The perfect flakey, buttery biscuits that are easy to make! The crunchy buttery exterior protects the tender interior that come apart in flakes that melt in your mouth. Makes 8 large or 12 small biscuits.

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I couldn’t find a biscuit recipe that was salty, buttery, and flakey, so I decided to make one myself.

On my quest for the perfect biscuit, I tried a few (including the Pioneer Woman, and Joanna Gaine’s recipes), but I found that I couldn’t get consistent results, and lost a lot of butter when baking. On principal, it was extremely disconcerting to see a considerable amount of butter congeal on the baking sheet. “Shouldn’t all that butter be inside the biscuits?” I thought to myself while eating biscuits that were just fine.

One day, while craving the salty buttery biscuit of my dreams, I lamented that those biscuit recipes didn’t live up to the hype. Then I remembered that I had a scone recipe that I knew by heart, had made dozens of times, and what is a scone if not the sister to a biscuit? So I set to work adjusting the recipe by adding more butter (as much as it could handle), then more salt, and a slightly different if unconventional cutting technique so we could really appreciate all the butter, and voila: The perfect biscuit recipe was finally created.

At this point you might be speculating on where a girl like myself from the sunny south of California and not the United States found the audacity to claim “The BEST Biscuit Recipe.” And while I could say I found it while scraping a stick’s worth of butter off of baking sheets on multiple occasions from the recipes of aforementioned Southern Queens, I could also tell you that many of my friends have tried my biscuits, travelled to acclaimed restaurants near and far (including in the south), and I get the distinct pleasure of picking up my phone on a random afternoon to read a text informing me, “your biscuits are better,” while they are on their travels.

So I hope this biscuit recipe becomes yours too, because everyone deserves better biscuits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make these ahead of time?

Biscuits are best baked fresh the day you plan to serve them, but if you’d like to bake them the night before an event, you can gently reheat them by putting them on a baking sheet in the oven at 300°F for 10 minutes. They also revive quite well in a toaster oven.

If you’d like to freeze the dough made in advance you could store them in the freezer for up to one month. Do not bake from frozen, but let thaw overnight in the fridge for 12 hours before baking as normal. You can also make the dough and store in the fridge for up to three days before baking.

What if I want smaller biscuits?

The most biscuits I would make out of a single batch this recipe is 12 (13 if you count the “rose” from the offcuts).

My biscuits turned out dry, what did I do wrong?

Very likely you added too much flour to your dough. If when you turned out the dough onto the surface to knead it but it didn’t stick at all to the surface, you likely over measured. Measure the flour by weight in grams using a kitchen scale (this is the one I use) next time (240 grams), or whisk the flour thoroughly to “fluff it up” before gently scooping it into your measuring cup and leveling with the flat side of a butter knife (not shaking to level).

The other possibility is that you over worked the dough when bringing it together. Remember to fold and press the layers together; you don’t need a rolling pin for this. There should still be a few cracks in the corners, and it doesn’t have to be a perfect rectangle (mine rarely are).

Why did my biscuits leak butter during the baking?

Most likely you didn’t chill them for long enough or let them sit at room temperature for too long before baking. They need to be chilled in the freezer for a minimum of 30 minutes (up to 45 or they may stay too cold on the inside and over bake on the outside), or chilled in the fridge for one hour. Don’t take them out to cut until the oven is fully preheated or they might get too warm before baking. Making sure your ingredients (heavy cream, milk, and butter) are as cold as possible before combining the dough is another way to make sure the dough stays cold and the butter doesn’t soften before baking.

Can these be made vegan?

If I were hypothetically to try to make these vegan, I would substitute with margarine or butter flavored shortening, and use dairy free cream. If you try this, please let me know how it turns out for you in the comments!

Can these be made gluten-free?

In my experience, pastry is really hard to get right gluten-free. My attempts at gluten-free pastry typically end up brittle, stodgy, leak out all of the butter, and have a weird aftertaste. Your best bet is using King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Bread Flour* mix, but it has wheat in it and is not safe for people with wheat allergies.

For a full breakdown of scone or biscuit troubleshooting tips, see my blog post here.

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 4 cups (480gr) All Purpose Flour, plus more for rolling the dough: The main ingredient for the dough

• 2 tablespoon Baking Powder: Leavening for the dough

• 1 1/2 sticks (12 tbl) Unsalted Butter + more for brushing: To provide the flakey layers, plus more for brushing before and after baking

• 2 teaspoon Sea Salt: To add dimension to the pastry and balance the sweetness

• 1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream: This is the secret ingredient to giving the scones a flaky texture.

• 1/2 cup Whole Milk: Use whole milk if you can, but if you can’t, buttermilk or nonfat would work too

Equipment Needed:

Large Mixing Bowl: For mixing the dough together

Glass Measuring Cup: My trusty 4 cup pyrex does the trick for this

Rubber Spatula: For mixing the dough

Measuring Spoons: For measuring the dry ingredients

Kitchen Scale: For measuring the flour, if you have one already. This one is my favorite and rechargeable.*

Baking Pan or Cookie Sheet: Use to bake the scones on. It doesn’t matter if it has rimmed edges or not.

Parchment Paper: For lining the pan before baking. I would avoid a silicone baking mat and bake straight on the pan since many silicone baking mats get too hot and can burn the bottom of the scone.

Pastry Brush: For brushing the biscuits with butter, can dip a paper towel and use that in a pinch.

You can see the Kitchen Basics list on my Amazon Storefront for what items I would recommend using.

*Affiliate link

Step by Step Directions

Make the dough

Measure the heavy cream and milk into a large glass measuring cup or bowl and Chill in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. Melt the butter (12 tbl) and set aside to cool.

While the butter is cooling and the cream is chilling, whisk the flour, salt, baking powder in a medium bowl. Be sure to measure the flour by weight. If you don't have a food scale fluff the flour with a whisk or fork before spooning into a measuring cup and leveling with the flat side of a knife.

After the cream mixture has chilled, pour the melted cool butter into the cream, and stir. It should form lumps, that’s what you want.

Add the butter and cream mixture to flour and bring together using a rubber spatula. Once it is mostly mixed together pour onto a clean floured surface and knead into a shaggy ball. 

Fold the dough

Sprinkle more flour on the counter if needed, and then use your hands to press out the dough into a 11”x5” (5 cm x 2 cm) rectangle, and then fold in half. I find my bench scraper is helpful to lift up the half that I am folding over. Alternatively, you can cut it in half and stack it. Press back out to a 11”x5” (5 cm x 2 cm) rectangle and then repeat once more for a total of three folds. On the last fold press out to an 11”x5” (5 cm x 2 cm). Don’t fuss over the shape lest you over work the dough.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and chill in freezer for 30 minutes or the fridge for one hour or up to three days. After I put them in the freezer, I like to turn on the oven to 400°F so it is perfectly preheated by the time the scones are done chilling.

Bake the Scones

Preheat oven to 400°F and prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. Avoid using silicone baking mats because they get too hot and can burn the bottoms of the biscuits.

Cut 1/2” (1/4 cm) off of all sides of the rectangle, and use the off cuts to form a cinnamon roll shaped rose. The fresh cuts will allow the biscuits to rise properly on all sides. Then evenly cut the rectangle into eight large or 12 small biscuits. Separate the biscuits and biscuit rose evenly across the two baking sheets, then brush with salted butter.

Bake 25-30 min, rotating the pans and switching racks half way through until browned. It is done when it barely gives when you poke the thickest part. Brush with melted butter when they’re still hot from the oven.