Homemade Biscuits

This Homemade Biscuits recipe is the ultimate guide to making the perfect flaky, fluffy biscuits from scratch. Make them with basic ingredients using our PRO tips for the BEST buttermilk biscuits you’ve ever baked!

 

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

This Best Classic Biscuits recipe is one that we’ve been making in our family for decades. They’re absolutely perfect for serving alongside soups, stews or other savoury dishes, and they’re delicious topped with sausage gravy for breakfast or served with honey butter. If you’ve never made buttermilk biscuits from scratch and you want to give it a try, THIS is the recipe for you!

Although biscuits and scones share some ingredients and might look similar at first glance, there are some differences that set them apart:

1. Biscuits: Biscuits are usually made with less sugar than scones and they can sometimes be made with mix-ins like cheese, herbs, or garlic. Biscuits are usually served as a part of a meal. They’re almost always savoury, and served with savoury dishes like soups or stews, or as a part of sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, or the classic biscuits and gravy.
2. Scones: Scones are richer than biscuits, thanks to the fact that they contain a lot of sugar, eggs, and sometimes cream. Scones are sometimes made with mix-ins like fruit, nuts, or even chocolate, which are less common in traditional savoury biscuits. Scones are served as a sweet treat, usually with tea or coffee.

There are so many reasons why this buttermilk biscuit recipe is one of our favourites to make over and over again. Here’s just a few:

1. It’s QUICK to make. This biscuit dough comes together in minutes and bakes up beautifully in less time than it takes to wash the dishes.
2. It’s made BY HAND. There’s something special about baking from scratch, especially when you get your hands in there and truly make something by hand. And this biscuit recipe actually turns out better when it’s made by hand.
3. It’s VERSATILE. We love adding garlic powder and grated cheese to these biscuits for a savoury treat, but you can add fresh or dried herbs or other flavours to switch it up.
4. KIDS love it. Our kids love these biscuits with soups, stews, and even for breakfast with butter and jam, or made into breakfast sandwiches.
5. It’s FREEZER friendly. We make a double batch and throw half in the freezer for later. They’re great for pulling out of the freezer on a busy weeknight along with an Instant Pot soup recipe.
6. It’s BUDGET friendly. Just some basic pantry ingredients and a few other basic staples and this recipe comes together like nothing. Compared to buying biscuits at the bakery or those grocery store biscuits in a tube, these are SO much cheaper to make.

Want to make the BEST fluffy, flaky homemade buttermilk biscuits? Here’s how to do it!

Cold butter straight from the fridge is what helps create those flaky layers you see in restaurant biscuits. Using warm or room temperature butter will cause your scone dough to be too liquid-y and you’ll end up with a mushy mess and dense, heavy biscuits. When the butter is cold the fat remains solid, which is what creates those flaky layers.

In our experience, the BEST way to combine the dry ingredients and the butter is with your hands, using quick rubbing motions. Pick up a handful and rub it once between your hands to create small sheets of butter instead of tiny clumps. This will help create those flaky layers instead of big pockets of air inside your biscuits.

Buttermilk creates such fluffy biscuits with a soft interior. Be sure to use buttermilk, not just regular milk, in this recipe.

Don’t over-mix or over-work the dough. Nobody likes a tough, dry biscuit, and this is what over-mixing the dough will create because mixing activates the gluten in the flour. Mix just until the flour almost disappears and you’ll be left with flaky layers and a nice, tender scone!

When the dough is just about mixed (when you still see streaks of flour), pour it out onto a lightly floured work surface and fold it in half, and in half again (and again) until everything is combined. This will also create delicious layers and prevent the dough from becoming dry.

Pat the dough out to a thickness of about 2.5 cm (1 inch). Thinner dough won’t rise as well, and you’ll end up with biscuits that are flat and less flaky.

When cutting out your biscuits, use a sharp, straight-edged cutter to press down directly through the dough. Some recipes recommend using a glass, but we’ve found that when you use a dull-edged cutter or when you use a sharp cutter and twist the cutter it can seal the edges of the scone and prevent it from rising properly. If you do use a glass, try to use one with a sharp edge.

To give your biscuits a professional bakery look, lightly brush the tops with egg wash (beaten egg mixed with water) before baking. This will help the tops turn a beautiful golden brown.

Space the biscuits about 2 to 3 inches apart on the baking sheet to allow for even cooking and proper heat distribution as they bake.

Make sure your oven is properly preheated to a higher temperature (375 degrees Fahrenheit or 190 degrees Celsius) so when your biscuits hit the heat of the oven they’ll rise quickly and form a crisp outer shell that will help to lift the dough as they bake.

The key to baking up perfect fluffy and flaky homemade biscuits is in the science of how the ingredients, especially the butter, are incorporated into the dough. The texture of the biscuits depends on how the butter interacts with the flour before and during baking. When cold fat, like butter, is mixed with flour and then heated in the oven, it melts and releases steam. It’s this steam that helps to create layers and thin pockets within the dough, giving it lift and flakiness.

Here are the four most common methods to incorporate butter into the flour mixture:

1. Sheeting Butter by Hand: This is our favourite technique when it comes to making biscuits and scones. It involves flattening chunks of cold butter directly into the flour mix using the palms of your hands. Pick up a handful of the mixture and rub it once between your hands to create small sheets of butter instead of tiny clumps. This method allows the butter to remain in larger, flatter pieces within the flour, which melt during baking to create pockets of steam that give the biscuits flakiness.
2. Grating Frozen Butter: An alternative and almost as effective method is to grate frozen butter into the flour mixture using a box grater. This technique distributes the butter more evenly throughout the flour, which can promote a uniform texture and consistent flakiness throughout the biscuit. But since the butter flakes are smaller, the biscuits aren’t quite as fluffy and flaky as when you create sheets of butter by hand. After grating, quickly toss the butter shreds into the flour mixture to coat them before they begin to melt. This helps keep the mixture cold and delays the fat from integrating fully into the flour, ideal for achieving a light, airy texture.
3. Using a Pastry Cutter: For those who prefer not to get their hands buttery, a pastry cutter or pastry blender offers a clean and efficient way to cut butter into the flour. This tool helps break the cold butter into small pebbles or coarse crumbs without warming it, which is crucial for flaky pastry. The key here is to avoid overworking the mixture; you’re aiming for a crumbly texture where some larger pieces of butter are still visible. These bits of butter will melt as the biscuit bakes, creating similar pockets of steam. With this method, the biscuits are fluffy but less flaky since the butter pieces are in chunks, not sheets.
4. Using a Food Processor. We hate washing extra dishes so this method isn’t our first choice, but the butter and dry ingredients can be added to a food processor and pulsed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. This method works in a similar way to using a pastry cutter, and it results in a fluffy biscuit without the same flakiness as the first two methods because the butter pieces are in chunks, not sheets.

Each method has its benefits, and choosing one over the other can depend on personal preference or the specific texture you’re aiming for in your homemade biscuits. We always choose the first method, sheeting the butter by hand, because in our experience it yields the best, most professional results and the flakiest biscuits and scones.

Regardless of the method you choose, the main principle remains: the butter must stay as cold as possible while being integrated into the flour to prevent it from blending too thoroughly into the flour before baking. This ensures that during baking the butter melts and creates steam and lift, resulting in light, flaky, and tender biscuits.

There’s a bit of a debate on whether or not butter or shortening makes the best homemade biscuits. Here’s a breakdown of how both ingredients work in a homemade biscuits recipe:

1. Shortening: Shortening is 100% fat which means it contains no water. Liquids like water increase the formation of gluten, making baked goods more sturdy and structured. The absence of water in the shortening means that biscuits made this way are usually softer and more tender and bread-like than biscuits made with butter.
2. Butter: Because most high quality butter is around 80% to 85% fat, it contains some water which causes the biscuits to rise and puff up, making them flaky with the most gorgeous layers. Butter also adds a lot of flavour and rich taste, but biscuits made with butter are slightly less soft and fluffy than biscuits made with shortening.

Here’s a list of the basic kitchen equipment you’ll need to have on hand to make these homemade biscuits (paid links):

• mixing bowls
• measuring cups and spoons
• liquid measuring cups
• whisk
• large baking sheet or baking tray
• Parchment Paper
• Pastry Brush
• pastry cutter optional

Here’s a list of the ingredients you’ll need to make this delicious homemade buttermilk biscuits recipe (paid links):

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cup low fat buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup unsalted butter cold from the fridge
• 1 large egg and 2 tablespoons water (for the egg wash)

Want to take this homemade biscuits recipe to the next level? Here are our favourite variations on this basic buttermilk biscuit recipe!

1. Cheddar Cheese – Add 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese and 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder to the biscuit dough for a savoury twist.
2. Herb – Mix in 1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh herbs like parsley, chives, or dill to infuse the biscuits with a fragrant flavour.
3. Bacon and Onion – Fold in 1/2 cup of cooked, crumbled bacon and 1/4 cup of finely diced caramelized onions for a richer version of the original.
4. Blueberry – Gently fold 1 cup of fresh blueberries into the dough for a sweet and tangy version, perfect for breakfast or brunch.
5. Whole Wheat – Replace half of the flour with whole wheat flour for a heartier version.
6. Jalapeño Cheddar – Add 1 minced jalapeño and 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the dough for a spicy twist.

We hope you love this classic buttermilk biscuits recipe as much as we do! Let us know in the comments below, what’s your favourite soup you’d serve with these homemade biscuits? We’d love to know!

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