It’s quick and easy to have the best flakey biscuits on the table in 20 minutes with three ingredients and my three baking tips. Why save homemade biscuits for special occasions? This simple biscuit recipe makes them perfect for any time. So, let’s get started, and you’ll see these truly are the easiest 3 ingredient biscuits ever!
What You’ll Learn in this Post
I love biscuits or scones. Doesn’t everyone? Like many, though, I hadn’t had positive experiences making them.
Well, this fast and easy homemade biscuits recipe will completely erase all of those past mistakes. Making the best 3 ingredient biscuits is within your reach! I guarantee it.
Let me share a few of my tips with you for How to Make Quick and Easy Biscuits with only 3 ingredients!
What 3 Ingredients You Need for the Easiest Homemade Biscuits
- Self rising flour (for all purpose flour, see below)
- Heavy cream
- Salt
That’s it!
If you don’t have self rising flour in your pantry, see how to make your own easy self rising flour below.
Before you know it, you’ll pull these delicious, flaky 3 ingredient biscuits with heavy cream out of the oven.
No cream on hand? We have simple biscuit recipes that don’t use cream, too!
Check out our tender Buttermilk Drop Biscuits that use buttermilk instead of cream. Or our 3 ingredient drop biscuits that use milk and butter. For a little kick, try our cheddar jalapeno drop biscuits.
How to Make This Simple Biscuit Recipe
Read on to discover my 3 simple tips for creating the perfect from-scratch biscuits in only 20 minutes using these 3 basic – but must have – ingredients.
Easy Baking Tip #1: The Flour
Initially, I thought self-rising flour was the secret ingredient for making the perfect biscuit. After all, that’s what I used the first time my biscuits came out beautifully flakey and tall.
Then I began using organic flour, and I couldn’t find an organic self-rising flour. So, I did what anyone would do and turned to Google.
Through a little research, I found that soft winter wheat is an ideal flour for making biscuits. It’s low in protein and has a lower gluten.
A search for organic soft winter wheat brought me to organic 00 flour. I already used that for pizza dough. But, after trying it, it’s one of my favorite flours to use for biscuit making.
TFN’s Tip: Make your own self-rising flour to keep on hand.
Special flours aside, you can use all purpose flour with the changes below OR use self-rising flour.
Turn All-Purpose Flour to Self-Rising Flour
Turn all-purpose flour into self-rising flour with this simple recipe. It makes enough for two batches of biscuits.
- 4 cups of flour
- 2 tablespoons of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of salt
Mix well, and store in a container at room temperature.
Easy Baking Tip #2: The Fat
Heavy cream is high in fat and is easy to use. You could use a combination of butter and buttermilk or milk to get that amount of fat. But, it requires more mixing.
Pouring in cold cream is just easier.
Trust me. You don’t want to try substituting whole or low-fat milk for heavy cream in this simple biscuit recipe! Heavy cream makes all the difference in the world for the best moist and flaky biscuits.
Here’s a quick comparison: heavy cream contains 36-40% milk fat, while whole milk has 3.5-4% milk fat. When making biscuits with just 3 ingredients, the right amount of fat is essential for the best and flakiest biscuits!
If you’re looking for that classic buttery flavor from using cold butter in your biscuit recipe, brush on a little melted butter after baking. Or make my easy drop biscuits made with milk and butter.
Or, you can even add a pat in the middle before baking to give them that buttery taste.
Easy Baking Tip #3: The Techniques
There are two simple techniques to achieve fluffy, flaky homemade biscuit perfection…
The first important technique is folding.
The dough is patted out flat and folded like a letter several times over to create those beautiful layers.
The second technique to perfection is properly cutting the dough.
Press down and come straight up when you are cutting out the biscuits from the dough.
NO twisting! Moving the cutter side to side seals up the edges and prevents them from rising.
So, it’s straight down and up for the highest rise!
If you’re looking for biscuits you can make without a biscuit cutter, check out our cheddar bay biscuits recipe. Just mix, drop, and bake. They truly are that easy!
Additional Prep Tips for the Best Homemade Biscuits
- Consider using a food processor to mix the ingredients, especially if your kitchen is warm. On the other hand, keeping the dough as cool as possible is essential during preparation. So, the less you handle the dough, the better.
- Heavy cream is an essential ingredient. It has a high-fat content (36%-40%). Compare that to milk’s fat content of 3-4% for whole milk and 2% for low-fat. High fat is an essential ingredient of biscuits. So again, don’t substitute regular milk or half-n-half for the cream in these homemade biscuits.
- Use a cast-iron skillet for baking instead of a sheet pan to create “cathead” style pull-apart biscuits. These biscuits are clustered together.
- A hot oven is essential for the best rise possible. Wait until your oven is to temperature before adding the 3 Ingredient biscuits.
- Use these biscuits as a dessert? Skip the salt and substitute it for a tablespoon of sugar. Then you have the perfect shortcakes for that fruit!
Now that you know the easy baking tips for making the perfect 3 ingredient biscuits let’s make a batch – or two!
These truly are the easiest homemade biscuits ever.
Get more Easy Recipes Using Self Rising Flour:
Frequently Asked Questions
Space biscuits 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. This allows the cut biscuits to cook evenly yet rise tall.
If you want the most luscious biscuits ever, brush the tops with melted butter after they come out of the oven. Brushing the butter on after baking lets the butter soaks into the baked biscuit, so you get a great buttery flavor in every bite.
Easiest Ever 3 Ingredient Biscuits Recipe
3 Ingredient Biscuits
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 2 cups self-rising flour (see notes for all-purpose flour)
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream (don't substitute milk, heavy cream is a must!)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Keep cream in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- Add flour and salt to a medium bowl. Pour in cold cream and stir with a heavy wooden spoon until mixed. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
- Dump bowl onto a counter and scrape out any remaining dough or flour. Pat into a rectangle about 2" thick. Fold in thirds, turn 1/4 and fold again, continuing 3 times.
- Cut biscuits with a 3" biscuit cutter. Press down and bring straight up. Do not twist biscuit cutter. Pat excess dough out, cut, and repeat process again.
- Place biscuits on a cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake for 12 minutes, until golden. Brush with butter. Serve warm.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Now that you know my 3 easy baking tips and that you only need 3 simple ingredients to make the easiest and most delicious self-rising biscuits, go and make some!
Julie B says
Made these tonight with sausage gravy and they were amazing! So soft and tender inside with a nice flaky texture! I took your advice and brushed melted butter on the tops after baking. Seriously, the best biscuits I’ve ever made! We’re just under 6800 ft! I didn’t change the recipe at all, these baked tall and perfect. Thank you! 😊
Renae says
So happy to hear this!
Fran says
Any hint at how to make them at 8,500 ft in altitude?
Renae says
I’m sorry I don’t. Here is a my favorite resource for questions like that: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/resources/high-altitude-baking
Mel says
Hi couple of things. Have you ever used 00 flour for the biscuits? I’m going to try that with this recipe. Also you say 475 degrees but in your video you say 500 degrees? Which is it. Thanks and have a beautiful day!
Renae says
Hi, yes, I have used 00 flour (see Easy Baking Tip #1: The Flour in the blog post). Just follow the directions for making your own self-rising flour, sustituting 00 flour for all-purpose flour. And, the correct temperature is 475ºF – initially I baked them at 500ºF, but after many rounds of recipe testing I found that the lower temperature makes more golden biscuits.
steve says
Looks like a good recipe. Since I’m newly diabetic will the recipe work with whole grain wheat flour or other flours?
Renae says
I have not made this recipe with whole grain wheat flour, but I believe someone here commented that they made it with gluten-free flour.
Christina says
Do you think these would work in a sausage gravy and biscuits casserole? The casserole calls for canned biscuit dough 🤢, cut into quarters and laid under the ender ingredients, then baked all together. I want to make my own biscuits for the recipe!
Renae says
They should! Let me know how it turns out.