These homemade biscuits are soft and buttery with dozens of flaky layers. This biscuit recipe requires just 7 ingredients and they’re ready in about 35 minutes.
I originally published this recipe in 2017 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips.
One reader, Marcia, commented: “Finally, a biscuit recipe that worked for me. I especially appreciated the notes which, in fact, had me change some things I had been doing. The detail at all levels, both visual and written, is very helpful. ★★★★★“
Another reader, Maggie, commented: “One of my favorite biscuit recipes! They are so consistently flaky and delicious, every single time! ★★★★★“
It’s quite serendipitous that this “side dish” may taste even more remarkable than the main event. No, no… it WILL taste more remarkable. Just look at the big buttery layers! Nothing can compete.
What Are Biscuits?
The term “biscuits” has different meanings depending on where you live in the world. In the U.S., biscuits are similar to a dinner roll, but are denser and flakier because they aren’t (typically) made with yeast. Since there’s usually no yeast and the rising agent is either baking soda, baking powder, or both, biscuits are considered a quick bread, like banana bread and no-yeast bread. In other parts of the world, people may consider these American-style biscuits to be more similar to scones, and what they call “biscuits” are more like what we call cookies.
7 Key Ingredients in Homemade Biscuits
You need just 7 basic ingredients for my homemade biscuits recipe:
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Cold Butter
- Cold Buttermilk
- Honey
With so few ingredients, it’s important to reach for quality ingredients and avoid any substitutions.
Baking Powder AND Baking Soda
Until recently, this biscuits recipe called for just baking powder as the leavening agent. In recent years, I’ve found that the texture, color, and flavor excels when using a combination of both baking powder AND baking soda. If you’ve always made this recipe using 2 Tablespoons of baking powder, you can certainly continue to do so! However, by reducing the baking powder to 1 Tablespoon and adding 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, the biscuits brown more, have a flakier texture, crispier edges, and you don’t risk a bitter chemical aftertaste.
Success Tips for the Best Homemade Biscuits
After perfecting this recipe over the past 8 years and developing other biscuit recipes, let me share what I’ve learned along the way. I’ve made plenty of mistakes so you don’t have to. These tried-and-true tricks will turn your flat, dry biscuits into the best biscuits ever. And that’s a guarantee.
- Cold Fat: For flaky layers, use cold butter. When little pieces of butter melt as the biscuits bake, they release steam and create little pockets of air—this makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside while remaining crisp on the outside. It’s the same thing that happens when making these ham & cheese scones.
- Buttermilk & Honey for Flavor: Buttermilk and a teeny drizzle of honey balance out the salt. Buttermilk creates the most tender biscuit! I have plenty more on this topic in my Baking With Buttermilk post (including a buttermilk substitute recipe).
- Don’t Over-Mix: Never overwork biscuit dough. Overworking and over-handling biscuit dough will result in tough, hard, and flat biscuits. Mix the ingredients together *just* until combined. Dough will be crumbly; that’s normal.
- Flatten & Fold Method: The most important step of all is folding the dough together. Turn the scrappy dough out onto a work surface and flatten it with your hands. Fold, flatten, turn, and repeat.
- Don’t Twist the Biscuit Cutter: When cutting the dough with a biscuit cutter, do not twist the cutter. Press the cutter down into the dough firmly. Twisting it will seal off the biscuit edges, preventing the biscuits from rising.
- Bake Close Together: Biscuits rise up nice and tall when they are touching, pressed snuggly against one another in the oven.
How to Make Your Homemade Biscuits
Whisk the dry ingredients together, then add the cubed butter. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, like when making pie crust or this savory quick bread, or pulse in a food processor. Cut/blend in the butter until you have coarse crumbles, like this:
Add the buttermilk and honey. Mix everything together until you have a shaggy dough, like this:
Pour it out onto a work surface and bring the dough together with your hands. It will be dry and shaggy with some moist spots. That’s all perfectly normal:
Fold & Flatten the Dough
Flattening and folding biscuit dough creates multiple flaky layers, just as it does when we make homemade croissants, rough puff pastry, homemade cruffins, mille-feuille, and croissant bread. This step will take you no more than 2 minutes and you’ll be rewarded with the flakiest biscuits in the world. First, shape dough into a rectangle, about 3/4-inch thick:
Then fold one side into the center:
Then the other side:
Turn the folded dough 90 degrees so it’s now horizontal, gently flatten, and repeat that folding process 2 more times.
After you’ve folded and flattened 3 times, flatten into a 3/4-inch rectangle once again, then use a biscuit cutter to shape into rounds. If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, you can cut into 8 to 10 squares.
Arrange close together in a cast iron skillet (no need to preheat it), or on a lined baking sheet. Again, make sure the biscuits are touching so they will rise nice and tall.
Before baking, brush the biscuits with buttermilk to help the tops brown evenly.
Honey Butter Topping
The honey butter topping is optional, but will set your biscuits apart from the rest. When the biscuits come out of the oven, brush with melted butter + honey. You use both ingredients in the biscuit dough, keeping the count at 7 ingredients total.
Serve your homemade biscuits with jam or homemade raspberry sauce, cinnamon butter, or biscuits and gravy—I love this particular recipe. Or a swipe of homemade honey butter really kicks it up a notch! You could also create delicious breakfast sandwiches with these breakfast sausages.
So Many Variations
I bake biscuits often, and use the same process and success tips when making all of my favorite variations including cheddar biscuits, everything bagel biscuits, and zucchini biscuits. I also make biscuit-topped vegetable pot pie and biscuit breakfast casserole. And you can absolutely turn these into dessert with my recipes for biscuit-topped berry cobbler and homemade strawberry shortcake.
I make these biscuits on almost a weekly basis, and what makes them a hit every single time is the combination of very cold butter and buttermilk. Additionally, the careful folding and flattening method helps produce dozens and dozens of flaky layers. Follow the recipe below closely.
Bake the biscuits in a cast iron skillet, which helps the edges crisp up beautifully. Additionally, use a pastry brush to coat the tops of the biscuits with a little buttermilk before baking.
You can use a food processor to cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients, but if you do not own one, you can use a pastry cutter instead. A pastry cutter is an extremely helpful baking tool.
Homemade Biscuits (Popular Recipe!)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8-11 biscuits
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These homemade biscuits are soft and buttery with hundreds of flaky layers! This biscuit recipe only requires 7 simple ingredients and they’re ready in about 35 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed for hands and work surface
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder (see Note)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (see Note)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, cubed and very cold
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons (270ml/g) cold buttermilk, divided
- 2 teaspoons (14g) honey
Optional Topping
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) butter, melted
- 1 Tablespoon (21g) honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).
- Make the biscuits: Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl or in a large food processor. Whisk or pulse until combined. Add the cubed butter and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or by pulsing several times in the processor. Cut/pulse until coarse crumbs form.
- If you used a food processor, pour the mixture into a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Pour 1 cup (240ml/g) buttermilk into the well and drizzle honey on top. Using a large spoon or spatula, fold until it begins to come together. Do not overwork the dough. The dough will be shaggy and crumbly with some wet spots.
- Pour the dough and any dough crumbles onto a floured work surface and gently bring together with generously floured hands. The dough will become sticky as you bring it together. Have extra flour nearby and use it often to flour your hands and work surface as needed in this step. Using floured hands, flatten into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle as best you can. Fold one side into the center, then the other side on top. Turn the dough 90 degrees, so it’s now horizontal. Gently flatten into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle again. Repeat the folding again. Turn the dough horizontally one more time. Gently flatten into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle. Repeat the folding one last time. Flatten into the final 3/4-inch-thick rectangle.
- Cut into 2.5- or 3-inch circles with a biscuit cutter. (Tip: Do not twist the biscuit cutter when pressing down into the dough because this seals off the edges of the biscuit which prevents them from fully rising.) Re-roll scraps until all the dough is used. You should have about 8–11 biscuits. Arrange in a 10-inch cast iron skillet (see Note) or close together on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Make sure the biscuits are touching.
- Brush the tops with remaining buttermilk. Bake for 18–20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven. If adding the optional topping, whisk the melted butter and honey together. Using a pastry brush, brush the warm biscuits with honey butter topping. Serve warm.
- Cover leftovers tightly and store at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Baked biscuits freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or in the refrigerator, then warm up to your liking before serving. You can also freeze the biscuit dough. Prepare the dough in steps 2 through 4. Wrap up tightly in plastic wrap (plastic wrap is best for freshness) and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then continue with step 5. Also, after step 4, you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days before continuing with step 5.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Pastry Cutter or Food Processor | 2.5- or 3-inch Biscuit Cutter | 10-inch Cast Iron Skillet (or Baking Sheet with Parchment Paper) | Pastry Brush
- Baking Powder: In 2025, I updated this recipe to use both baking powder and baking soda. I’ve found that the texture, color, and flavor excels when using a combination of both. If you’ve always made this recipe using 2 Tablespoons of baking powder, you can certainly continue to do so! However, by reducing the baking powder to 1 Tablespoon and adding 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, the biscuits brown more, have a flakier texture, crispier edges, and you don’t risk a bitter chemical aftertaste.
- Butter: Cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Keep butter as cold as possible until you need it. I recommend placing the cubed butter in the freezer for about 15 minutes before you begin.
- Buttermilk: You can substitute whole milk for buttermilk if desired. However if you’d like the tangy flavor, which I highly recommend, you can make your own DIY buttermilk substitute. Add 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 1 cup. (You need 1 cup in the recipe, plus 2 Tbsp for brushing—you can use regular milk to brush on top.) Whisk together, then let sit for 5 minutes before using in the recipe. Whole milk is best for the DIY sour milk substitute, though lower-fat or nondairy milks work in a pinch. (In my testing, the biscuits don’t taste as rich or rise quite as tall using lower-fat or nondairy milks.)
- Cast Iron Skillet: If your cast iron skillet isn’t well seasoned, I recommend greasing it with a little vegetable oil or melted butter. Brush a thin layer of either on the bottom and around the sides. No need to heat the cast iron skillet before using, though you certainly can. Place in the preheated oven for 15 minutes before arranging the shaped biscuits in it.
- Flavors: Try my flavorful biscuit variations: cheddar biscuits, zucchini biscuits, and everything bagel biscuits.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 biscuit
- Calories: 212
- Sugar: 2.4 g
- Sodium: 283.5 mg
- Fat: 9.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.5 g
- Protein: 4.1 g
- Cholesterol: 25.4 mg
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally, you are officially at fault for my recent weight gain! LOL. I’ve tried several of your recipes already and they’re always great! Can’t wait for the holidays to bake more pies and goodies. Thank you!
Just made these biscuits for dinner tonight. So good! So flaky! My husband immediately had dreams of making biscuits and gravy with them. Definitely will be making these again!
Hello, can I cut out the biscuits and place on my baking sheet and bake later? Or can I freeze the cut out biscuits and then just bake them as I need?
Hi Rodette! I recommend freezing the shaped biscuits. After shaping them in step 4, place them on a plate or in a freezer-friendly container, cover tightly, then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator, then bake as directed.
I’m still searching for my grandmother’s biscuit recipe (which is in a box around here somewhere …), so I decided to find a recipe to try in the meantime. Came across this one and it seemed very similar, based on what I could remember. These biscuits turned out remarkably like my grandma’s! The flavor is excellent and preparation is easy.
I made a few changes, however, based on how my grandma prepared hers:
* 1-1/8 tsp salt
* 4 tsp sugar instead of honey (mixed into the 1 cup cold buttermilk), since I didn’t have honey 🙁 .
* Instead of separating into biscuits, I baked the dough as one piece in a greased 9″W x 2″D square metal baking pan, as if it was cornbread.
* Bake at 400° F for 20 minutes on top or center rack. At this point, the buttermilk brushed on top should have baked in. Brush on some butter and place back in oven. Wait another 5 minutes and turn off the oven. Let the “biscuit loaf” remain in the oven for an additional 5-6 minutes, then remove. Total time in the oven is 30 minutes.
* Let cool for 20ish minutes, slice up, and serve!
Excellent recipe!
Best biscuits I ever madelove them so easy and fast will be making these more oftenThanks for the recipe. Wonderful
I made this recipe for the first time today and the biscuits came out way better than any biscuits I’ve previously made. They were easy to make, had a lot of height, and were a bit crunchy on the outside. A real keeper recipe!! Thanks for all the tips about freezing the flour and butter too!
hi, sally can I make the buttermilk biscuits without the honey?
Hi Tiffany, These biscuits are not overly sweet. I recommend keeping the honey in the dough (you can use just plain melted butter instead of honey butter on top) but you can leave it out if desired. Enjoy!
The highest, flakiest biscuits I’ve ever made. I don’t make them often but this will ALWAYS be my recipe from now on. Unbeatable, in my opinion.
I made these biscuits and they were quite good. I used to make buttermilk drop biscuits from scratch 22 years since I’ve made them ( I made up by adding more buttermilk). I would have liked for them to have been more moist like when I added more buttermilk back in the day. I wanted to say that I wrapped a couple in foil and the next day when I was ready to heat them, I sprinkled water over them, wrapped and heated and they were perfectly moist! I was just happy that they weren’t a failure as this was part of our baking group for the boys group home that I work for. I’m making them again today and adding more buttermilk. I will let you know how they turn out.
I made these tonight and they turned out perfectly! They were really easy and I will certainly make them again. I didn’t have quite enough buttermilk, so I used a little bit of heavy cream and it worked fine.
I’ve tried multiple biscuit recipes (including a certain Ms. Gaines one) and this is the first one my husband has approved of! I’m done in my search for a great biscuit recipe.
Awesome!! We loved them. Much better than my usual. This is my recipe from now on!!!
Omg these are so good!!! Esp with that honey butter. Followed the recipe exactly and it came out beautifully! Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Thanks so much for this recipe! It is my go-to delicious biscuit recipe and everyone LOVES them! I tend to bake them and then freeze them, and my wonky oven always wants to burn them on the bottom, which is problematic when you have to reheat them.
This last time, I made them on a room temperature pizza stone and the bottoms were less done than the tops, which is awesome for the thaw/reheat process. Love your website and thanks!!!
Best biscuits ever. This is my go to recipe. I have tried to many to count and this one never fails.
this recipe is magic!
thank-you for such a detailed and beautiful presentation for these deceptively quick and easy scratch biscuits. we made ours with half-n-half and 2 tsp white vinegar in place of buttermilk and enjoyed them with fresh-picked peaches. wow! it was like eating warm buttery clouds with a side of sweet sunshine.
Hi Sally! I’ve made these a couple times and they are so good, but I just can’t seem to get them to get golden brown on top. I’m following the recipe as written and make them in a cast iron skillet – should I increase the temp? Bake them at a different position in the oven? Thanks!
Hi Emily! I’m so glad you enjoy these biscuits. Try placing the pan on a higher oven rack. You can even bake for a few extra minutes to guarantee they’re darker on top. (Increasing the oven temperature by 25 degrees F those last few minutes would help, too.)
I had to add more buttermilk to the recipe. I also used salted butter because that was all I had. They came out really good. I will definitely keep this recipe. It is the best one I have ever made!
Made these yesterday. I think this is only the 2nd time ever making biscuits and the last time was 15+ years ago. So I’m not knowledgeable in how they should be. These tasted very good. Family agreed. I think they were not tall enough and I cooked them a few minutes too long, not knowing how golden they had to be. I’ve researched what I probably did wrong and that was overwork the dough in the food processor. Butter pieces were too small. Maybe will mush the butter starting with smaller cubes and forks next time. But eating one for breakfast, I couldn’t believe I had made them! We grow herbs, including rosemary, so that plus cheddar are my next attempt. Definitely a keeper. Thanks!
I’ve never made biscuits before, they always intimated me for some reason. I had some buttermilk to use up and decided to take the plunge with this recipe. SO EASY! And delicious! I would make these again and again. Also, the melted honey butter on top after the come out of the oven should be required – not optional.
Sally, you are THE BEST at providing consistent and detailed instructions! I’ve tried a few other recipes that were disasters because I didn’t know which ingredients needed to be cold, or when to be gentle with the dough. These biscuits turned out beautifully, and the perfect way to use up buttermilk that will soon expire. One batch for dinner, and another in the freezer! Thank you from my family to yours!
They are beautiful! Big, fluffy bisquits in the iron skillet! They look so yummy!
Exceptional! The family loved them!!
Outstanding. My first time making biscuits from scratch and they turned out beautifully. Sally’s step by step instructions made it easy.
Could I make, cut out and place in the pan, cover with Saran Wrap and put in the fridge overnight to bake the next day?
I thought there was far too much baking powder, I could taste it in the finished biscuits making them bitter. Mine were not done at 15 min more like 27 to bake all the way, but that is a simple fix. Dont make them quite so thick. I would use only 1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
Hi Sally,
I’ve made this recipe several times and it’s the best. My question is this – I want to make these while camping but the portable oven I have only goes to 400 degrees. Do you think they would turn out at that temp or is there an adjustment I could make, or will that just not work?
Thanks for your help, love your recipes!
Hi Krista, It should work but the bake time will be slightly longer at 400 degrees. I’m unsure exactly how long they would take.
Can I make them through step 4 and have them in biscuit shape and then freeze them to reuse for breakfast next week on a trip?
Will it make a difference if frozen after being rolled out and cut up?
Hi Chris! No difference. You can freeze the dough or the shaped biscuits.
Made them again today! This time, I threw a ton of cheese in the mix – equal grated amounts of grana padano, gouda and gruyere – along with a bunch of fresh rosemary. I’m telling you – it’s the way to go!
So good! Everyone I’ve made these for has raved about them. Thanks Sally!