – they were super helpful. Now, I am just trying to keep my family from eating them all before Thanksgiving dinner 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
That is awesome, Rachel! I am so glad that you enjoyed them. Good Luck keeping fingers off of them before dinner. lol.
Thanks so much for commenting. Happy Thanksgiving to you! 🙂
Dee
This may be kind of a silly question but if we are doubling the portion then do we also double the salt, sugar and baking powder.
Sam
Hi Dee! Yes you would need to double every ingredient. 🙂
Katie
Is it possible the make the dough a day ahead of time, and keep it in the fridge until ready to cut and bake? I wasn’t sure if keeping the dough overnight would prevent them from baking/rising properly.
Sam
Hi Katie! That would be fine, I would probably recommend cutting out the biscuits when you make the dough and then storing in an airtight container until you are ready to bake. I hope you love the recipe! 🙂
Katie
Thanks! I made a small batch this weekend that was absolutely delicious! Now I’m thinking of making a double batch of dough tonight so that it will be ready to bake tomorrow for Thanksgiving. 🙂
Sam
You can never have enough biscuits if you ask me. 🙂
Deedee
Hi there,
If I only have 2% milk on hand, will tis recipe work? Should I make any other adjustments to the recipe?
Thanks!
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Deedee! I have not tried it personally, however, other people have and reported no issue. You should be fine. I hope that you enjoy the biscuits. 🙂
Sam
Hi Deedee, others have made this recipe with 2% with success (no other changes needed).
Judie Ashford
I have been searching for a way to make biscuits with just butter, and for a way to not need to pull out the food processor (and then clean it later!), et voilá, you have provided this! I am so thrilled. Must try soon.
Am a buttermilk biscuit kind of girl, but thought that buttermilk as an ingredient required a bit of baking soda to be added to the baking powder. At least that is how it is with my buttermilk pancakes.
Virtual hugs,
Judie
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Judie! If you are a buttermilk biscuit person, others have substituted the 3/4 cup whole milk with buttermilk and have had great results. I hope that you enjoy the recipe! Let me know how they turn out when you do try them! 🙂
Carrie
These were yummy and flaky! I used buttermilk as I didn’t have whole milk, and the only other difference was I cut the biscuits into rectangles rather than using a biscuit cutter. I’ll be replacing my drop biscuit recipe with this one for sure!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for the 5-star review, Carrie! I am so glad that you enjoyed the biscuits! 🙂
Stephanie Chang
Looks exactly like what I was hoping to find. Any make-ahead tips?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Stephanie! If you make the biscuits ahead of time, I recommend storing them in an airtight container. They will stay fresh for a few days. Enjoy! 🙂
Stephanie Chang
Thank you!
JANET BROMAGEN
This was soooooo good! And the tips are so helpful!! Thank you thank you!!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the biscuits, Janet! Thanks for commenting. Happy Thanksgiving to you! 🙂
Tanika
Came out perfectly!! Thank you for the easy instructions!! I wish I can show you the picture!!
Lisa R Collins
Can I use buttermilk instead of regular milk? Thanks
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Lisa! Yes, that will be fine. I hope that you enjoy the biscuits. 🙂