Homemade biscuits are fluffy and delicious and while perfect for the holidays, are great for any time of the year. This flaky biscuit recipe only has 5 ingredients and comes together quickly, getting them on the table in about half an hour.
Why we love this recipe
If you need a very quick biscuit recipe, this is truly perfect. These biscuits bake up beautifully, are nice and flakey, have plenty of rise, and you only need 5 ingredients.
Biscuits are a common comfort food available on holiday tables around the country. You can have them for breakfast smeared with butter and jam, or serve them with another favorite, Biscuits and Gravy.
Ingredients you will need to make homemade biscuits
There’s only one wet ingredient, heavy cream. For this recipe you don’t need butter as well as milk because even though biscuit recipes need a fat, heavy cream provides all that you need.
Get all measurements, ingredients, and instructions in the printable version at the end of this post.
- Dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, sugar, salt
- Wet ingredient: heavy cream
How to make Homemade Biscuits
These step by step photos and instructions are here to help you visualize how to make this recipe. Please scroll down to simply print out the instructions!
Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees F. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Pour about 1 cup of the cream over the dry ingredients. Using a fork and start tossing the ingredients together. If needed, add more cream, a spoonful at a time, until you have a nice soft dough.
- Reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick, gentle kneading – 3 or 4 turns should be just enough to bring everything together.
- Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour and pat the dough out with your hands or roll it with a pin until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Don’t worry if the dough isn’t completely even – a quick, light touch is more important than accuracy.
- Use a biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Try to cut the biscuits close to one another so you get the most you can out of this first round.
- By hand or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet.
- Gather together the scraps, working them as little as possible, pat out to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer these to the sheet.
- Bake the biscuits for 14 to 18 minutes, or until they are tall, puffed and golden brown. Transfer them to a serving basket.
Baking Tips
- Be careful not to overwork the dough or it can become tough.
- Freezing: The biscuits can be made to the point right before baking and frozen on the baking sheet. When frozen, wrap them airtight and they can be kept in the freezer for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting – just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.
- Serving: Ideally these biscuits should go from oven to table and be served with cold sweet butter.
- Storing: You can keep the biscuits in a plastic bag overnight and give them a quick warm-up in the oven the next day, but you won’t recapture their freshly made flakiness.
What to serve homemade biscuits alongside
- Crockpot Beef Stew is one of my favorite cold weather recipes. Dipping a biscuit into the gravy is pure bliss.
- While I really love homemade sweet cornbread with a bowl of chili, biscuits are amazing too.
- Another stew favorite that homemade biscuits go well with is my Dutch Oven Goulash.
- Two favorite slow cooker beef recipes that these go with are my Crockpot Roast Beef and my Mississippi Pot Roast.
This recipe is from my old “Tuesdays with Dorie” baking days in the mid 2000s. This recipe is on page 23 in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking From My Home to Yours
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More Bread and Rolls Recipes
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Homemade Biscuits
IMPORTANT - There are often Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
Print It Rate ItIngredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. sugar
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
Things You'll Need
Before You Begin
- Freezing: The biscuits can be made to the point right before baking and frozen on the baking sheet. When frozen, wrap them airtight and they can be kept in the freezer for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting – just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.
- Serving: Ideally these biscuits should go from oven to table and be served with cold sweet butter.
- Storing: You can keep the biscuits in a plastic bag overnight and give them a quick warm-up in the oven the next day, but you won't recapture their freshly made flakiness.
Instructions
- Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Get out a sharp 2-inch-diameter biscuit cutter (I used a glass, and it was fine), and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
- Whisk the flour(s), baking powder, sugar and salt together in a bowl. Pour about 1 cup of the cream over the dry ingredients, grab a fork and start tossing the ingredients together. If necessary, add more cream, a spoonful at a time, until you’ve got a nice soft dough. Now reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick, gentle kneading – 3 or 4 turns should be just enough to bring everything together.
- Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour and pat the dough out with your hands or roll it with a pin until it is about 1/2 inch high. Don’t worry if the dough isn’t completely even – a quick, light touch is more important than accuracy.
- Use the biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Try to cut the biscuits close to one another so you get the most you can out of this first round. By hand or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, working them as little as possible, pat out to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer these to the sheet. (The biscuits can be made to this point and frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight and kept for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting – just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.)
- Bake the biscuits for 14 to 18 minutes, or until they are tall, puffed and golden brown. Transfer them to a serving basket.
Nutrition
This post originally appeared here on Apr 20, 2010.
Amanda Davis
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Betty Guess says
I made the biscuit for the first time and they came out. Perfect I love the recipe very simple. No need to go overboard.
Debby says
Could. I use half and half with a similar result, or would I still need some butter?
Amanda Davis says
The amount of fat in half & half is quite different from heavy cream. We have not tested this recipe other than written. If you decide to experiment, we would love to hear your results!
Delana says
OMG this recipe is super yummy. The best I’ve ever tired and eaten. My hubby loves it and says “thats it right there, don’t buy no more biscuits” lol thank you!
Theresa says
This is my go-to recipe for biscuits now. I didn’t like having to deal with cutting in the butter or shortening. Thank you! My husband loves it!
Yesenia says
These were great and the recipe is so simple! Thx for such a great recipe.