These easy flaky buttermilk drop biscuits are amazing. No rolling, no cutting out…they are just as delicious as finicky, classic homemade biscuits.
Biscuits are probably one of the most oft-made carby side dishes in our house. Long before I conquered the intimidating-to-me classic, rolled out biscuit, drop biscuits were there to save me.
In fact, I probably can’t even begin to count how many times we’ve made these easy flaky buttermilk drop biscuits. And by “we” I literally mean all of us. They are so easy, even my kids can make them with hardly any helicoptering.
They’re the perfect beginner biscuit recipe. But they’re delicious enough to stick around as an all-time favorite.
Let’s Make Them
Toss all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium-ish bowl. This recipe makes about 12 biscuits.
Here’s the secret to this recipe
Then, in a liquid measuring cup or smaller bowl mix together the buttermilk and melted butter.
This, right here, is the secret to getting such an easy drop biscuit to be flaky and tender.
As the warm, melted butter mixes with the cold buttermilk, small clumps of hardened butter form. It’ll look a little curdled and gross, but don’t you worry that pretty little head of yours, because those small bits of butter are what make the texture of the biscuits absolutely perfect.
Add the butter/buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to combine everything together.
Don’t Overmix
Just like any other good biscuit recipe, you don’t want to over mix the dough. Mix just until everything is combined.
A few little lumps and bumps here and there are just fine.
How to drop the biscuits
Since these are “drop biscuits” – you don’t need to mess around with rolling out the dough and cutting out the biscuits. The dough literally gets dropped right onto a baking sheet.
Lightly grease a 1/4-cup measuring cup with cooking spray and scoop out a pretty even mound of biscuit dough.
You could also use a large #20 cookie scoop {aff. link}. Basically you want about 1/4 cup of dough for every biscuit.
I use a butter knife to gently extricate the tad bit sticky dough from the cup. If you’re measuring cups have special powers, perhaps the biscuit dough will just fall right out.
Lucky you. ?
Plop those biscuits onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
You can space them a couple inches apart, or you can put them much closer together if you want the attached-, pull-apart biscuits vibe going on.
Bake them in a piping hot oven for about 12 minutes. Maybe 14. Maybe 13 1/2. Watch them closely. Every oven is a bit different.
These easy flaky drop biscuits are insanely delicious right out of the oven. Smother them with butter and jam, and I guarantee you won’t even care what else is being served for dinner, why the laundry hasn’t magically folded itself, or what your name is.
They are that good.
Even next-day, these biscuits are super tasty. We like to warm them up with a quick 8-second stint in the micro, but it’s not necessary. And let’s be honest, there usually aren’t any leftovers.
A couple extra notes
- This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled
- The jam you see slathered on those biscuits is a strawberry bluebarb (blueberry + rhubarb) concoction I made and canned last summer and is easily the tastiest jam I have ever made and wouldn’t you know it, I only made six jars, and now I can’t find where I wrote down the recipe. I’ve literally torn my house and pantry and unorganized recipe note files apart to no avail. I’m drowning my sorrows in drop biscuits, hoarded jam jars, and chocolate.
- I have made this recipe with buttermilk substitutions like lemon juice + milk and sour cream + milk, and while they work in a pinch, nothing beats real, live buttermilk in this recipe.
Yield: 12 biscuits
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk, chilled (see note)
- 8 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled (I use salted butter)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly grease with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- In a 2-cup liquid measure or small bowl, stir together the chilled buttermilk and melted butter until the butter forms small clumps and the mixture looks curdled.
- Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula just until the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture slightly pulls away from the edges of the bowl.
- Using a greased 1/4-cup measure or large #20 cookie scoop, portion the dough and drop them onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1 1/2 inches apart.
- Bake the biscuits until the tops are golden brown, 13 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, brush with additional melted butter. Serve warm.
Notes
Buttermilk: I’ve used buttermilk substitutions in this recipe (like lemon juice + milk and sour cream + milk), and they definitely work in a pinch, but storebought buttermilk gives the best flaky and soft texture.
Temperature Change: the original recipe (I posted back in 2011) had a baking temperature of 475 degrees F but over the years (and because of all the different ovens I’ve had as we’ve moved a lot), I’ve decreased the oven temperature to 425 degrees since too often the bottom of the biscuits were burning. If you’ve made and loved the original recipe, keep the temperature at 475 degrees.
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Recipe Source: from America’s Test Kitchen
Recipe originally published May 2011; updated January 2020 with new photos, recipe notes, etc.
