The Best Flaky Homemade Biscuits from Scratch
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If you are tired of trying to produce biscuits with the perfect flaky, butter layers, then look no further than this homemade biscuits from scratch recipe. This recipe is far from dense or flat. The soft, buttery layers in these biscuits will have your family begging you to make them for dinner every night. They are my children’s personal favorite addition to supper.
I am seriously convinced that homemade biscuits are the best side dish to go with any meal. Maybe it’s the Southerner in me, but you’ll often find biscuits paired with many of the dinners that I prepare for my family. Because I have a few selective eaters in my home, I choose the best quality ingredients for my biscuits and always pair them with quality grass fed butter and home canned jam. This way it gives a little nutritional boost to the one food my child will 100% eat.
Because we are an “ingredient” household, meaning that I am constantly cooking our meals from scratch, I am a huge believer in food prepping. These biscuits are perfect because you can make them in the morning and leave them in your refrigerator until it’s time to place them in the oven. You can also prep these in advance and freeze them for up to a month in a sealed container.
Why Make Homemade Biscuits When I Can Just Buy Them at the Grocery Store?
The two main reasons you should definitely make your biscuits from scratch is 1.) the FLAVOR and 2.) the nutrition component. Store bought biscuits are fraught with ingredients. Many of these “ingredients” are ones that I don’t even recognize as food, and so I choose to just make them at home instead. The flavor is far superior than the store bought alternative and also the money savings are worth it to my family. As I mentioned previously, we eat a lot of biscuits with our meals every week and cooking from scratch is a way to stretch that budget.
Ingredients for the Biscuits
You’ll need just a few pantry staples and refrigerator items for this recipe.
- Flour– All purpose is best for this recipe to produce the best crumb. I personally use organic hard red wheat from Costco.
- Baking Powder- Make sure you choose aluminum free and keep the age of your baking powder in mind. The older it is, the less rise you’ll have on your biscuits.
- Salt– Definitely a biscuit requirement.
- Sugar– Just a hint added here for flavor, you don’t want your biscuits to be sweet.
- Butter– Most biscuit recipes call for unsalted butter, but I use what I have on hand, which is always salted butter. You can use either to your preference.
- Half and Half- I almost never buy half and half, but I always have milk and cream and so I just mix the two in a 1:1 ratio for half and half.
Tips to Create the Best Flaky Biscuits
- Use Cold Butter. The colder the better. I don’t take my butter out of the refrigerator until it is time to put it into the flour. You won’t be able to achieve those flaky layers without cold butter.
- Do not over-mix the dough. It will be tempting, but you want the dough to be borderline mixed when you lay it out. Sometimes, I even have a few crumbs at the bottom of the bowl when I dump the dough out. I just roll it into the ball of dough.
- Cut Straight Down. When using your biscuits cutter, make sure you press straight down. Don’t use the sawing motion to cut your biscuits as this will damage those precious layers.
Tools for Making Homemade Biscuits
You really only need basic kitchen tools to make this recipe. Nothing fancy is required!
- Mixing Bowl- You’ll definitely need something to mix the dough in.
- Wooden Spoon or Spatula- I personally like to use wooden utensils and I find they mix best to prevent the dough from sticking.
- Baking Sheet or Cast Iron Pan– I use both regularly, depending on what is the quickest to reach in the moment. My preference is for cast iron though.
- Pastry Cutter– Although you can use your hands or a fork, a good pastry cutter really helps create that good flake we’re looking for.
- Biscuit Cutter– If you don’t have an actual biscuit Cutter, you can just use the rim of a glass cup. I did this for years until I finally broke down and bought the cutter.
How to Make Homemade Biscuits from Scratch
- Dice Your butter first. Go ahead and cut it into small cubes and place into the refrigerator until you need it. This keeps the butter cold enough for the flaky layers.
- Combine the dry ingredients. In your mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar with a whisk.
- Add the butter cubes. Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour until it is about the size of peas. You can also just use a fork or your hands, but a pastry cutter simplifies the job.
- Pour in the half and half. Stir the half and half into the dough until just combined. It should just barely come together. Do not over mix here.
- Transfer dough to a floured surface. Shape into a rectangle that is about 3/4″ thick. Fold the rectangle twice and re-shape into a rectangle. Fold another two times. This folding process creates the layers. Don’t skip it!
- Cut the biscuits out of the dough using your biscuits cutter or the rim of a glass.
- Bake the biscuits on a baking sheet or in cast iron at 450 F for 12-15 minutes.
What to Serve with Homemade Biscuits?
- Biscuits and sausage gravy is my family’s favorite way to enjoy biscuits.
- Honey on fresh biscuits.
- Homemade dandelion jelly served over biscuits is out of this world.
- Turn your homemade biscuits into breakfast sandwiches. Our favorites are bacon or sausage, egg, and cheese.
I hope you and your family enjoy these homemade biscuits from scratch as much as we do! If you are on a journey towards more self reliance like my family, then you’ll love my other articles like How to Make Homemade Neosporin.
The Best Flaky Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- Cut the butter into cubes and set aside in the refrigerator.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar).
- Add in the diced butter.
- Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork. It will be ready whenever the mixture resembles coarse peas.
- Add the half and half. Stir the mixture until just combined. Do not over-mix!
- Roll the dough onto a floured surface into a rectangle that is about 3/4" thick.
- Fold the dough onto itself 3 times. (Pictures above for reference)
- Roll the dough back into a rectangle and fold 3 more times.
- Form the dough back into a rectangle.
- Cut the dough into pucks using a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass cup. Place the cut biscuits into a prepared baking sheet or Cast iron pan.
- Bake the biscuits for 12 – 15 minutes, or until the tops are a light golden brown.
