This recipe makes amazing American-style biscuits. It’s super simple and makes tall, fluffy biscuits ready for breakfast, sandwiches, and more! The secret to the best biscuits is using very cold butter and baking powder. We’ve made a lot of biscuits, but this easy biscuits recipe is the one we turn to the most (they are so fluffy!). See our easy drop biscuits and cheese drop biscuits for even easier biscuits.
Key Ingredients
Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but soft white wheat flour like White Lilly, Martha White, and Bob’s Red Mill Fine Pastry Flour is excellent for biscuits. Its lower protein content shuts down gluten formation, making them even more light, fluffy, and tender. You can also use self-rising flour, but you will need to add extra baking powder. See the tips in the recipe below. Baking Powder and Baking Soda: We use 5 teaspoons of baking powder in this biscuit recipe. I know that seems like a lot, but trust me. The extra baking powder makes our biscuits fluffy and tender, and baking soda helps them brown nicely. I also use baking powder for my strawberry shortcake recipe (it’s so good!) Sugar and Salt: Add flavor. We don’t add a lot of sugar (just 1 tablespoon). Cold Butter: I love using European-style salted butter, like Kerrygold or Plugra, since they make our biscuits tender and delicious. If you don’t have European salted butter, plain butter works (salted or unsalted). I love the slightly more salty flavor when using salted butter in our recipe, but you can always hold back on some of the salt called for in the recipe if you aren’t looking for more savory/salty biscuits. Milk or Buttermilk: I love how this recipe works with milk or buttermilk. If you love the tangy flavor of buttermilk, use it. You won’t need to change anything in the recipe.
How to Make the Best Biscuits
I use my food processor to make biscuits. It does a great job of quickly cutting the cold butter into our flour mixture. When cutting the butter into the flour, you want to be as quick as possible so the butter does not warm up. Cold butter = flaky, tender homemade biscuits. You can do this by hand (I’ve included a tip below the recipe). When the butter and flour look crumbly, we stir in milk (or use buttermilk), and then form the dough. You want biscuit dough to look shaggy, with lots of specks of butter. We don’t use a rolling pin to roll out our dough. Instead, we press the dough out with our fingers. You can see us do this in our recipe video. For extra flaky layers, press the biscuit dough into a rough rectangle and then fold the sides into the middle, like a letter. Then we rotate the new rectangle, press it out, and do it again. If the dough needs it, we will do it for a third time before pressing it into a final rectangle and cutting out our biscuits. Watch our video to see me do this. It’s easy! We use an oven-safe skillet to bake biscuits and bake them close together. I’ve found that biscuits rise taller when they are placed close together. Since we use such a hot oven, the liquid in the dough steams and helps them to rise. If you do not have an oven-safe skillet, use a baking sheet, but still place the biscuits closer together than you would cookie dough.
What to Serve with Biscuits
I love serving these biscuits while they are still warm. Here are some ideas for how to serve them:
With melted butter brushed on top. With this homemade honey butter (it’s so very good). With apple butter, this delicious pumpkin butter, or jam. Next to scrambled eggs (this is my favorite method for making them). Make a breakfast sandwich, here’s our recipe for make-ahead breakfast sandwiches (we use English muffins, but swapping in biscuits would be amazing). On the side of soup or chili. I love this broccoli cheddar soup and Adam loves this homemade chili.
5 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 6 tablespoons (85g) cold butter 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (207ml) whole milk or buttermilk 2Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse three to four times so that it is mixed. 3Cut the cold butter into cubes or thin slices, then scatter it over the flour in the food processor. Pulse 5 to 7 times or until the butter turns into tiny bits — see our photos and video for reference. 4Empty the butter-flour mixture into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle, and then pour in the milk (or buttermilk). Stir until a shaggy dough forms. 5Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle a little flour on top, and then bring the dough together with your hands. It might be a bit sticky, so add flour as needed. 6Without working the dough too much, pat it down into a rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. Fold the dough into thirds, like a letter — see our photos and video for reference. Rotate the rectangle 90 degrees, and then repeat this process two more times. 7Pat the dough into a rectangle between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch thick. Then use a biscuit cutter to cut out your biscuits — we use a 3-inch round cutter. Do not twist the cutter, as this will seal the edges of the biscuits and prevent them from rising. 8Place the cut-out biscuits into the skillet (or onto a baking sheet). Keeping them close to each other helps them rise. 9Gently press together the scraps and use them to make more biscuits, but be careful not to overwork the dough, or else they will be tough. 10Bake the biscuits until golden brown and have risen, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.
