Easy Homemade Biscuit Recipe
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This is an easy biscuit recipe for buttery, tall, ultra-tender, fluffy biscuits that will make your morning a bit brighter and a bit more delicious. You’ll be so glad you tried them!
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What I Love About This Biscuit Recipe
These super simple, 6-ingredient buttery biscuits are easy to make with pantry ingredients that you may already have on hand.
And if you have them on hand, you are minutes from oven-warm, fluffy biscuits. All that’s needed is melting butter soaking into its tender crumb and, if you’re like me, a drizzle of honey. That’s my indulgent, simple pleasure of a morning well lived! Happy sigh.
And… a cup of tea (or coffee)… or both!
The secret to the best biscuits is using very cold butter and handling the dough lightly. We make a lot of biscuits in our house, but these are some of our favorites. They seem to make an appearance every weekend. You might also like to see my easy drop biscuits.
Two Ways to Make Homemade Biscuits
This biscuit recipe can be made in two ways: on a parchment-lined baking sheet or a 10 to 12-inch oven-proof skillet (like a cast iron skillet).
Both work equally well and deliver delicious golden brown flaky biscuits. The cast iron skillet is fun for serving and does give the edges a slightly dark, crispier exterior.
Either way, you will be deliciously happy with the results!
Biscuit Recipe Ingredients
I mentioned six ingredients. Here they are:
- All-Purpose Flour: I’m using all-purpose flour in this recipe, but soft white wheat flour, such as White Lilly, Martha White, and Bob’s Red Mill Fine Pastry Flour, are also great choices because of its lower protein content.
- Baking Powder: The leavening agent for these tall, fluffy biscuits.
- Sugar and Salt: Both add flavor.
- Cold Butter: It’s crucial that the butter is cold for the best results. I often use European-style butter for its higher fat content, like Kerrygold or Tillamook, which has a nice one, too. If you don’t have this one hand, plain salted or unsalted butter works well too.
- Milk or Buttermilk: I love how this recipe works with milk or buttermilk. If you love the tangy flavor of buttermilk, use it. You won’t need to change anything in the recipe.
How to Make Homemade Biscuits
Begin by preheating the oven to 425°F. Then, choose whether you will be baking the biscuits on a parchment-lined baking dish or an oven-proof skillet. If using a 10-inch or 12-inch cast iron skillet, butter the bottom and the sides. If using a baking sheet, line it with parchment paper.
Step 1: Cut in the butter
Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl (or a food processor). Grate frozen butter using a box grater and stir it into the flour mixture. Alternatively, cube very cold butter and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or food processor until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Step 2: Make a shaggy dough
Make a well in the middle of the flour, and then pour in the milk (or buttermilk). Stir until a shaggy dough forms.
Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle a little flour on top, and then bring the dough together. If the dough is too sticky, add flour as needed.
Step 3: Make biscuit layers and cut into circles
Without working the dough too much, pat it down into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Fold the dough into thirds, like a letter, press gently to flatten, rotate the dough, and repeat 3 or 4 times to build layers and make your biscuits tall.
Pat the dough into a rectangle between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch thick. Press a 2-3 inch cutter straight down into the dough, without twisting (which seals the edges and prevents rise), and transfer them to the prepared skillet (or parchment-lined baking sheet).
Gently rework the remaining scraps and cut as many biscuits as possible.
Step 4: Bake the biscuits
Bake until the biscuit tops are beginning to turn lightly golden brown, about 10 to 15 minutes. Brush with melted salted butter immediately after removing from the oven. Serve warm.
Biscuit Recipe Tips
- Use Cold Ingredients: Be sure that your butter and milk or buttermilk are cold. In fact, for the lightest and flakiest biscuits, consider freezing your butter ahead of time and grating it using a box grater before stirring it into the flour mixture. Grated butter distributes into flour quickly and easily, allowing the butter to stay cold when going into the oven. It also helps prevent overworking the dough.
- Avoid Overworking the Dough: If you want light and fluffy biscuits, it’s important to avoid overworking the dough. Keep in mind that you want your butter to stay as cold as possible when making these biscuits, and the more you work the dough with your hands, the softer and warmer the butter will become.
- Create Layers: In this recipe, we’re going to fold and rotate the dough a few times to create layers of butter in the biscuits. This helps encourage flakey layers and taller biscuits.
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Easy Homemade Biscuit Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour
- 5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 tablespoons (85g) cold butter
- 3/4 cup (270ml) whole milk or butter milk
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 425°F (218°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment (or butter an oven-safe 10-inch or 12-inch skillet like a cast iron pan).
- Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl (or a food processor). Then grate the frozen butter using a box grater or cube the cold butter and add it to the flour mixture. If using grated butter, stir it in; if using cubed butter, cut it in with a pastry cutter or food processor until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Make a well in the middle of the flour, and then pour in the milk (or buttermilk). Stir until a shaggy dough forms.
- Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle a little flour on top, and then bring the dough together. If the dough is too sticky, add flour as needed.
- Without working the dough too much, pat it down into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Fold the dough into thirds, like a letter, press gently to flatten, rotate the dough, and repeat 3 or 4 times to build layers and make your biscuits tall.
- Pat the dough into a rectangle between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch thick. Press a 2-3 inch cutter straight down into the dough, without twisting (which seals the edges and prevents rise) and transfer them to the prepared skillet (or parchment lined baking sheet).
- Gently rework the remaining scraps and cut as many biscuits as possible.
- Bake until the biscuit tops are beginning to turn lightly golden brown, about 10 to 15 minutes. Brush with melted salted butter immediately after removing from the oven. Serve warm.
Video
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.