You’ll love these buttery drop biscuits. These are quick! Simply mix, drop onto your baking sheet, and bake! Every time I make these easy drop biscuits, I can’t wait to make them again.
I can’t get enough of these buttery drop biscuits. They take about 30 minutes from start to first bite and are ridiculously easy to make. Instead of rolling out and cutting into shapes, all you need to do for drop biscuits is spoon (or drop) mounds of dough onto a baking sheet and bake.
No patting out, no rolling and no cutting required. Once you make them, I know you’ll be itching to make them again.
Key Ingredients
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but you can substitute it for self-raising flour, which already has baking powder and a little salt added. See my tips in the recipe for reducing the baking powder and salt.
- Baking powder: Helps our biscuits rise and fluff up a bit in the middle.
- Salt: It makes them taste amazing. If you use salted butter, you can leave the extra salt out.
- Butter: Makes these extra delicious and so tender. I also love brushing the baked drop biscuits with extra melted butter before serving (yum!).
- Milk: Brings our biscuit dough together and helps them bake to be tender. You can substitute the milk for buttermilk.
How to Make Drop Biscuits
Start by whisking your flour, baking powder, and salt, then scatter over small cold butter cubes. We want our butter to be very cold for this recipe.
Use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour mixture. Or use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. We show both methods in the video. Another option is to use a food processor to pulse the butter into the flour mixture. We do this when making our homemade pie crust.
You can add the milk when the butter and flour mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Slowly pour in the milk while you mix with a fork. The key is to mix until a dough forms, but not to overdo it. Watch us do it in the video, it only takes 30 seconds or so of stirring.
This drop biscuit dough looks shaggy and might be a bit sticky. That’s okay, it is supposed to look that way! From here, we simply drop mounds of dough onto a baking sheet (or into a cast iron pan) and bake.
Our drop biscuits take 10 to 15 minutes to bake, and then right after taking them out of the oven, we brush a little extra melted butter on top. (It’s the right thing to do!)
Your biscuits will be light and fluffy in the middle and golden brown on top. I love serving them warm straight from the oven.
More Biscuit Recipes
Easy Buttery Drop Biscuits
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
These drop biscuits are ridiculously easy to make. Once you make them, I just know you’ll be itching to make them again and again. The entire process can be done in under 30 minutes and they taste fantastic.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
8 tablespoons (115g) cold unsalted butter
1 ½ cups (190g) all-purpose flour
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, see notes
1/2 cup (118ml) cold whole milk, plus more as needed
Directions
1Heat oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Alternatively, set aside a medium cast iron pan.
2Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together until well blended.
3Remove one tablespoon of butter and set aside (this will be melted and brushed onto the biscuits after they are baked).
4Cut the remaining 7 tablespoons of butter into small cubes. If you are not immediately moving on to the next step, place the butter back into the refrigerator to keep cold.
5Scatter the cold butter cubes over the flour mixture then use a pastry blender or your fingers to cut or rub the butter in until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs (see photos or video for reference).
6Using a fork, gently stir the milk into the biscuit mixture until the dough comes together. It will be a bit sticky and look shaggy. If the dough is too dry, add a tablespoon or two more milk.
7Drop mounds of dough, about 3 tablespoons, onto the prepared baking sheet. Dough mounds should be about an inch apart from each other. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the biscuits are puffed and starting to turn brown on top. If some butter pools out around the bottom, it’s okay.
8Meanwhile, melt the reserved tablespoon of butter. When the biscuits come out of the oven, gently brush the butter onto the top of each. Serve warm.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Salt: I love my biscuits to be well seasoned with salt, which is why I choose to add 1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt. If you don’t like your salt level as high, stick with 1/4 teaspoon instead.
- Vegan variation: Use a cold vegan stick butter and non-dairy unsweetened milk.
- Measuring the flour: Flour should be spooned and leveled in the measuring cup. Use a spoon to add the flour into your measuring cup, and then use a flat edge to scrape the top of the cup flat. This method of adding flour to your measuring cup makes sure that you do not add too much flour to the dough.
- Self-raising flour: Omit the baking powder and salt in the recipe.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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I can’t believe how good they turned out!! They was delicious!!
Very good and quick to put together.
Loved this recipe fluffy,flaky, and delicious my hubby and I really enjoyed it
Delicious
I love this recipe! The 2nd time I made them, I added one small block of sharp cheddar, 1 1/2tsp garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp paprika and made the cheddar bay biscuits and they were delicious too!
Light, fluffy and so satisfying! Love how easy these were and everyone loved them.
These biscuits are so perfect every time! I’ve made them 7 or 8 times for my family….everyone loves them! Thank you so posting this great recipe !
Wow! We are so happy you enjoy them so much! Thank you for coming back and sharing, Rob.
I could have done better with a pastry cutter or shredded frozen butter. Awesome recipe wi make bake again and again.
Estimated prep time is only if you have everything already portioned out and ready to cook. Actual prep is more like 10 plus minutes if you have to start from scratch. Cook time in my oven at 400° took about 16 minutes (I watched then from 11 minutes on) next time will try the higher recommended temp. They turned out very nice. Buttery, flaky, and with a nice golden crust on top. They’re literally on a cooling rack for my biscuits and gravy for tomorrow. I got a 7 net biscuits from this recipe. I’m glad it’s a smaller deal as it’s just the two of us.
The dough that came together as expected, gooey and sticky, etc. I did pre-chop and then freeze the butter niblets about 1/2” size prior to prep. It was a bit difficult getting those frozen butter pieces to combine into the flour initially, but it came together rather nicely. Next time I’ll either grate the frozen butter or use a pulse method in a food processor. I will use this recipe again for certain. The recipe is spot on. Its nice not having to use yeast ir eggs or fat specific ingredients. Next time I might cut my biscuits instead of using the drop method. Thank you so much.
Excellent recipe! Put a couple of tablespoons of sugar and didn’t have buttermilk. My husband loved them and asked if I would make strawberry shortcake using this recipe. It really is an amazing. Thank you so much!
I substituted buttermilk and they were amazing. Some Popeye’s Chicken restaurants used to make buttermilk drop biscuits, back in the day, and these taste just like them.
These biscuits were so good and so simple! Buttery, tender, crisp. I halved the recipe and used oat milk. Quick and delicious!