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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Easy directions. They made them look so good and easy. I followed the directions exactly and watched the video. However my dough was very dry. I kept adding tablespoons of milk and after I added 6 more Tbsp’s. I just went with it, even though it still wasn’t as gooey as in the video. Well obviously I still didn’t add enough milk because they just crumbled apart. If I tried this recipe again I would probably put closer to 3/4 cup of milk in. Better luck next time.
Absolutely delicious! This is the third recipe of yours that I’ve made. Third one we love as well!! Biscuits, pancakes and waffles recipes are my family’s favorites! My new go to for easy from scratch baking recipes hands down!