The BEST Homemade Biscuit recipe you’ll ever try! These easy, homemade biscuits are soft, flaky, made completely from scratch and can be on your table in about 15 minutes! A weekend staple in our house! Love all things breakfast? Me too! Make sure to give my amazing Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes and Lemon Blueberry Scones a try!
Almost every weekend I whip up a batch of these easy homemade biscuits. It’s by far my favorite biscuit recipe and since it’s so easy, we make them all the time.
There is nothing quite like a warm, buttery, flaky biscuit straight from the oven that you can slather with butter and jelly, make into a biscuit breakfast sandwich, or enjoy with sausage gravy. I used to buy the mixes (and I’m sure I will pick up a box in the future again) but with a biscuit recipe this easy, it’s just as easy to make biscuits from scratch.
This easy biscuit recipe has never failed me and after much tweaking it is my go-to biscuit recipe. The biscuits rise up nice and fluffy and the copious amounts of butter ensure a tender, delicious biscuit each and every time.
What Ingredients Do I Need for Homemade Biscuits
Not a whole lot! And I’m pretty sure you have most, if not all, of these on hand in your pantry. The one ingredient you may see in this list that could be a little unfamiliar is the cream of tartar. I use it in my Snickerdoodles recipe and love it in biscuits but if you don’t have it on hand, please, don’t let that stop you from making this biscuit recipe. Go ahead and omit it from the recipe.
You’ll notice this list is very similar to the ingredients used in my scones recipe. My scones call for heavy cream instead of whole milk and a more substantial amount of sugar.
I should also note that my brother makes these biscuits every weekend and doesn’t use the egg, like, EVER. In fact, neither does my little sister. If you want to leave it out, go ahead.
- all-purpose flour
- sugar
- salt
- baking powder
- cream of tartar
- COLD butter
- egg
- milk
Tips for Making Biscuits
- The secret to excellent biscuits is COLD BUTTER. Really cold. Many times the biscuit dough gets worked so much that the butter softens before the biscuits even go in the oven. You want to handle the dough as little as possible because we want that butter to stay cold.
- I use two methods tor incorporate the butter into the flour mixture.
- One is to cut the butter into small pieces, refrigerate or freeze until ready to use, and then use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the mixture when ready.
- The second is grating frozen butter with a box grater and then stirring it into the flour mixture.
- Both work great so use the method you prefer. Don’t go too crazy here – you want to see small, pea-sized pieces of butter throughout the dough.
- To keep the butter from melting at all, use a cold egg and cold milk as well.
- The dough is going to be sticky so you want to generously flour the surface before turning your dough out onto it. I also sprinkle some flour on top before working with the dough.
- You can either use your hands to pat the dough out, or, if you prefer, use a rolling pin to very gently roll the dough out. I always just use my hands because at this point, they’re already a mess. If the dough is sticky, just sprinkle on additional flour, about a tablespoon at a time.
Can I Use Buttermilk in this Biscuit Recipe?
Yes, you absolutely can and we frequently do. Since buttermilk is thicker than regular milk, you will need slightly more to get the dough to the right consistency. Start with one and one-quarter cup and add more as needed.
To get a nice, tall biscuit, I like to pat the dough out to 3/4 to 1 inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. I ended up with nine this time but depending on who is snacking on biscuit dough, I can get up to 12 biscuits.
Baking the biscuits is super quick – just about 10 minutes is all you need. I like to bake my biscuits on parchment paper but if you don’t have that on hand, lightly grease your baking sheet.
For extra yumminess, brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter…
And serve with jams and jellies for a serious treat.
What You’ll Need to Make Biscuits
- A baking sheet that can handle the size of the scones.
- Biscuit cutter so you get nice evenly sized biscuits.
- Parchment paper makes removal of these biscuits painless and ensures they come off in one piece.
- A pastry cutter makes quick work of cutting the butter into the flour. Two knives or forks will also work or you can use a box grater.
- A pastry brush to brush on melted butter when the biscuits are hot from the oven.
More favorite breakfast recipes:
- The BEST Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes
- Ham and Cheese Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole
- Baked Cherry Cheesecake French Toast
- Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Lemon Blueberry Scones
How To Make Biscuits
Perfect Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 3/4 cup COLD butter
- 1 egg
- 1 cup whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- The secret to excellent biscuits is COLD BUTTER. Really cold. Many times the biscuit dough gets worked so much that the butter softens before the biscuits even go in the oven. Try cutting the butter into small pieces and stick back in the fridge pulling out only when ready to incorporate into the dough.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Use a pastry cutter to cut cold butter into flour mixture. Don't go too crazy here - you want to see small, pea-sized pieces of butter throughout the dough.
- Add in the milk and egg and mix just until the ingredients are combined. The dough will be sticky but don't keep working it. You should be able to see the butter pieces in the dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface. Sprinkle some flour on to the top of dough so it won't stick to your fingers and knead 10-15 times. If the dough is super sticky just sprinkle on some additional flour.
- Pat the dough out to 3/4 - 1 inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter or glass. I ended up with nine this time but depending on who is snacking on biscuit dough, I can get up to 12 biscuits.
- Place the biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.
- For extra yumminess, brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter...
Video
Nutrition
Recipe originally published May 22, 2012.
More breakfast recipes to enjoy:
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Have a great day!
Samuel says
My go to recipe for perfect biscuits! Thank you
Eric says
Like!! Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Thansk you
Sean says
I have tried many biscuit recipes over the years, this one came out amazing! I will admit, I did take some liberties, I used homemade almond milk, I don’t keep regular milk at the house. I also added 1/4 cup of my sourdough starter to add some acid to the dough, not for the rising properties, which requires a few extra minutes of cooking due to the added liquidity. These are a sweet taste and airy texture, perfect for salty sausage gravy!
Charlotte says
Just super easy and delicious! I also did not have quite as fluffy biscuits (dough was about 1 inch high and I did follow the tricks to not overwork it, use everything cold (the dough was literally in ambient air for less than 7 minutes) and to cut the rounds just up and down. I can say my hand formed biscuits were a little taller so maybe it’s that sensitive. Next time I’ll try folding it as well to get a few more layers but ultimately this is a keeper, thank you!
Trish says
Another Trish here!
Can I make and cut out the dough in advanced then put it back in the fridge til I’m ready to bake them? Thinking of Thanksgiving where I won’t have the counter space at meal time 😊
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Yes, absolutely! You will likely need to add a couple minutes to the baking time though. Happy Thanksgiving!
Mammacooks says
I just made these! I sub the butter for crisco and they still turned out AMAZING!!
Kevin Bertsch says
Loved this. I added one more Tbsp of sugar because we like that sweeter flavour. I also recommend freezing the butter, and cutting it with a box grater.
However, I don’t ‘knead’ the dough, per se. I form it into a shaggy rectangle, and with the help of my bench scraper, I fold one third in from each side, turn the whole thing 90 degrees, and then push it out into a rectangle again. I do that three more times (tip: brush some flour underneath during the turns, else it will stick to your board). I make my final rectangle approx 4 cookie cutters by 2 cutters in width to get 8 biscuits. Rearranging the scraps and doing one more turn and fold should give you at least four more.
Christina says
These were just wonderful. I added some garlic powder,yummmm
Rachel says
I’d started one batch of biscuits using a different recipe (bad sign already, I know). They came out flat, doughy, and somehow I never got them to brown on top despite leaving them in the oven entirely too long. But I still had another batch to go. Desperate to save my biscuits, I edited what I’d already made of that recipe to match this one, and voila – they came out PERFECTLY! Got a great rise, lots of beautiful, flaky layers, lovely browning on top, and they taste absolutely wonderful. I don’t have a pastry cutter, but they seem to have come out perfectly fine using the bigger holes on a box grater to grate in VERY frozen butter. Again, fantastic recipe, will definitely be keeping and passing on to friends!
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Love this! Thank you so much Rachel!
Judy says
These are absolutely the best biscuits. They’re my go to recipe, made them a couple of times now and always turn out. 🙂
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Thank you Judy! I appreciate you taking the time to comment ❤️
Kathy Poston says
I’m from and live in the South, and I’ve eaten lots of biscuits in my 70 years. I’ve tried many different ways of baking biscuits, all kinds of recipes, including my Mother & Grandmother’s recipes. These are absolutely the most perfect, delicious biscuits that I’ve ever tasted!!! Bar none!!! They’re easy to make and turn out perfect every time. In my oven, they only take 10 minutes but I left them a couple of minutes longer to have a nice crispness. I brushed them with melted butter (please, no margarine) right out of the oven. Devastatingly GOOD!!!! Melt in your mouth GOOD!!! I can’t say enough good things about this recipe, which will go in my DIY cookbook of family recipes. This is the one that will be passed down in the family! The only thing I did a little differently, is that I put the butter in the freezer for about 15 minutes and then grated it into the bowl; then I cut it into the flour (gently), folding over. The dough is quite sticky but that’s a sign of a good biscuit. Just keep sprinkling flour and flip the dough a few times to get those fluffy layers. Thank you for sharing this most unique and wonderful recipe!!!
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
I really truly appreciate this so much Kathy! Made my day! Have the BEST week!
Elizabeth Ahlstrom says
I’ve made a lot of biscuits. This recipe kept popping up. So I gave it a try. And…. I will always use it now!
I grate refrigerator butter, then freeze. Saves a lot of muscle.
Simply the best recipe, so worth a couple extra ingredients!
Thank you!
Tristan says
This is indeed perfect. I love that it has the sweetness profile of an angel biscuit without the the fuss and wait. I did a quick 2 folds to add some layering and patted the dough into a rectangle about 1/2 thick. Instead of using a biscuit cutter, I trimmed the edges off and cut the dough into square biscuits. I got 9 really nice sized tall biscuits without having to reroll the scrapes that you have when you use a biscuit cutter. Thank you for the GREAT recipe!
Mark Gassmann says
Wonderful – best I have ever made
Gentry says
I halved the recipe since I’m the only one at home and skipped the egg (who uses half an egg?). Instead of turning the oven wayyy up in this summer heat, I cooked in my instant pot duo crisp +air fryer at 400 for ~7 minutes. Turned out great! Great recipe!
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Love it! 7 minutes? That’s awesome!
Andrew Rose says
Absolutely the best biscuits we ever tasted! Thank you from our family to yours for giving us this recipe.
Angela says
Best biscuits ever! My oven cooks a little hotter so next time I’ll adjust the time or temp but even a little crisp on top and bottom these are so delicious!
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Thank you so much Angela!
Talisha Traphagan says
This was the first recipe I’ve tried for homemade biscuits! Needless to say it’s the only homemade biscuit recipe I will be using. The taste is amazing!!! I do have a couple questions though. First, my biscuits aren’t really fluffy like yours show in the picture. Is there a trick to that or something I need to do differently? Second, do these have to be refrigerated after baking or can they be left out? Thank you so much for this great recipe!!! We love it!!
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
A couple tricks for fluffy biscuits include not twisting your cutter when you cut the biscuits, just go straight down and up and also, make sure your butter is still cold in the dough when the biscuits go into the hot oven. The steam from the butter melting is what creates the lift and fluffiness of the biscuits. Hope that helps! Also, we just transfer any leftovers to a ziploc bag or pop in the freezer. Thanks Talisha!