Fluffy Homemade Biscuits (made with Milk)

These Fluffy Homemade Biscuits are made with milk, and are buttery, soft and fluffy with a delicious crispy golden crust. The 3-ingredient recipe is simple to make with things you probably already have in your pantry, and gets tall biscuits on the table in a snap!

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This recipe for Fluffy Homemade Biscuits made with milk are what my Grandma Olga Mae called her 'sweet milk biscuits'. She had what seemed like endless biscuit recipes and she always started with self-rising flour. With it she would make cream biscuits, drop biscuits, cheddar biscuits, and these easy biscuits made with just self-rising flour, butter, and whole milk.

Even I, with all the biscuits, and the muffins, and even cornbread, all made with buttermilk, sometimes run out of buttermilk. If I don't have it, I can make my 2 ingredient biscuits or biscuits with yogurt, but I really wanted to recreate the sweet milk biscuits of my childhood, and use my milk for something more than ricotta cheese!

Ingredients & Substitutions

This easy homemade biscuits recipe uses just a few really simple ingredients. I mean, THREE INGREDIENTS YOU GUYS, including milk, which you probably already have! Read on for more info about each one.

• Self-rising flour - You can use all-purpose flour if you don't have self-rising, but you need to add a leavening agent. Read the tips in the next section for more information about self-rising flour and how to substitute it properly.
• Milk - I use whole milk, and I feel it works best in this fluffy biscuit recipe, but if you only have 2%, that will do. I wouldn't suggest using skim or nonfat milk, as the fat content is essential for making the biscuits both flavorful and tender.
• Unsalted butter - In all of my recipes, I specifically call for unsalted butter. There is no standard amount of salt in salted butter, so every brand has a different salt content. I want to be able to control the amount of salt I add to all of my muffins, my coffee cake, and my scones. Using unsalted butter means I know how much salt is in everything I make. You can also use vegan butter, shortening, or even lard to make your biscuits.

See recipe card below for exact quantities.

What is self rising flour?

Self-rising flour is quite common in England (where they call it self-raising flour) and in the American South, where we use it to make cornbread and biscuits, and just about every other baked good you can think of.

Although similar to all-purpose flour, self rising flour already contains baking powder and salt, eliminating the need to add either to your recipes. This means you can make light and fluffy muffins, pancakes and waffles, and even an easy cream biscuit quickly and easily.

If you don't have self-rising flour, no problem, you can make your own. For every cup of self-rising flour that you need combine 1 cup of all-purpose flour and add 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of kosher salt. If you don't have kosher salt, use ¼ teaspoon of table salt.

Instructions

In most of my biscuit recipes I use my cut-and-stack technique for building flaky layers. I don't do that with this recipe, because Grandma's sweet biscuit recipe was tender and fluffy, without distinct layers, and I really loved them so much. 

As always, I recommend you read all of the instructions, look at the pretty pictures, gather your ingredients, and make some delicious fluffy biscuits.

• Start by lining a large sheet pan with parchment paper or with aluminum foil sprayed with nonstick spray.

Step 1: Place self-rising flour and cold butter cut into cubes into the bowl of your food processor and pulse 6 to 8 times.

Step 2: Alternatively you can use a pastry cutter or use a finger snapping motion to bring the flour and butter together.

Step 3: You should end up with butter and flour the texture of lumpy cornmeal with some larger pieces of butter.

Step 4: Transfer flour mixture to a large bowl and pour in milk.

Step 5: Mix until you have a shaggy dough with just a little bit of dry flour at the bottom.

Step 6: On lightly floured surface, fold dough over on itself just until smooth. Use your hands, or a rolling pin, to press out biscuit dough to about ½ to
¾ inch thickness.

Step 7: Use a floured 2-inch round cutter or cookie cutter to cut biscuits. Gather together your scraps and cut out as many biscuits as you can. Place biscuits on your prepared baking sheet.

Step 8: Put the biscuits into the freezer to chill up the butter while you preheat the oven to 425°F. Brush the tops with more milk and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown and well risen.

Step 9: Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes. I like to brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.

(p.s. Despite not doing my cut-and-stacks, I still get pretty flaky biscuits because I put them into the freezer to firm up the butter and I'm pretty happy about that.)

Recipe FAQs

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