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Trusted for the last 40 years, this easy homemade Biscuit Recipe requires just 3 ingredients. Whip up a batch of homemade biscuits for a dinner side dish, shortcake-starter, or as the base of a breakfast entree.
When someone makes biscuits for 40 years, you know the recipe is a keeper.
Sometimes that person is your mom or your grandma, and sometimes that person is your culinary school BFF’s mother. Sometimes it might just be the best biscuit recipe around, and the most important thing is getting your hands on it!
This easy recipe means you can have fresh bread on the table – fast. Whether you need biscuits for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you can have 8 piping-hot biscuits in about 15 minutes.
Table of Contents
Biscuit Recipe Ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
- Self-rising flour: If you can’t find this or don’t want to invest in a special flour just for baking, make your own self-rising flour. In a bowl, stir together 2 cups of all-purpose flour with 1 tablespoon baking powder (not baking soda) and ½ teaspoon salt.
- Cold butter: “Cold” is key. As the butter melts in the oven when the biscuits bake, it creates steam that yields a flaky, tender crumb. If preferred, you could use cold shortening instead. I tend to keep salted butter on hand (and I prefer the taste) so that’s what I use here, but unsalted butter is fine too.
Where to buy a rolling pin
I got the J.K. Adams French Rolling Pin at Amazon for $18. It’s my favorite rolling pin because features tapered edges instead of handles, so you can change the position of your hands right on the dowel instead of using specific handles. I use it for all my parties and baked goods!
How to Make Biscuits
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. To mix the dry ingredients, in a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups self-rising flour and ½ cup cold butter (cut into small cubes). Using a pastry blender, a fork, or 2 knives, cut in butter until a coarse meal develops and butter is evenly distributed. This is what creates all those flaky layers inside the biscuits!
- To the flour mixture, add 6 tablespoons of milk (whole milk or heavy cream both work too) and stir until a soft dough forms. If the dough is sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. If the dough is dry, add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 20 seconds. If the dough becomes sticky at any point, add a dusting of flour.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out to 1/2-inch thick and cut out biscuits with a biscuit cutter. (I usually roll the dough into a circle, but a rectangle is fine too). Press together the uncut dough and continue rolling and cutting biscuits.
- Bake until lightly golden brown on top and fragrant, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Brush with melted butter or enjoy with your favorite spread (honey butter is a favorite flavor of mine, but orange marmalade or apple butter are delicious, too!).
Tips for Homemade Biscuits
- Yield: This recipe makes 8 flaky biscuits. You can absolutely cut the recipe in half for a small batch of 4, or double the recipe to make 16.
- Buttermilk: In certain circles, biscuits aren’t really biscuits unless they are made with buttermilk. My recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits is a little more involved than this 3-ingredient version, but it’s always worth the effort!
- Biscuits and Gravy: One of the best ways to enjoy flaky homemade biscuits is with a thick ladle of sausage gravy on top.
- Beer Bread: This Beer Bread Recipe is a yeast-free quick bread leavened with baking powder and beer or any other carbonated beverage like clear soda, ginger ale, or sparkling water. It’s soft and delicious, perfect with butter or creamy dips and spreads.
How to Store Homemade Biscuits
Place any extra biscuits in an airtight container or a zip-top storage bag. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
To Freeze: Instead of baking then freezing biscuits, try mixing the dough, cutting into rounds, then freeze the unbaked biscuits individually on a tray or baking sheet for quick carbs any day of the week. Once frozen solid, transfer the biscuits to a freezer-safe container or a zip-top storage bag and freeze for up to a month. When you’re ready, place the prepared frozen biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Cook at 450 degrees for 13 to 17 minutes.
Put your biscuits to work
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Frequently Asked Questions
You can make rich, flaky biscuits with either milk or water. Like many baking recipes, delicious results come from the correct ratio of liquid and fat. Milk is a combination of water and fat, so if you use just water, you’ll need to get the fat in a different ingredient. The fat in milk also adds color to baked goods, so you can enjoy a golden-brown muffin without adding an egg wash.
You can definitely make biscuits without milk! Your recipe just needs a proper ratio of fat-to-liquid, so if you use water, you’ll need to add fat elsewhere in the recipe. Many water-based biscuit recipes still produce rich, fluffy, golden-brown biscuits.
It usually isn’t necessary to chill biscuit dough before baking it. Because biscuits are made with cold dairy, they typically don’t spread as much as cookies might. That being said, if your kitchen is very warm, you left the dough out for more than 20 minutes at room temperature, or you handled the dough a lot, you can chill the biscuits before baking to ensure they don’t spread.
If you can’t find this or don’t want to invest in a special flour just for baking, make your own self-rising flour. In a bowl, stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour with 1 tablespoon baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt.
While it is possible to use bread flour for biscuits, making a quick substitution in recipe might make for tough, chewy biscuits. Bread flour has more gluten than all-purpose flour, so this simple swap can turn out poorly.
If a biscuit recipe is developed with high-gluten bread flour in mind, there is a better chance that it will work out. But otherwise, seek out all-purpose flour for the best results.
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Easy Biscuit Recipe (3 Ingredient Biscuits)
Equipment
- Pastry cutter (this makes cutting butter so much easier)
Ingredients
- 2 cups self-rising flour (see notes)
- 1/2 cup butter cold, cut into pea-sized cubes
- 6 tablespoons milk plus more, if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- In a large bowl, combine flour and butter. Using a pastry cutter, a fork, or 2 knives, cut in butter until a coarse meal develops and butter is evenly distributed.
- Add milk and stir until a soft dough forms. If the dough is sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. If the dough is dry, add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 20 seconds, adding flour if the dough becomes sticky.
- Roll out to 1/2-inch thick and cut out biscuits with a biscuit cutter. Press together the uncut dough and continue rolling and cutting biscuits.
- Bake until lightly golden brown on top and fragrant, about 10 to 12 minutes.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Self-rising flour: If you can’t find this or don’t want to invest in a special flour just for baking, make your own self-rising flour. In a bowl, stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour with 1 tablespoon baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt.
- Cold butter: “Cold” is key. As the butter melts in the oven when the biscuits bake, it creates steam that yields a flaky, tender crumb. If preferred, you could use cold shortening instead.
- Yield: This recipe makes 8 flaky biscuits. You can absolutely double the ingredients called for in this homemade biscuit recipe to bake 16 biscuits, or triple for 24.
- Storage: If you’re lucky enough to have them, place any extra biscuits in an airtight container or a zip-top storage bag. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Excellent recipe!! These are the easiest and best biscuits Iโve have made so far. Love love love!
Thank you, Tami! I’m so glad you love them! – Meggan
I make these for my kids every week now! They love it and I have the recipe memorized. I added grated cheddar cheese and then put melted butter, Italian seasoning, and sea salt on top and they taste like the cheddar bay biscuits from Red Lobster but 100x times better!!
Yum! Thank you, Dalise! – Meggan
Cannot wait to try your variations!
Great fluffy and light
Thannk you, Joanna! Take care! – Meggan
Simple to make, I added some grated cheese to mine. Very tasty.
So glad you enjoyed them, Lucretia! Take care! – Meggan