Bake up a batch of these buttery, fluffy homemade biscuits from scratch using 5 simple ingredients for foolproof results every single time!
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Best Biscuit Recipe
Everyone needs a simple homemade biscuit recipe to make, especially during soup season, and this one just happens to be the best! It promises flaky biscuits made from just 5 ingredients, and they’re easy to make too.
Fresh baked from the oven, these little gems are the perfect accompaniment to soups and stews like New England clam chowder, hamburger vegetable soup, and split pea soup, to name a few.
It does a great job of soaking up every last drop of broth. They are also just as good in the morning slathered with your favorite jam or gravy. We also love these biscuits with our homemade apple butter and pumpkin butter!
Ingredients You Will Need For These Fluffy Biscuits
Below is a list of the ingredients you’ll need to gather to make this great recipe. Scroll down to the full recipe card with amounts.
- All-purpose flour: It’s really important to measure your flour correctly. I always recommend using a kitchen scale for accuracy, but if you can’t, the spoon and level method works too. If you use too much flour, you’ll end up with dense, dry biscuits.
- Baking powder: This is what gives the homemade biscuits a fluffy lift.
- Salt: To enhance the flavor.
- Butter: Keep the butter cold until just before you grate it into the dough. The cold butter is what gives the biscuit flaky layers. I like to chill my butter in the freezer for about 15 minutes. You can use salted butter or unsalted.
- Milk: Any kind of milk you want. The higher the fat content, the richer the dough, so I’d say a minimum of 1% if you have it. Whole milk, 2%, 1% milk or buttermilk all work great. Heavy cream can also be used. You can even make these biscuits dairy-free by swapping the regular milk for the same amount of oat milk, soy milk, or almond milk and using a non-dairy butter instead.
How to Make Homemade Biscuits
These biscuits come together so easily with a handful of ingredients, a few minutes of mixing, and no chill time!
Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, which include flour, salt, and baking powder, to combine.
Step 2: Grate the cold butter into the flour mixture. Use your hands to mix until the pieces of butter are fully incorporated into the dry ingredients. They’ll look like coarse crumbs or small peas. It is completely fine to see chunks of butter in the dough! This helps them get fluffy!
Step 3: Pour in the milk and mix until a dough forms. Again, using your hands is an easy way to go about this. You can also use a fork or pastry cutter.
Step 4: Turn the dough over onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it down until it is about 1 ½ inches thick. I don’t like to use a rolling pin to do this. Be careful not to overwork the dough!
Also, if the dough is too sticky you can sprinkle a little flour over top to help.
Step 5: Use a round biscuit cutter to cut biscuits and place them into a prepared cast iron skillet or use baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Step 6: Bake biscuits for 18-20 minutes at 400° F until the tops are golden brown. Once they’re out of the oven, I like to brush the tops of the biscuits with a bit of melted butter before serving. So good!
Tips
- I repeat, to end up with flaky biscuits, you MUST keep your butter cold! Frozen butter isn’t a bad idea either.
- When you’re mixing the dough, if you notice it is a bit dry, add a bit more milk.
- If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, use the mouth of a glass or even a cookie cutter.
- Try not to twist the dough as you cut it. Just press and lift.
How to Store Leftovers
Make ahead: Freeze the dough by placing the cutout biscuits onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and flash-freezing them until they’re solid.
Then, transfer them to a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. This is just so they don’t freeze stuck together and you can just take out what you need.
No need to thaw them before baking them. Bake as directed, tacking on a few extra minutes, being careful they don’t brown too quickly.
Storage: Keep biscuits stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature or keep them refrigerated for up to 5 days.
Freeze: These freeze beautifully, whether you’re freezing the dough before you bake them, or the biscuits after.
Reheat: Reheat leftover biscuits in the oven at 300° F for 3-5 minutes until warm. You can also use the microwave for 15-20 seconds.
FAQ’s
Of course! Homemade buttermilk biscuits are fantastic and a great way to add even more flavor and texture to these delicious homemade biscuits. Whether it’s buttermilk or a buttermilk substitute, either can be used.
This is usually from using too much flour and overmixing the dough. Instead of scooping out the flour with your measuring cup, use a spoon to add the flour into the cup, bit by bit. This way, you’re not packing it in. Then, use the straight edge of a knife to scrape off any excess. Packed flour adds so much more flour than you need, resulting in dry biscuits (and other baked goods).
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Easy Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons butter unsalted, extra cold and grated
- ¾ cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° F and spray a cast iron skillet with non stick cooking spray. You can also line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, and baking powder and whisk until combined.2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt
- Grate the cold butter and add into flour mixture and mix with hands until incorporated fully.8 tablespoons butter
- Pour the milk in and mix with a fork or your hands until the dough forms. Add a tablespoon at a time of more of milk if the dough is a little dry.¾ cup milk
- Place the dough on a lightly floured counter or cutting board and pat down until it is approximately 1 ½ inches thick.
- Use a biscuit cutter to cut biscuits and place them in the prepared cast iron skillet. (or lined baking sheet). Try not to twist when when pressing down or lifting the cutter.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter if desired.
Notes
for about 5 days. Freeze: Biscuits freeze wonderfully. You can freeze them before baking or after. To freeze uncooked biscuits, cut the biscuits out, place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and place the pan in the freezer for two hours until frozen. Then remove from freezer and place in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months. Reheating: To reheat cooked biscuits, place them in the oven at 300° F for 3-5 minutes or until warm.
You can also place in the microwave in 15-20 seconds. To cook the frozen biscuits, preheat oven to 400° F. Bake as you would fresh. Just add a few more minutes to the baking time. Be sure to watch them so they don’t get too brown. How to make dairy free biscuits. Use any milk of choice. Full, 2% or 1% all work great. You can also make them dairy free by swapping the regular milk for the same amount oat milk, soy milk or almond milk and use a non-dairy butter instead.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclosure
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.
James
“This helps them to fluffy!”
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