Buttermilk Drop Biscuits
Updated June 21, 2023
Quick Summary
Drop Biscuits-buttery, tender, flaky, biscuits that are incredibly easy to make. These homemade biscuits can be made in about 25 minutes and go great with any meal!
Easy Drop Biscuit Recipe
You can’t beat a warm, homemade biscuit, especially when that it is dripping with butter and jam. YUM!
I don’t like slaving over making homemade biscuits though. That is why we LOVE this easy Drop Biscuit recipe. We have been making this recipe for years.
If you are intimidated by making biscuits, you don’t have to worry with this recipe. There is no rolling, folding, or cutting involved. That is the joy of drop biscuits. They are SO easy to make and turn out perfect every single time.
And I promise these easy biscuits are just as good as time intensive biscuits because magic happens when you combine the cold buttermilk with melted butter. The small clumps of butter make the biscuits flaky and tender when baked in a super-hot oven. These biscuits are heavenly!
Table of Contents
Ingredients
You only need seven basic ingredients! We always have these ingredients on hand, another reason we love this recipe so much!
- All-purpose flour-Make sure you don’t pack your flour when measuring. Scoop and level the flour. I have also made the biscuits with white whole wheat flour and kamut flour and they turned out great! I am sure you could use all-purpose gluten-free flour too. I like Cup4Cup.
- Baking powder and baking soda-You need baking powder and baking soda for this recipe. Check the expiration dates to make sure they are fresh.
- Sugar-You need granulated sugar to sweeten the biscuits a little.
- Salt-Don’t forget the salt. I like to use kosher salt.
- Buttermilk-Make sure you use COLD buttermilk. This is important for the butter to clump up when you combine the buttermilk and butter. Keep your buttermilk in the fridge until you are ready to use. You can also use homemade kefir to make these biscuits.
- Butter-Use melted unsalted butter. If you only have salted butter, you can use it, just reduce the salt in the recipe.
How to Make Drop Biscuits
Let’s get this biscuit party started!!
- Preheat the oven to 475°F. Yes, you do need the oven at a very high temperature. I promise the biscuits won’t burn. Line a large baking sheet with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- In a medium bowl, combine cold buttermilk and the slightly cooled melted butter. Stir with a spatula until combined and small clumps form. You want the mixture to be lumpy because those little butter clumps will create flaky, buttery biscuits. That’s the secret to these buttermilk biscuits!
- Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just combined and the biscuit batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Don’t over mix!
- Grease a 1/4-cup dry measuring cup. Fill the cup with biscuit batter and drop the batter onto the prepared baking sheet. The biscuit shape doesn’t have to be perfect, that is the joy of a drop biscuit. Repeat with remaining batter. You will get 12 biscuits. If you want to make the biscuits a little larger, you can. This recipe is very flexible. Sometimes we make 8 large biscuits, but usually 12. Make sure the biscuits are spaced out on the pan. They will spread a little.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven, on the middle rack, and bake until the biscuit tops are golden brown, about 12 to 14 minutes.
- Transfer biscuits to wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes.
Biscuit Toppings
A warm biscuit is good by itself, but if you want to jazz things up, here are a few of our favorite biscuit toppings:
- Butter-you can never have too much butter! We like to spread a little or a lot of salted butter onto the warm biscuits:)
- Honey-you can’t go wrong with a drizzle of honey!
- Jam-spread your favorite jam onto the biscuits.
- Nut butter-I like peanut butter or almond butter on my biscuits. Is that weird? I don’t think so. Especially when you do peanut butter AND honey!
- Gravy-make a meal out of the biscuits and make biscuits and gravy!
What to Serve with Biscuits
Biscuits are great anytime of the day. Enjoy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or as a snack! They also make a great side dish to the following:
- Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Baked Mac and Cheese
- Vegetarian Chili
- Breakfast Casserole
- Oven Fried Chicken
How to Store
The biscuits are best the day they are made. You can’t beat a biscuit right out of the oven! If you happen to have leftovers, you can store them in an air tight container on the counter for up to 2 days.
You can also freeze the biscuits. Let them cool and then place in a freezer container or bag and freeze for up to 2 months.
More Biscuit Recipes:
- Blueberry Cream Cheese Biscuits
- Strawberry Biscuits
- Apple Cheddar Biscuits
- Greek Yogurt Biscuits
- Three Cheese Zucchini Drop Biscuits
- Gooey Cinnamon Biscuits
Drop Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- For serving: butter, jam, honey, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475°F. Line a large baking sheet with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine cold buttermilk and the slightly cooled melted butter. Stir with a spatula until combined and small clumps form. It is ok if the mixture is lumpy.
- Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just combined and the biscuit batter pulls away from sides of bowl.
- Grease a ¼-cup dry measuring cup. Fill the cup with biscuit batter and drop the batter onto the prepared baking sheet. The biscuit shape doesn’t have to be perfect, that is the joy of a drop biscuit. The biscuits should measure about 2 ¼ inches in diameter and 1 ¼ inches high. Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 ½ inches apart.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven, on the middle rack, and bake until the biscuit tops are golden brown, about 12 to 14 minutes.
- Transfer biscuits to wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with butter, jam, and/or honey.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag @twopeasandpod and hashtag it with #twopeasandtheirpod
What could I do to make these into cut biscuits? A little more flour?
I didn’t have my Cook’s Illustrated with me, so I was happy to find this reprint of their recipe.
Absolutely the BEST biscuits I’ve ever made (and I’ve been cooking for more than 50 years — folks tell me I’m quite good). So…a hearty beef stew with these big, fluffy biscuits on-the-side? Heaven! And if there are any leftover in the morning, these biscuits with butter and jam make the perfect breakfast.
They are our favorite too!
These biscuits are so quick and easy! Better yet they taste delicious and are not dry!
My favorite!
These are easy to make and delicious. I cook sausage patties and put them on the biscuits. Then I wrap each individual biscuit and freeze in a freezer bag. Then wrap in paper towel and heat in the microwave for a quick breakfast on the go. Very
yummy.
These were so delicious but fell apart when I cut them. Thinking I should have let them cook a little longer?
Maybe cook a little longer or cool a little longer.
These biscuits are AMAZING!!! I make a batch just-for-me, sit down with butter and make a meal of these. Thanks so much for a great recipe!
Perfect recipe, I just love how easy and exceedingly delicious these are. Thank you!
I don’t say this often when it comes to biscuits because I am forever in search of my new favourite biscuit recipe….my search may have ended. Fast, easy and delicious!!!! I always have leftover buttermilk and I recently discovered that you can freeze it. Today when I got fresh strawberries I came looking for a drop biscuit recipe (honestly I just cleaned all my floors and didn’t want the mess that comes with rolled biscuits). I took my reserved one cup of buttermilk out of the freezer and put it in a small container of water to help it thaw a bit. Once half thawed I dumped it into a bowl, used my hands to massage some of the ice out and then added it to the slightly cooled butter. I love having a recipe that allows me to use up my frozen buttermilk…thank you so much!!!
Yay! So glad you loved the recipe!
Simply the best! Don’t even think about it any longer and just make these delicious biscuits. When I don’t have buttermilk on hand and I am craving these little guys, I’ve used a mix of whole milk with half and half, I’ve used heavy cream with milk and they still come out great. I’ve also used browned butter, which resulted in a different flavor and still amazing! Very adaptable and forgiving recipe as long as you have the main staple ingredients. My family and I love them!
We love them too!
I just made these for a sausage gravy and biscuits luncheon I’m hosting and they are fantastic! I used the 3x recipe and a large scoop and came out with 18 biscuits (or 18 and 1 xl one, or 19 and one mini one). They’re really good, nicely browned, and soft on the insi
How fun!
I do indeed make these drop biscuits all of the time. They are easy, not too complicated for a beginner and quite delicious!
SO easy!
These biscuits are delicious and so easy to make. Will definitely be my go to recipe for homemade biscuits.
We make them all of the time.
Can’t believe how quick and simple these are. They turned out great. The kids loved them.
Yay!
This my go-to biscuit recipe. It is so easy and basic (which, let’s face it, a biscuits recipe should be easy and basic). Since the butter has to be melted, I just go ahead and brown it – gives these delicious biscuits just a little something extra!
Nice!
Easy peasy! Love the ease of making these! And, oh my goodness, the very cold buttermilk in the cooled melted butter worked so much easier than cutting butter into the flour.
And then, I actually brushed them with melted butter once they came out of the oven…we could’ve easily eaten more….they are so good! My daughter asked if they were the Red Lobster biscuits (even though there is not cheese in these) ~ but they’re that good!
Some of us ate them with gravy, and some with cream cheese with cherry and rosemary jam over them. So good!
They are the best!
Thank you so much for a quick, easy, and delicious biscuit recipe! I only had about 2/3 cup of buttermilk on hand so I added in the last few tablespoons of sour cream from a tub, a little plain yogurt, and a bit of half and half (basically every milk-like product I had in my fridge!), and these turned out to be the best dang biscuits I have ever made. Crispy on the edges and incredibly light, fluffy, and moist inside. In spite of trying to limit carbs a bit these days, there was no question about seconds for us all!
So glad you loved them!
These were soooo good. I left in a bit longer than I should’ve, browned on top but that didn’t take away from the biscuits at all! Crunchy topping with a soft fluffy middle! I’ll be making this again and again!
We make them all of the time!
I’ve been making these weekly since seeing your recipe-so easy. Sometimes plain & sometimes I add dry spices-yum & even a little cheese. thanks.
I am thrilled you love them so much!