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!
Great recipe – this the only one that worked for me. I also added one extra tablespoon of butter. Thanks for sharing!
Hi. Sorry if this has already been asked (I did scroll through the first page of comments and didn’t see anything).
Do you think I could safely sub soy milk for the milk (and use vinegar too) and use Earth Balance “butter” for the actual butter? Earth Balance is vegan butter and it comes in a tub and it quite firm, it’s not soft or spreadable.
Hmm, unfortunately those are some pretty big changes and I’ve not testing those substitutions, so I’m not sure how much it will affect the end product.
I made them with almond milk and Earth Balance this morning, and they were delicious!
Thanks for letting us know!
These were perfect! I used regular buttermilk. Worked great!
Made these tonight. The recipe is perfect. No fuss. Just all around great!
This is basic recipe for what in Australia we call scones. We vary the flavour by adding grated cheese or cheese& bacon grilled & to crumbled just before adding milk for breakfast. Fruit foe monrong tea/lunch etc.
Hi Beth! I love this website and have used lots of your recipes! This biscuit recipe was easy to follow and they were delicious. I did have trouble cutting out the biscuits and am wondering if I needed more flour? My dough was wet and sticky as described in the directions but so much so I could not properly pat it down and cut out my biscuits. It did not look like your in the picture when I was ready to use my cookie cutter. I kind of just plopped mounds of dough on the pan and they seemed to come out ok but really lumpy on top! LOL! Any tips? Thanks again for your wonderful website!
Yep, sounds like you might need just a bit more flour. :) And don’t be shy about dusting it liberally on top with flour before you cut them, as well.
I keep “powdered Buttermilk” on hand.
Call them biscuits or scones. Cut them square or press them round. What I loved about these biscuits was the buttery flavor! I know to not over-handle, or knead. Maybe the foil,(or parchment paper) that was recommend, plus greasing the surface made for a more crispy edge, made that buttery flavor hold through. Mine are so delicious. I don’t know if my *homemade buttermilk” affected the rise. I’ve been experimenting with biscuits for months now. These are dense and delicious. Not too heavy. Just hearty. Also I can make a wicked choc cake that’s vegan. I’m not on a vegan diet, I just find vinegar/or lemon juice a seamless alternative to buttermilk. We all under stand how standard buttermilk comes to be, right? Yuck. I like watching the milk curdle. Like 4th grade science, fun! Buy buttermilk, sure. But II prefer to create it. If you’re going to use it all, drink up !
Here is my mother’s secret to even better biscuits. She was so famous for her biscuits at my parents chicken dinner restaurant during the Great Depression that when Fisher’s “invented” biscuit mix, they wanted her to use it and to say that in their advertisements, but she refused. The secret is don’t make round biscuits, make square biscuits. That way, ALL the biscuits are tender, because you don’t have to keep re-rolling the dough from the scraps between the circles. Just pat into a square, cut into 8 or 12 square, depending on the size biscuits you want, and you are done. When I was little, I had a sleep-over with a friend and came home and told my mother, that the friend’s mother couldn’t make good biscuits, and I thought it was so strange that they were round. What a surprise to find out that we were the odd-balls! But great biscuits come from handling as little as possible. Knead very little. Just pat the dough in place, fold over, pat slightly, make a quarter turn, and continue around. Your biscuits will raise like little flaky towers.
In England these are not ‘biscuits’ (which are hard, with no raising agents) but SCONES, a very popular and traditional recipe from the West Country (Devon and Cornwall), where they are eaten with clotted cream and jam. Mmmmm…..!
PS we can buy actual buttermilk in our supermarkets too.
Well in the UNITED STATES theses are called BISCUITS
Surely these are scones..?
In the U.S. we call them biscuits. :)
Thank you for the terrific stirred biscuit recipe. It is our new favorite for biscuits and gravy!
I’ve been baking biscuits for my family for decades and this is the simplest recipe with the most outstanding results I have ever worked with. Biscuits were light, fluffy with just the right amount of crunch in the crust. This is my go-to from now on.
Made these today & they were yummy! Put 5 tbsp cold butter instead of 4 and used powdered buttermilk. Pressed three knuckles into each biscuit like my mother in law did when she made biscuits. These are good with jelly, apple butter, sausage patties, etc. Yum!
Hi,
Just wondering if you think this can be frozen? (before it is cooked)
Thanks
Oops sorry I didn’t see your previous reply that it can be :)