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.
Denise
Excellent, easy recipe. Grating the cold butter makes all the difference. I don’t bother with a biscuit cutter, just pat into a square or rectangle, then cut into squares with a big knife. And I have also started using 25% whole wheat flour and 75% white flour. It lets me prentend they are health food.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you for the 5-star review, Denise! I am so glad that you enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂
Hilari
I put 7/8 tbsp of butter instead by accendent but it turned out to be the best buscuits i have ever had/ made!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Hilari! 🙂
Candice
So I was thinking about what to cook tonight and biscuits and hamburger gravy sounded good but did not have any canned biscuits. My husband said can you do them from scratch and I was like umm no lol. Well I decided to look amd came across your recipe and they turned out really good! Would have been better if I had actual butter but the margarine worked out okay. Thank you for letting me find out I can cook biscuits from scratch 😂😂
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you stumbled on my recipe and that you enjoyed the biscuits, Candice! You are on your way to becoming a pro! 🙂
Carol
I am in dire need of a homemade scratch biscuit but alas I’ve discovered that I’m out of milk 🥛. I am so very unhappy ☹️ and still craving biscuits Is it possible to make them any way sans the milk? Can I use water and extra ( softened or melted) butter. I’m desperate enough to try. I’ll keep you posted…
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Carol! I have never tried it with anything other than milk or buttermilk so I am not certain how the water/butter substitute will do. I hope that it does work well and your biscuit craving is cured. Please keep me posted on how they turn out! (fingers crossed)
Felicia
I made them right now with coconut milk (powder rehydrated with water).
Turned out awesome!
Chris
I am going to a Christmas Brunch and would like to bring biscuits, but I think a mini biscuit would be best with this large group, like 1 1/2 inch – do I need to change anything in the recipe?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Chris! Since the biscuits will be smaller, you just want to keep an eye on the bake time. I hope everyone enjoys them at your brunch. 🙂
TerryAnn Brandt
I love love love this recipe! These are the most wonderful, fluffy biscuits I’ve ever made! I have never laminated the dough before and this worked perfectly! Thankyou for sharing with us!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that you enjoyed them and that the laminating process worked perfectly for you! Thanks for commenting and for trying my recipe, TerryAnn! 🙂
Diane
Can I substitute buttermilk for the whole milk?
Sugar Spun Run
Hello, Diane! Yes, that will be fine! I hope you enjoy the biscuits! 🙂
Courtney
Hi! My family and I love this biscuit recipe so much!! So tasty and super easy. The last couple times I made it, though, I ended up with some clumps of baking powder in the biscuits that tasted pretty bad. Any tips for how to avoid this? Am I just not mixing the dry ingredients well enough? Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Courtney! I am so glad your family enjoys them! If you’re getting clumps of baking powder, try whisking the dry ingredients until combined. You also want to double-check to make sure that your powder isn’t expired. It sounds like it just wasn’t mixed well enough. I hope this helps! 🙂
Becky
I’ve begun measuring the baking powder into the bowl first, and then pressing the lumps out of my baking powder before stirring in the salt and sugar.
Next, I stir in the flour.
After that I proceed with the butter and milk. After that I proceed as recommended.
Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for sharing, Becky! 🙂
Ron
Try using a hand held colander put one cup flour then baking powder salt and sugar. Then put other cup on top and sift together. Worked good for me. We loved them.
Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for sharing, Ron! I will have to try it. I am glad you enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂
M2
Great recipe! I just cut the biscuits into 6 rectangles instead of the circles. Worked well.
Also made this adding a little more sugar, some vanilla and lavender for a yummy shortcake.
Thanks!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the biscuits and that they worked so well for a shortcake! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Tina
I love to bake and cook. I do quite well in the kitchen but…Biscuits…. have always been a problem for me until I tried your recipe. Now I feel like i can make the meals I love minus the hockey pucks I used to serve up!😀
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Tina! I am so happy that finally landed on a biscuit recipe that you enjoyed! Thanks so much for commenting. 🙂
Elizabeth Danley
Thank you for the recipe. Early morning here for my family, after the snow storm. Shoveling out in an hour and these baked up so fast and pretty. They are the moisted biscuits I’ve had in a long time.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so happy that the family enjoyed them, Elizabeth! I hope that you enjoy the snow and stay warm. 🙂
Julia
Hey, just a heads up. I appreciate the tips and method for making the biscuits, but the ingredient list indicates that 1 tablespoon instead of 1 teaspoon of baking soda be added. I was multi tasking like crazy and blindly following these steps. That ratio of baking soda I’m the dough made the biscuits completely inedible 🙁 I want to spare others in the future because they otherwise would have been delicious!
Sam
Hi Julia! Unfortunately the mistake was that baking soda was used. The 1 Tablespoon of baking powder indicated in the recipe is correct as written. If you try them again with the baking powder (1 Tablespoon) I think you’ll like them much better 🙂
Michael Hamburger
Thanks. These were easy to make and very delicious.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Michael. I am so glad that you enjoyed the biscuits. 🙂
Erin
Can this be made with margarine and almond milk (dairy free)?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Erin! I don’t recommend margarine, unfortunately, the oil base tends to keep the biscuits from getting those nice flakey layers that you are looking for here. As far as almond milk, others have used it and have had success. I hope that you enjoy the biscuits. 🙂
Sanaa
Hi, do I need to butter the parchment paper when I put the biscuits onto it.
Sam
Nope, no need 🙂