This recipe is the best recipe for Tender Simple Homemade Buttermilk Drop Biscuits. A hands-down favorite for an easy tender biscuit recipe
The story of Tender Simple Homemade Buttermilk Drop Biscuits
Unless you have been living in a cave, you too have more than likely felt the impact of COVID-19. Not supposed to visit family that doesn't live with you. The difficulty of doing simple grocery shopping. An inability to travel, and eat out.
For me, other than that hugging thing (I am a hugger) the ability to travel and eat out has been my biggest challenge.
Yes, I can cook.
Yes, I have a pretty good pantry.
BUT I do enjoy so going out and letting others cook for me, wait on me, and clean-up after me.
I especially like going out to breakfast when I travel. While BB and I do generally make a big Sunday morning brunch, we only do it on Sunday. When we travel, we eat breakfast out every morning while on the road.
For a long time, my quest had been to find the perfect Huevos Rancheros. Once I had tasted about 10 different variations, I finally settled on my recipe for Ultimate Huevos Rancheros. Quest completed.
My New Quest - Finding the Best Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
On to my next quest; finding the perfect Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. I'll talk more about the gravy part of the program in my post on Simple Savory Sausage Gravy, but one thing became very clear from the start, a good biscuit is key.
Finding the Perfect Biscuit
I think the biscuit needs to be light and tender, and if you are making them at home, they also need to be quick and easy. Simple. While my recipe for Simple Cream Biscuits is pretty simple, it does still require you to pat them out and cut them with a biscuit cutter, which leaves a level of labor, and counter cleaning, I wanted to avoid. And I also was looking for a more "airy" biscuit. Sausage Gravy is pretty rich, I didn't need another level of cream. So the search was on.
Google me some recipes "tender drop biscuits
And the results came back. As I went through them, looking for a really good easy one that I thought would fit the bill, perhaps with a few modifications, I found that almost all of them were the same. The exact same. It became fairly obvious there was a "mother" recipe out there somewhere that was the start of this.
So no, I didn't invent this recipe. Cook's Illustrated did. In 2007. But If you are familiar with Cook's then you know while their recipes can be rather overthought out, they do A LOT of research into their methods and ingredients. And one of the techniques that really caught my attention was the treatment of the butter to buttermilk mixture.
While my Simple Cream Biscuits recipe is easy because you don't cut butter into the flour, by adding heavy cream you add the fat, with this recipe you still don't have to cut the butter into the flour, you melt it and mix it into ice-cold buttermilk. This technique makes the milk kind of curdle. And, while not pretty, that is what adds the fat to this tender biscuit.
Just the Scoop
Another very nice thing about drop biscuits is, you simply scoop and drop them onto a prepared pan, in my case I used my silicone mat with the handy dandy circles, but you could use parchment paper instead.
The recipe says a "scant" ¼ cup measure. I actually used a more generous ¼ measure as I was making biscuits for biscuits and sausage gravy, but if you were only using them as a side biscuit, let's say for something like the Best Fried Chicken, or even Easy One Pan Country French Chicken.
You could make them smaller. Or larger. You get to pick because you are the cook.
In either case, large or small, just spray the scoop for an easy drop-off.
A Quick Bake
These tender biscuits bake up quickly in a 475º oven. I think the higher heat gives them the crisp top and tender inside. While the original recipe advises you to brush melted butter on the tops, I prefer a pat inside.
Now you might ask, Lindy, why did you put a recipe up on your site, that is not your recipe? While I did rewrite it, overall it's pretty much the same as it was written by Cook's. So the reason why is simple, I found these to be the best biscuits for my recipe for Simple Savory Sausage Gravy. And I did write that recipe. And I wanted to make sure you had the perfect recipe for the biscuit, right here, at your fingertips. No need to Google for better.
You're welcome.
Tender Simple Homemade Buttermilk Drop Biscuits with Simple Savory Sausage Gravy
Tender Simple Homemade Buttermilk Drop Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups 283g all-purpose flour (weighing flour is more accurate)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup 113.4g unsalted butter cut into large cubes (that's one stick)
- 1 cup 2% buttermilk well chilled
Instructions
- Heat oven to 475°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or use a reusable silicone mat.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center.
- In a microwave-safe dish (a 2 cup Pyrex cup works well here) melt the butter until ¾ melted, about 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir to fully melt the butter. Pour the melted butter into the chilled buttermilk and stir to combine. (This mixture should look lumpy, don't worry, this is part of the process).
- Pour the buttermilk mixture into the center well in the flour, using a rubber spatula, fold to combine. Do not over-mix.
- Spray a ¼ cup round measuring cup with cooking spray. Scoop the dough out in scant ¼ cup amounts (scant means not to overfill the measuring cup) and drop onto the prepared baking dish, about 1 ½ inches apart. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake, 12 - 14 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned. Serve.
Leave a Reply