5 Ingredient Easy Drop Biscuits

This easy drop biscuit recipe only requires 5 simple ingredients! In under 30 minutes you can have homemade drop biscuits on your table!

Drop Biscuit Overview

• Skill Level: Beginner
• Techniques Used: Cutting Fat into Flour

Drop biscuits are just like classic butter biscuits, except there is no rolling required. Just scoop out the dough onto a pan and bake! No mess, no fuss! 

These biscuits can be made with buttermilk or regular milk and come together so quickly with ingredients you likely already have on hand. In less than 30 minutes, you can have homemade drop biscuits for dinner! 

Drop Biscuits vs Traditional Biscuits

Drop biscuits are made with the same ingredients as traditional butter biscuits, just in different quantities. Traditional biscuits are usually fluffier and have a flakier texture, but there is a place for both in your repertoire!

I make drop biscuits by themselves as a side for dinner, or drop them over a casserole, or even a cobbler for dessert. You can eat them for breakfast with sausage gravy, to sop up your runny eggs, or simply with butter and jam. I can always find a use for them!

Ingredients in Drop Biscuits

• Flour: Use all-purpose flour for these for the main structure of the biscuit. Remember when measuring flour to lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cups and level the cup off with a knife. If you have a kitchen scale, that is the most accurate way to measure flour. (Note: you can also make self-rising flour drop biscuits)
• Baking Powder: Baking does most of the leavening in the biscuit. It gives the biscuit the rise and some fluffiness.
• Salt: Salt is really what gives some flavor to these biscuits. It also helps with browning a bit.
• Butter: Use cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces. You want the butter cold so that when it creates steam when it melts in the oven. This creates flakiness in the biscuits.
• Milk: Milk is our moisture. It brings everything together and you want it cold so that it doesn’t start to bring down the temp of the butter. You can use regular milk, buttermilk, or non-dairy milk for these biscuits. 

That’s it! Now if you want a little bit of a sweeter biscuit you can add a few tabelspoons of sugar. You can also throw in some herbs or cheese or diced up jalapeno. the possibilities are endless! 

How to Make Drop Biscuits

Drop biscuits, like traditional biscuits, utilize require very cold butter and milk to keep their flakiness. It is also extremely important not to over-mix the dough so the biscuits don’t get tough. 

Step 1: Combine Dry Ingredients

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. If you want to add any herbs or spices you would add those here. 

Step 2: Cut in the Butter

Add the pieces of cold fat into the dry ingredients and and use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter through. You can opt to pulse this in a food processor if you like, however be careful not to over process. 

Once the mixture is the texture of a coarse meal you are ready to move on to the next step. If you wanted to add in cheeses or other add-ins you would stir them in here before adding the milk. 

Step 3: Add the Milk

Now its time to add the milk and stir until we get a thick dough. Start with part of the milk and stir until incorporated. Add more milk until a very thick dough forms. 

Step 4: Scoop Dough

Use a large trigger scoop or a spoon to scoop large mounds of dough onto a baking sheet or into a greased cast iron skillet. You can make them as big or small as you like but I like really big biscuits. 

Step 5: Bake!

Bake the biscuits until they are nice and golden brown. You can brush them with melted butter when they first come out of the oven if you like! A sprinkle of salt over the top would also be nice!