Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe

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Looking for a new side dish recipe to try? This Baking Powder Biscuit recipe is just like grandma used to make! These are easy and hardly take any ingredients or effort.

Looking for a new side dish recipe to try? This Baking Powder Biscuit recipe is just like grandma used to make! These are easy and hardly take any ingredients or effort.

Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe

Any biscuit recipe has so many possibilities. You can use them to make sandwiches, you can have them for a side dish for supper, or you can simply top with jam (or my personal favorite, Cantaloupe Butter!). They are also great for making Breakfast Sandwiches! You can enjoy them for breakfast, lunch, or supper. Plus biscuits freeze easily so you can make up a big batch when you make them and freeze the extras for future meals!

This Baking Powder Biscuit recipe is a very old fashioned biscuit. Your grandma may have made something like this! These biscuits are very simple to make, take only a few ingredients, and only take about 30 minutes or less from start to finish.

Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe

Need a quick and simple biscuit recipe for supper tonight? This old fashioned biscuit recipe will be a hit!
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Keyword Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings 5 people

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1/2 cup Shortening or Butter
  • 2/3 cup Milk

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder until well blended.
  2. Using a fork, cut in the shortening or cold butter until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
  3. Add the milk into the bowl and mix with the fork only enough times to incorporate it into the dough.
  4. Pour the dough onto a clean surface and knead the dough no more than 10 times.
  5. Flatten out the dough until about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass to form the biscuits.
  6. Place on an un-greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes or until biscuits are slightly brown.

Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe

If you are looking for even more biscuit recipes you may want to check out these others that I’ve previously posted for:

All are so tasty and an easy way to add a simple side to your meals. You can find other simple bread recipes from scratch on this page.

How to Freeze Biscuits

  • To freeze the dough before baking the biscuits, follow the recipe above until you reach the final (baking) step. Place your pre-cut biscuit dough onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and place it in the freezer to flash freeze. Remove the dough from the sheet about an hour later, place in a freezer bag or container and store until needed. Thaw before baking or add additional time ot your baking to ensure doneness.
  • To freeze the biscuits after baking, simply place the biscuits into a freezer bag or container after they have cooled completely. Thaw at room temperature before enjoying.

Recipe Binder PagesNeed a better way to organize your recipes? You might enjoy making a Recipe Binder with these fun Old Fashioned Recipe Binder pages that my husband and I designed!


What is your favorite way to enjoy biscuits?

merissabio

This Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe was originally posted on Little House Living in February 2014. It has been updated as of March 2020.

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28 Comments

  1. These look delish! This brings back memories that my mother would bake these whenever we ran out of bread for a meal, but not much in the summer, had to keep the house cool!! Would the ingredients change much if I made it with my organic whole wheat flour??
    Thanks much for all the time you give to keep us inspired to make the most with what we are given!! Blessings to your family today!! Ckay

    1. Yes, the ingredients would be the same if you used whole wheat flour, unless of course you use freshly ground flour, in that case you would just need to add a bit more to the dough. 🙂

  2. What is the measurements for butter/shortening? It looks like there is something missing! Can’t wait to make these!

  3. These look great! In the picture they look like they rise nicely. Definitely saving this recipe. Thank you!

  4. After 36 yrs. of making homemade biscuits, I finally learned to make them with different ingredients and without having to cut and roll. After a family member decided to go vegan, I learned that biscuits can be made with water instead of milk. The advantages are great: To me, the texture is greatly improved. Not crumbly with a better flavor. They are almost roll-like in taste. And instead of rolling these out and making a mess all over your counter, you simply pat them into a 9×9 pan. Using a floured knife, cut the dough into however many biscuits you want. After baking, cut again along those lines, and you have easy to remove biscuits.

    My recipe is a bit different, from a 1970’s Crisco cookbook. I use all organic ingredients and palm shortening instead of Crisco and water instead of milk.
    Biscuits in a Pan
    3 c. flour
    4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
    1 1/2 tsp. salt
    1 to 2 tsp. sugar
    1/2 c. shortening
    1 c. milk (water)

    Combine dry ingredients. Cut in shortening and stir in water till blended. Knead lightly on floured surface a few times. (I knead a few times in my floured hands.) Pat dough into bottom of ungreased 9×9 pan. Bake at 425 for 15 to 20 minutes.

    I make these instead of garlic bread: To do so, put biscuit dough in oven for only 10 min. While they are baking, mince 3 to 4 garlic cloves in about 3 Tbsp. olive oil (could use butter, but I don’t) until partly, but not completely done. (Basically, you are flavoring the oil.) Remove biscuits from oven and carefully pour evenly over all the biscuit surface and around the edges. Return to oven for 5 or 10 more minutes until browned as you wish. My family says they are better than restaurant breadsticks!

    1. I’ve been making biscuits for years…always in search for that perfect biscuit. I have finally come up with a version that I have been using a few years now. Over time, I have taken what I liked best about other recipes and created this one.

      Biscuits (Perfected!)

      2 cups all-purpose flour
      1 TBS. baking powder (Make SURE baking powder is not old!)
      1 tsp. salt
      1/4 tsp. baking soda
      1 stick (8 TBS) unsalted butter or shortening, cold (if using salted, use only 3/4 tsp. of salt)
      1 egg
      3/4 cup milk
      1 tsp. canola (or vegetable) oil
      Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
      In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients together with a fork or whisk. Cut in the butter/shortening using a pastry cutter or pulse in food processor until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
      Crack egg into a one cup measuring cup, and add milk until it makes one cup of liquid, total. Add 1 tsp. canola oil to milk/egg mixture, and mix with fork until well blended.
      Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add milk/egg mixture. Quickly fold dry ingredients into buttermilk with a fork, and then (gently) with your hands until a sticky dough forms.
      Turn dough out onto floured surface (also sprinkle top of dough with flour so it’s not sticky). Pat dough out flat (not too thin), and gently fold the dough over itself, patting lightly, 3 or 4 times to create layers. Cut with a 3-inch biscuit cutter, using remaining scraps to form the last biscuit. Transfer dough rounds to a sheet pan. Make a dimple in the center to help the top rise evenly. Brush with butter. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with butter again and serve.
      Yield: 8 biscuits

      1. I made your biscuits you called Biscuits (Perfected) this morning for my husband for breakfast and served them with sausage gravy. He really raved about them, said they were so flaky and delicious, I had to agree with him. What I liked about them is using butter ( I did use salted butter and cut back on the salt as you said to do) instead of shortening and just a teaspoon of canola oil. I had never made biscuits this way before and is the only way I’ll make them now. Can’t get over how light and flaky they are. You came up a big winner with this recipe, thanks so much for sharing it.

  5. Could you please add freezing instructions? I know I can freeze them after they are baked. If I were to freeze before baked do I need to thaw before baking or bake from frozen? And about how much longer might it change baking times?

    1. Personally I’m not sure if I would freeze these before they were baked, I don’t think they would puff up very much although I could be wrong. If you did try it I would thaw them before baking so they have a better chance at puffing up in the oven. The baking time should be about the same then.

      1. I freeze my biscuits before baking all the time. They are just as perfect as when they are fresh. No need to thaw…they cook in just about the same amount of time as freshly made. So much better than freezing after cooking! Trust me on this…I’ve been doing it for many years!

  6. I used to think biscuits were just okay, but then I replaced the shortening with butter and let me tell you, there is NO going back! I’m okay with using cold coconut oil if I have a shortage of butter, but shortening is a big no. 🙂

  7. I make up a slightly thin chicken gravy and add leftover chicken meat, carrots, celery, corn, and peas (or veggies of your choice). Cook this together a bit, and serve with biscuits on the side. It’s kind of like a chicken pot pie, but with the biscuits on the side, they don’t get soggy or stay gummy like they can if you bake them on the filling.

  8. My own personal preference is to use lard as the shortening in tea biscuits. I love the flavour and texture. That’s for my every day sort of tea biscuits though.
    For a special treat, there’s nothing at all wrong with using cream and / or butter though.
    Going to try the above recipe using the garlic flavoured olive oil. Sounds good.

  9. These look so easy and yummy!!! Hubby is gluten free so I bake mostly all purpose GF flour… I think I’ll be trying this recipe to see how it goes… They look really yummy – doesn’t help that I’m starving!!! lol

  10. Can I use buttermilk instead of milk? I was going to make “shake butter” as well with my kids and need something to do with the extra buttermilk.

    Thanks.