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!
These were easier to make than I expected and turned out so well! I ended up with 12 biscuits and they only needed 12-13 minutes to bake. Mine may have been a little smaller or thinner than the recipe. I’m saving this as my go-to biscuit recipe!
Is it possible to substitute half and half for the milk?
I haven’t tried that, but I bet it would just make the biscuits extra rich and delicious. :)
If you buy powdered buttermilk, which keeps in the fridge, you will never be without buttermilk.
This was so easy & had great flavor. My husband & I have been watching The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, & we’ve seen the method on there of freezing butter & grating it in to the dough, then folding in thirds, so it was great to see it in this recipe. I brushed the tops with butter before baking, then again when they came out. I’ve found in the past with recipes, that it gives more flavor than brushing with milk.
If you have sourdough starter, you can use a cup of that as the liquid to make sourdough biscuits. Just let them rise for an hour before baking.
I particularly like that this recipe uses butter–which I always have on hand–instead of the lard my mom always used and made herself. I’ve never warmed up to commercial lard. A brief explanation–I grew up on a farm, and when my dad had a pig butchered, he kept the fat which my mom rendered and canned. The rest of the pig was cut up and went to the freezer, except for the hams which were sent to a local German community to be smoked. Believe me, I also remember the cracklings which she froze and used in small amounts to flavor up a number of things. I don’t like using hydrogenated shortening for biscuits, either. I’m a butter person all the way. I prefer it with buttermilk, but since that’s rarely in the fridge, most often make it with this substitute.
Anyway–this is a terrific biscuit recipe, and I’ve made it a number of times since I first discovered this website. I usually freeze half the batch unbaked to be used later.
Everytime I’ve made these they come out flat :( I’m not sure why.
One of your ingredients like your flour, or your baking powder or soda might be expired. I had the same issue with a different recipe and replacing my expired baking powder fixed it for me.
If you push down only and do not twist, that should help. If I twist when cutting them. they never get the layers.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
I used a food processor to mix the butter, then kneaded a few times (doing the folding method like the freezer biscuits recipe) and cut into twelve pieces instead of doing rounds. Turned out great.
I’m making these for the very first time this weekend, & sawmill gravy!! (I’m English but have lived in South Africa for years, bit of a hybrid now). I can’t wait to try these but I may have some leftovers, so can I freeze them? Unless I half the recipe of course 😁
Wonderful recipe & the teaching is wonderful- thank you😁❤️ GREAT BISCUITS😁👍
Is it possible to use a milk substitute like oat milk? Thank you! Love your recipes!
Unfortunately I think I would need to test that to know just how much that substitution would change the outcome. Because this recipe has so much butter, you might be able to get away with it because the butter should keep things pretty moist, but I can’t say for sure. :)
I’ve used almond milk Everytime I’ve made these, and they always turn out well for me!
These are really good and very easy to make! I didn’t have a biscuit cutter so I used a 1 cup Pyrex dish and ended up making 6 large biscuits. Fantastic and amazing! Thank you for another budget friendly recipe that I’ll make frequently!
I wrote this recipe down on a physical piece of paper. That’s how much I like it. I usually do the folding thing too so I can get the layered effect.
That’s awesome!
Beth, you are a life saver!! It was 11 PM the night before Mother’s Day and I realized I didn’t have enough freezer biscuits left for our Mother’s Day breakfast the next morning. I had two options: drive 15 minutes (one way) to the store OR find a biscuit recipe with basic ingredients that I already had on hand. I quickly got on your website and searched “biscuits” and found this super simple biscuit recipe. This recipe was so easy to make and the biscuits turned out perfect. Best of all, they were homemade!