Enjoying a big homemade breakfast on the weekend is one of my favorite things ever and no weekend breakfast is complete without buttery homemade biscuits. These easy biscuits are my “basic” biscuit recipe that I’ve been using for years. They’re quick, simple, and perfect alongside some fried eggs and bacon on a lazy Sunday morning. Slather on some butter and honey, or maybe your favorite jam, and that’s breakfast heaven.
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Ingredients for Homemade Biscuits
The best part about making homemade biscuits is that you only need pantry staples, which means you can whip up a batch at any time without any planning. Here’s what you’ll need to make this easy biscuit recipe:
- Butter: We use salted butter in our biscuits because that’s usually what we have on hand. If you have unsalted butter, add an extra scant ¼ tsp to the dry ingredients. To make this recipe easier, freeze your butter 30-60 minutes before you begin.
- All-Purpose Flour: Nothing fancy here, just your average everyday flour. If you want to add some whole wheat flour to the mix, you can substitute up to 50% without affecting the texture too much. Or, you can substitute with self-rising flour and leave out the baking powder and baking soda.
- Baking Powder & Baking soda: These two ingredients are responsible for making the biscuits nice and fluffy. Because we’re using vinegar to create a faux buttermilk, we us a combination of baking soda and baking powder to prevent the dough from being overly acidic.
- Salt: The master ingredient that helps every flavor become more bold. Salt is especially important in breads and baked goods that are comprised mostly of bland ingredients, like flour.
- Milk: Whole milk adds moisture and a little more fat to keep the biscuits soft and moist.
- Vinegar: Instead of having to buy buttermilk just for this recipe, we “faked” buttermilk by combining milk and vinegar. You can use any light vinegar, like apple cider, rice, or white vinegar. Lemon juice can also be used in place of vinegar.
Use Buttermilk for More Flavor
The recipe below uses a buttermilk substitute (milk + vinegar or lemon juice) because I don’t often have buttermilk on hand. But if by rare chance you do have buttermilk use that in place of the milk and vinegar and you’ll have the most delicious biscuits ever. While buttermilk substitutes provide the same acidity as buttermilk, they don’t quite have as much flavor.
The Biscuit Method
This recipe uses a cooking technique called The Biscuit Method. This technique involves working butter or another solid fat into flour. When fat is combined with flour in this way the fat prevents the flour from forming a gluten matrix (like you have with kneaded bread), which leaves the dough quite soft and tender. To keep your biscuits as soft and tender as possible, you’ll want to avoid kneading the dough and work with it as little as possible as you shape and cut your biscuits. You can read more about the mechanics of the biscuit method here.
How to Store Leftover Biscuits
If you have a smaller household don’t skip this recipe just because it makes 8 biscuits! You can either freeze the baked biscuits or freeze the unbaked biscuits to cook later. To freeze the unbaked biscuits, simply freeze them on a lined baking sheet until solid, then transfer them to a freezer bag. Label, date, and freeze up to three months. To bake the biscuits from frozen, simply bake them straight from the freezer and add a few minutes to the baking time.
To freeze the biscuits that have already been baked, allow them to cool completely to room temperature. Place the biscuits in a freezer bag and freeze for up to three months. Thaw the biscuits at room temperature or microwave for 15-30 seconds.
What to Serve with Homemade Biscuits
Biscuits go with everything. -Signed, a Southerner.
But in all seriousness, if you’re not used to eating a biscuit with every meal let’s start with the classics. Biscuits are great with fried eggs and bacon, they pair famously well with sausage gravy, and you can use them to make delicious breakfast sandwiches.
Aside from breakfast, homemade biscuits make a great side dish for any dinner, served in place of a classic dinner roll. They’re especially good with thick soups, stews, and chilis.
Homemade Biscuits
Servings 8Ingredients
- 8 Tbsp butter (salted) ($1.12)
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour ($0.39)
- 1 Tbsp baking powder ($0.06)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda ($0.02)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1 cup whole milk ($0.38)
- 1 Tbsp vinegar* ($0.06)
Instructions
- Freeze the butter for 30-60 minutes before you begin the recipe to make it extra cold and more solid for grating.
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. In a large bow, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until well combined.
- Use a cheese grater to grate the butter into the bowl with the flour. Once grated, use your hands to work the butter into the flour until it resembles cornmeal.
- Stir the vinegar into the milk. Pour the milk into the bowl with the butter and flour mixture, then stir until a dough forms.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, then press it into a large rectangle. Fold the dough in on itself in thirds, like folding a letter. Then press it into a rectangle once again, about ½ to ¾-inch thick.
- Use a biscuit cutter or a drinking glass (about 3-inches in diameter) to cut biscuits out of the dough. Gather up the scraps, press them down again, and cut a few more biscuits until all of the dough is used up.
- Place the biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet. For extra brown tops, brush a little milk on top.
- Bake the biscuits in the fully preheated 425ºF oven for 15-17 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Enjoy warm.
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Homemade Biscuits – Step By Step Photos
Before you begin, freeze 8 Tbsp butter (1 stick) for 30-60 minutes to make it extra cold and solid. This makes it easier to grate into the batter. When you’re ready to start making the biscuits, begin to preheat the oven to 425ºF. In a large bowl, combine 2.5 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 Tbsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, and ¾ tsp salt. Stir until they are well combined.
Use a cheese grater to grate the semi-frozen butter into the flour mixture. Once grated, use your hands to work the butter into the flour until it kind of resembles cornmeal.
Combine 1 cup whole milk and 1 Tbsp vinegar (or lemon juice). Alternatively, you can use 1 cup of buttermilk. Pour the milk into the butter and flour mixture.
Stir until it forms a cohesive dough. Be careful not to over-stir. Don’t worry if there is a little flour left on the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too sticky, you can add a little flour in the next step.
Place the dough onto a floured surface and press it down into a large rectangle. Fold the dough in on itself into thirds, like folding a letter. This helps create a few layers in the biscuits. Finally, press it down into a rectangle once again, this time about ½ to ¾-inch thick.
Use a biscuit cutter or a drinking glass to cut the biscuits out of the dough. The glass I’m using is 3-inches in diameter. When you’ve cut all you can from the one piece of dough, gather up the scraps, press it down into a rectangle again, and cut a couple more. I got 8 biscuits out of my dough.
Place the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you want the tops to get extra browned, you can brush a little milk on top.
Bake the biscuits in the fully preheated 425ºF oven for 15-17 minutes, or until golden brown.
Enjoy your homemade biscuits warm, slathered with butter, and drizzled with honey or a dollop of your favorite jam!
Just made these today! DELICIOUS!! Thank you so incredibly much for posting recipes and tremendously helpful step-by-step pictures!! I ABSOLUTELY LLLOOVVEEE BUDGET BYTES!!!
I made these for Thanksgiving this year. I doubled the recipe and split it into two batches, one plain and one garlic-cheddar. They were a huge hit. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Aha! I found powdered buttermilk at Target, so now I’m just trying to figure out how to incorporate it instead of the juice… Tomorrow morning is biscuit time!
Very tasty and easy! But mine didn’t rise as much as yours and tended to be a bit crunchy on the outside. I’ll have to keep working at it. :-)
oh dear god, ive never really handled dough before and i tried making these it was a catastrophe once step 5 started. i didnt throw down near enough flour and it became unworkable, i ended up just throwing my unworkable globs onto a baking sheet and they still came out pretty good somehow
i guess with a recipe this cheap though this is pretty much the perfect practice for working with wet dough though
Great recipe. I was bored tonight and tried out your recipe. I used lime juice and it worked just fine. Thank-you for starting this blog. I’m going to be living on my own soon and I plan to cook for myself a lot more. =)
Yes, I think lime juice would work fine :)
Can I use lime juice instead of lemon juice? All I have is that little plastic lime juice bottle.
Valerie- I’ve never cooked with whey so I’m not sure… I think it would change the flavor at least because, as far as I know, whey doesn’t contain the lactose that sweetens regular milk.
Jen- Cool! I’ve never seen the powdered buttermilk. I’m going to have to look for it at the store today. Thanks for the tip :D
Powdered buttermilk is the way to go. I love to bake with it and make salad dressings but I never used up the whole carton of buttermilk, Then I found out about the powdered stuff. It keeps forever in your fridge. You can find it at most grocery stores. Much cheaper than a carton of it as well.
Could I use whey instead of buttermilk?
I am super excited to try these biscuits. For some reason my biscuits always turn out not so good. These ones you made look great and easy!
Yes, use any vinegar that is clear and unflavored (no garlic or chili flavored etc.). Also avoid strongly flavored vinegars like balsamic. Hope that helps!
is regular vinegar mild enough?
I have the same affliction! Sleeping in which is something I always loved and was able to do now eludes me too! I am trolling the internet in the early morning hours myself.
Your biscuits look really good…I’ve never tried them from scratch but will have to give it a try. I usually don’t like baking mixes so these look good to me. Thanks.