Drop biscuits have been appearing right and left in our house over the last few months, thanks to this recipe. I know it sounds so hoity-toity to call something the best, but let me tell you, these are simply the best drop biscuits I’ve ever had and if my insistence on making them at least weekly is any indication I’m telling the truth, then you should run to the kitchen and make them, too.
I love biscuits in any form, but drop biscuits are unparalleled in their simplicity. Here’s the brilliance of this recipe – chilled buttermilk is stirred together with melted butter which creates small clumps of butter. When those pearls of butter hidden inside the biscuit dough hit the piping hot oven, they melt, creating steam which results in a flaky, tender biscuit.
These biscuits couldn’t be simpler – no rolling out, no carefully folding the dough into envelope shapes, just whisk, scoop, and bake. And then try not to eat all 12. Because let’s be serious, biscuits aren’t exactly parading around claiming to be calorie free. I forgive them for that blatant error, especially since they are so quick and easy to throw together for nearly any meal imaginable. We buck tradition around here and eat them with everything from spaghetti to meatloaf. They are especially delicious with this crispy oven baked chicken and this chili rubbed pork loin. Just sayin’.
The Best Drop Biscuits
Printable Version with Picture
Printable Version
*Makes about 12 biscuits
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, chilled
8 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled
DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 475 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or a silpat liner.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a 2-cup liquid measure, stir together the chilled buttermilk and melted butter until the butter forms small clumps. 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 ¼-cup measure, scoop out mounds of the dough and drop them onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake the biscuits until the tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from the oven, brush with additional melted butter. Serve warm.
Recipe Source: from America’s Test Kitchen
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been thinking about biscuits like this for a couple of months now. I think it may be time.
I am soo trying these this Sunday!! Thanks for all the amazing recipes!!! Have you thought about putting together a cook book..so we can have all these amazing recipes in one place!! =)
Can’t wait to try these – I get tired of always buying canned biscuits or frozen rolls. I’m hoping these turn out better than past biscuits I’ve made LOL
yum!
easy, buttery delicious biscuits!
I bet they’d go awesome with ham and homemade mac and cheese.
Have you tried these with wheat flour? If so, how did they do? They look delicious!
I always have buttermilk in the fridge so guess what I’m making this weekend? I’m excited that they aren’t the complicated rolling and folding that I usually think of when I think of biscuits.
Okay….don’t knock this before you’ve tried it……We prepare fresh strawberries (sliced and slightly sweetened) and pour them over a warm (maybe buttered) biscuit for an instant shortcake and it’s delish!! These will probably work great for this.
These look amazing and we love biscuits at our house. We have them often and I can’t wait to try this version!
You are definitely allowed to call something ‘the best’ because everything I make from your website is ‘the best!’ I trust ya
I’m excited to see a biscuit recipe with that much rise that doesn’t call for shortening
you SERIOUSLY must be reading my mind!! I’ve never made biscuits in my life, but I am getting ready to make some fresh strawberry preserves (lazy person preserves, as I call them), and I think these are going to be the perfect ‘vehicle’ for the delicious preserves!!!! can’t wait to try them!
I just made the cream biscuits from the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook yesterday and they are really good too.
These look delicious, and easy. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Hey Mel-
We love cheddar biscuits at my house. How do you think these would work if I added a little cheddar cheese?
I am not really a biscuit lover (although I do like your cheddar and herb variety), but if you say these are good, I believe you. I’ll try them soon!
All day I’ve been thinking that I needed some sort of bread to go with our dinner, but I didn’t want to invest the time in rolls. Thanks for this, I’m excited to try it!
Just made them! Added 1/2 c raisins and 3 more tsp sugar…with blueberry jam and a dab of whipped cream…oh dear…
Perfect timing – I made these last night and they were SO good. Much better than any drop biscuits I’ve made before and easy too! I couldn’t believe how light and moist they were. Thanks!
I will be trying this one for sure! I don’t like messing with the rolling and cutting too much either.
Michelle – they would probably taste delicious….it’s definitely worth a try!
Elisabeth – I haven’t tried them with wheat flour.
I love love love real biscuits, but without the fuss and folding -these were buttery and delicious
this is EXACTLY the recipe my bakery uses for its brunch biscuits, and you’re right–having made them every sunday for the past few months, i can state with certainty that they couldn’t be simpler to make! bonus–they’re dead tasty too.
I made the biscuits using powdered buttermilk. They turned out light and fluffy. My husband said, “they are good enough to eat by themselves.” I could taste baking soda in the biscuits so if I make them again I will only use 1/4 teaspoon of soda. Thanks for the recipe. Maybe I will try the red velvet cake this week.
These were awesome! Reminded me of the biscuits at a local chicken place in Marble Falls, Texas-so good with honey! We live in Australia-so a little “home” cooking always tastes great!
Just made these, I love the flavor…which I can thank the butter for
Thanks for the recipe!!
Melanie,
I have loved this America’s Test Kitchen recipe for awhile now–it IS the BEST drip biscuit recipe around
I use 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 white flour and the texture and taste I actually like better than the all white flour. The wheat flour gives them a little more flavor, kind of a nutty taste. I also use the ‘homemade’ buttermilk trick with powdered milk (because I am so cheap and rarely have buttermilk in my fridge). Just use 1 c. water, 2 T. lemon juice and 3 T. dry powdered milk=1 c. buttermilk. It works perfectly and they are SO amazing! I will be blogging about a Biscuit & Gravy recipe with homemade turkey gravy with mushrooms, peas, carrots, etc. over these bicuits. We had it for dinner tonight and it was CRAZY good!!! Thanks for another great recipe–love them all!!
I’ve made these as written and they’re delicious … but last night I made them again with 100% whole wheat flour and they were fantastic! Delicious and a bit less guilt! The whole family loved them.
These are the best biscuits ever! Period. The end. These are so easy and taste delicious. I have no desire to try any other biscuit recipe.
If I don’t have buttermilk, I add a tablespoon of vinegar to to a cup of milk and they turn out great. As much as I would love to eat a full batch for dinner, I usually freeze some for later. I’ll drop the dough onto a small cookie sheet and put them in freezer for several minutes. After that I wrap them in plastic wrap.
I’ll cook the frozen ones at 475 and I think it usually takes around 20-25 minutes for them to cook.
Thanks for sharing!!
Mel you are a life saver! I cook just about the same things every week and I want something diffrent and not out of a box! Are these also called Cathead biscuits if so my grandmother used to make these when I was growing up! I would love to make these with some white gravy!!! Yummo
Finally got around to making these today……they are amazing! So easy, tender and very tasty! Thanks for sharing!
It was too late to get bread made for dinner so I opted for these biscuits instead. Oh my goodness! These were so delicious!!!!! They were the perfect compliment to chicken noodle soup on a cold, wet and dreary night. Another winner Mel
These are fabulous! I surprised the husband with these, but next time I make them I will reduce the oven temperature. I ended up surprising the husband initially with the smoke alarm. LOL
Just made these with homemade sausage gravy for our Sunday breakfast. Wow. I can’t believe how easy they are to put together…and how fluffy and buttery they were! No more buying packaged biscuits again! The only thing I did differently was by making a substitute buttermilk with 1c milk with 1 tbs white vinegar…thank you for this recipe- it’s a keeper.
Oh, wow … delicious. So perfectly fluffy and perfect for savory or sweet scone-like breakfast biscuits. Will definitely be using this basic recipe to experiment some more! Used a bit of shredded sharp cheddar and buttermilk substitution (white vinegar in milk). Amazed and so pleased at how easy and yummy these are! I’m going to be the biscuit rock star in my house.
Loved these oozingly fantastic buttery biscuits!!! Used 1/2 C. whole wheat flour and home-made buttermilk (1 C. milk, 3 tsps vinegar) and cooked them on waxed paper on a cookie sheet – crust was equally delicious — especially hot out of the oven!!! A buttery explosion of — as Mel calls them — THE BEST — drop biscuits!!! TFS Mel! Delicious!!!
Mel, I made these today and substituted in one cup of whole wheat flour and they turned out soooo good! Plus they took about 5 minutes to throw together, yay! Thanks again.
These are truly wonderful biscuits. They are easily adapted to gluten-free/vegan. Just use a a true all-purpose GF flour (Pamela’s or Better Batter would work great here), or make your own and be sure to add some xanthan gum, probably 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. for a full recipe. (I cut the recipe down to 1/4 since it’s just me eating these, and I only used about 1/8 tsp. of xanthan which was perfect for me.). I made my ‘buttermilk’ by adding adding some cider vinegar to plain, unsweetened almond milk and let it chill out in the fridge for a little while. I replaced butter with soy-free Earth Balance. Everything came to together beautifully, and the result was fluffy, tender biscuits with great taste and not even the slightest hint that they were g-free.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’m definitely using this one from now on.
xx
These are AWESOME! I did decrease the butter by half and increase the milk a splash with no noticeable difference. Followed another reviewer & froze the leftover that didn’t fit on the pan & cooked them up the next day. They seemed even more moist! Will definitely make more to have on hand in the freezer. Must make chicken soup to have with it now…
This recipe calls for meaningfully more butter than any biscuit recipe I’ve ever seen (probably why they’re so good!). I reduced it to 4T butter and left everything else the same and they were still probably the best scratch biscuits I’ve ever had. I think buttermilk is such a treasure of an ingredient (which I improvised with skim milk and vinegar).
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