Easy Drop Biscuits

This easy drop biscuit recipe requires no rolling or cutting of dough and only five simple ingredients. They come out nice and fluffy without using a single egg, and they’re not jagged on top like other drop biscuits.

Great-Grandma’s Homemade Drop Biscuits

My great-grandmother Alpha Dixon taught this homemade drop biscuit recipe to my mother, who passed it on to her daughters, and I’m so glad she did. Considering Grandma Dixon didn’t measure her ingredients and neither does Mama, it took my sister moving out and asking for instructions for this quick biscuit recipe to be written down.

Since then, I’ve made it so many times I don’t measure the ingredients anymore either. Two of my favorite memories of baking this recipe included a campfire. 

One was when I volunteered for the General Sam Houston Folk Festival where I was assigned to help with the dutch oven cooking. It was a bit overwhelming to make such a large batch of biscuits, but so thrilling to have people wait around to enjoy Grandma’s recipe cooked in an old-fashioned way.

The second was a children’s church camp-out in Palo Duro Canyon State Park where we cooked breakfast over an open fire and employed that dutch oven cooking I’d learned at the Folk Festival to feed all our campers. I’m telling y’all there’s just something about cooking over an open fire and hot coals that just makes everything taste better. 🙂 

We had adult volunteers asking for months about another batch of biscuits. Well, now they can finally make ’em themselves with this recipe, and so can you. 🙂

What Do You Need to Make Old-Fashioned Drop Biscuits?

As I mentioned, you only need five simple ingredients to make these classic biscuits:

• all-purpose flour
• baking powder
• granulated sugar
• salted butter
• milk to form dough 

You’ll also need a medium or large bowl and an 8 or 9 inch cast iron skillet. You can double this recipe if you want to fill a dutch oven.

A full printable recipe card with measurements and instructions is included at the end of this post.

How Do You Make Fluffy Drop Biscuits?

The steps for this classic biscuit recipe are pretty quick and painless. First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

While your oven is heating, measure your dry ingredients into a medium or large mixing bowl, stir them together, and wallow out a hole in the middle.

Next, add your softened / melted butter into the hollow of your flour mixture and pour in some milk to mostly fill the hole. Stir until just combined and dough begins to pull away from sides of bowl. Don’t overwork the dough if you want fluffy, tender biscuits.

If the dough is too thick, add a little more milk until your dough will form a ball yet still drop off your spoon.

Next, heat your cast iron skillet on the stove and grease with bacon grease, butter, or oil. Once hot, turn off the fire. 

Now, for the slightly messy part (which was my favorite part as a child). 🙂

Grandma would take a large spoonful of sticky dough and drop it in the flour bin, coat the dough, pick it up with her hands, pat off the excess flour, then place it in the skillet. 

(I admit I do this too! The dough sticks to itself, so you don’t really have to worry about losing any bits in the flour bin. Plus it helps keep you from getting flour all over the place.)

If you’re opposed to using the flour bin, you can put some flour in a separate bowl and drop your dollops of dough there.

Repeat the dropping, patting, and placing of your biscuit dough until your skillet is full. 

If you want your biscuits to have a nice golden top, use the back of a spoon or a basting brush to spread a little melted bacon grease or butter onto the top of each biscuit, prior to sliding your skillet into the hot oven. 

Bake your drop biscuits at 400 degrees for approximately 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown. 

These scrumptious biscuits serve up great with a spat of butter, honey, jelly, cinnamon and sugar, sausage gravy, eggs and sausage/bacon, beans, stew, soup, or whatever else you love to have biscuits accompany. They reheat great too. 

Drop Biscuit Tips & FAQs

The great thing about these fluffy biscuits is you can customize their size to your family, making little ones for the toddlers or cat head biscuits for the big boys. 

BTW, if you have a biscuit pan, you can just drop the dollops of dough straight into the biscuit pan holes and skip the flour bin. However, the biscuits won’t turn out as smooth on top if you do that, but they do still taste just as great.

“How long will these traditional biscuits keep?”

Stored in an airtight container, they’ll keep about a week or more in the fridge, a few days at best on the countertop. My typical rule of thumb is if they’re not molded or sour, they’re still good. 🙂

“What kind of milk do I use in these homemade biscuits?”

Whole milk, 2% milk, or cold buttermilk will work. You could probably even make these with water if you add a little extra butter, but I’ve never tried that to be certain of that theory.

“Can I use buttermilk instead of milk in this drop biscuits recipe?”

Absolutely, I’ve done that many times. Buttermilk drop biscuits are yum.

“I don’t have any cast iron skillets. What other pan can I use with this easy biscuit recipe?”

A round 2-quart baking dish will work. You could even use a muffin pan, I suppose. However, you won’t be able to preheat the pan the same way, which may affect the cooking time just a smidgen.

“I only have unsalted butter. Can I use that with this delicious recipe?”

Sure thing. I use unsalted butter all the time. Just add a dash of salt to the recipe and you’re all set.

“Can I use self-rising flour to make these easy biscuits?”

Self-rising flour should work fine. Just leave out the baking powder from the recipe.

That’s All, Folks

I hope y’all enjoy Grandma’s drop biscuits as much as we do. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you like with your biscuits and your best biscuit memories. 🙂

Happy Trails and Happy Cooking!

Other Recipes You Might Like

• Memaw’s sausage balls
• Breakfast scramble
• Southern corn bread
• Easy sausage gravy
• Smothered Steak

Yield: 7 biscuits

Easy Drop Biscuits

Print

This classic easy drop biscuit recipe requires no rolling or cutting of dough and only five simple ingredients. They come out nice and fluffy without using a single egg, and they’re not jagged on top like other drop biscuits.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp salted butter
• milk to form dough

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients, stir, and wallow out a hole in the middle.
3. Add softened/melted butter into the hole and pour in milk to mostly fill the hollow. Stir until just combined. If the dough is too thick, add a little more milk until dough forms a ball yet will still drop off your spoon.
4. Heat cast iron skillet on stove and grease with bacon grease, butter, or oil. Once hot, turn off the fire.
5. Drop a heaping spoonful of dough into the flour bin, coat with flour, pat off excess, and place in greased skillet. If opposed to using the flour bin, put some flour in a separate bowl and drop the dollops of dough there.
6. Repeat the dropping, patting, and placing of your biscuit dough until skillet is full.
7. If you want your biscuits to have a nice golden top, use the back of a spoon or a basting brush to spread a little melted bacon grease or butter onto the top of each biscuit, prior to sliding your skillet into the oven.
8. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 20 minutes or until tops are lightly brown.
9. Serve with your favorite jams, jellies, stews, or gravy.

Notes

• Salted butter can be substituted with unsalted butter and a dash of salt
• Milk can be substituted with buttermilk.
• These biscuits can be customized in size for your family, making little ones for the toddlers or cat head biscuits for the big boys.
• Store in an airtight container for approximately one week in the refrigerator or a few days on the countertop.