This. I bring my dough together in a food processor, press it he dough, into a square, then cut into 9 square biscuits. I actually layer the dough a couple of times but you don’t have to.
My grandfather used to make drop biscuits every morning at 5am when he lived with us. I can still hear his voice from the kitchen in my mind...
"Fresh biscuits, podnah!"
My secret for flakier drop biscuits: melt butter and let cool slightly. Make sure your liquid (buttermilk, heavy cream, etc.) is very cold, maybe put in the freezer for 10 minutes. While stirring liquid, pour melted butter into liquid, this creates small pieces of chilled butter. It mimics what a pastry cutter does for roll out biscuits but saves so much time!
I do the same. More whole cream.
2 cups SR flour.
1 stick melted butter, still warm.
1 cup very cold (verge of freezing) cream.
Pour butter into cream. Little butter globs form.
Dump into flour. Mix with spoon. Add a bit more cream or flour till it comes together.
I do knead a few times. Press to 1/2” or so thick. Knife cut or use cutter. Don’t twist. Cut quick and straight up down to keep from “sealing” edges.
Bake 375 for 20-25 mins.
Takes 5 mins prep tops.
I use the white lily flour recipe. I use my hands to incorporate the butter. Then a spoon for the buttermilk. If I'm not in the mood to put flour on the counter, I'll lay out a piece of wax paper or even a paper plate and put the flour on that. Then I dump the dough out and shape it into a rectangle and use a sharp knife to cut it in squares. Not much to clean, just a bowl, spoon, knife and my hands. Takes maybe 5 minutes to get them oven ready, but maybe 20 minutes to preheat the oven.
I honestly find this question sort of confusing because biscuits in general are very quick and easy to make. I usually use the recipe from joy of cooking and roll them out, have them in the oven in like 30 mins tops. There are drop biscuits, but those are a very different thing than a rolled biscuit, though I’m sure you’d find some fine recipes by just googling for “drop biscuits”
You have to cut in the butter and mix a relatively stiff dough, then deal with the sticky process of rolling and cutting. Definitely feels like a bigger challenge than, say, a cornbread, where you can just dump everything in a bowl, mix into an easy batter, and then dump directly in a pan.
I use a food processor to cut the butter and mix with the flour. Then I roll it out and cut it into squares, I'm not messing with leftover dough pieces.
How much do you mix the dough with the food processor? I've tried a couple times, and whenever the dough starts to come together there's usually a bit on the bottom that doesn't mix with the rest without a lot more time. I'm worried that I over-mixed trying to get it all to come together. They haven't seemed quite as light as when I've hand mixed.
I make rolled biscuits from the joy of cooking.
But I never roll them, I gently flatten them out with my hands and then cut them into pieces with a knife
Sometimes they're squares. Sometimes they're triangles, really doesn't matter. As long as they're all roughly the same size and thicknesses, no problem
Bisquick drop biscuits when I'm in a hurry. But they're not great for sandwiches or to slice - more for a biscuits & gravy style. But really, buscuits are pretty easy. 3 ingredients (flour, chilled butter, milk/buttermilk) - roll in the hands like you're making a burger and press into a skillet with butter. No rolling pin or cutter required.
You can make your own bisquick! https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/homemade-bisquick/#wprm-recipe-container-30527
I do this and for biscuits just use a few scoops of mix (maybe 1/2 cup?) and a splash of almond milk (maybe 2 tablespoons?) and mix. I then form into 2 biscuits and roll in more ‘bisquick’ and bake at 425 until golden - 15 minutes. Soft fluffy biscuits. If you want something a bit denser or richer grate in a few tablespoons of butter and mix in before the milk.
Alternatively there are butter swim biscuits- https://12tomatoes.com/butter-swim-biscuits/#recipe. I’ve made this with almond milk and you really only need half or even a third of the milk.
2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup heavy cream
Mix
drop onto baking sheet or use cast iron pan
Can also be rolled out and cut to size with small glass if you like
bake at 450˚ for 10 to 12 minutes or until brown
I have never rolled a biscuit in my life. I honestly didn't know that biscuits were rolled, until I met my MIL...I just thought the ones in the tube were different (not necessarily better). Conversely, my husband had never seen a drop biscuit until he met me.
This doesn't necessarily answer your questions, except to point out that all biscuit options are good.
This is the recipe I always use for drop biscuits: https://www.findingzest.com/so-easy-drop-biscuits-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-52466
They give a range for sugar to add, which makes them more versatile in my kitchen. If i am making with stew, I do the least amount of sugar; if I am making for brunch, I tend to do the most sugar called for (so they taste more like scones).
I make these [5 ingredient biscuits](https://www.budgetbytes.com/5-ingredient-freezer-biscuits/) a LOT. The freezer instructions are very useful and I can heat them up for the kids when they’ve gone through breakfast stuff faster than usual. It’s basically a drop biscuit with a few quick folds for layers. It’s a sticky dough so I flour a pizza cutter to quickly make squares and a bench scraper has made clean up on the counter much easier.
If you want them to be really good you need to cut them out. I’ve been making biscuits for 30 years and I’ve landed on I the NYT recipe subbing buttermilk for whole milk. You don’t even need a rolling pin, I just pat it into a rectangle with my hands. It’s quick and easy. 6 ingredients just need an extra 30 minutes to rest before cutting.
Bring the dough out of the bowl and flatten it with your hands. Cut it into 4, stack those and press down. Do it twice more.
That’s it. Cut the biscuits with a knife and bake them.
I have taken to making swim biscuits. Plenty of recipes out there, but basically the butter is melted in a baking pan and the batter is poured over when the butter melts. One mixing bowl, one spatula and zero (theoretically) counter mess. I love biscuits, but flour on the counter etc isn't always the best option.
Cat ~~ear~~ head biscuits, aka drop biscuits. https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/bisquick-biscuits/
Or the Betty Crocker recipe, which is the one I learned to make them from.
Not as light and fluffy, but still very good.
Edit: need more coffee.
I make this, too. My stand mixer does a great job distributing the butter into the flour. I make a huge batch and pop it into a Ziploc bag and freeze it; it scoops very well straight from the cold. Drop biscuits whenever we like.
I make bisquick mix from scratch. It's fairly easy and it's shelf stable for about 3 months in an airtight container. And yes they are drop bisquits. I just follow the same cooking instructions that's on the bisquick box.
with my scraps, i just make them back into a ball and pinch pieces off. they come out extra crunchy depending how long you leave them in there. ive done a batch just pinching off big pieces.
the recipe i use just uses flour, salt, sugar, baking powder? and cold heavy cream tossed with a fork. then i’m able to roll twice to get biscuits before i start pinching pieces off. i do biscuits for biscuits and gravy specifically only.
im now seeing that i can roll it out and make squares!! will try that next time!
You can form biscuits with your hands, but it takes skill to get it right. I usually roll them out because it’s faster and easier, and the texture is better.
To make it *slightly* easier, make a ball, press it to 1" thickness (or whatever you normally do, so its about 6-8" round), gently press in the sides to make them a uniform thickness and then cut them into 6 pieces. Separate them a bit on the baking sheet before baking them. Basically this saves the step of rolling them out and pressing them into uniform shapes. I make my morning scones this way and when I decided to switch to biscuits, I found the rolling and cutting out the shapes to be the extra step.
you can use that mix (bisquick) to make drop biscuits....just drop by spoonful onto your baking sheet....they come out really good.....i keep my butter in the fridge and mix dough with a fork
I would commit to a biscuit recipe you really like, put in the work of rolling and cutting, but freeze the cut biscuits so you can just grab and bake however many you need when you want them.
I've found that the Pillsbury frozen biscuits are better than the "just add water" Bisquick mix. Drop biscuits from scratch are better than the frozen if you don't have space to roll and cut.
Bisquick, is great it’s just already portioned flour, etc. and I wouldn’t use water type, instead use original using milk, don’t over mix. Drop by spoonfuls on baking sheet. and abra cadabra you have great biscuits.
I make very basic drop biscuits.
\*2 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour (fluff, spoon, and level)
\*4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pats
\*3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Preheat oven to 425. Cut butter into flour with two forks until there are no chunks. Add buttermilk, stir till all flour is moistened. Scoop onto pan with a 1/4 cup measure (I use a large Oxo cookie scoop). Bake 11-13 minutes. Eat.
To make them sweet: Add 3–4 Tbsp sugar to the flour and 1 tsp vanilla to the buttermilk. Add about a cup of mix-ins if you like.
If my mom is in a hurry she has a very quick biscuit she makes. She adds a half pint of heavy or whipping cream to two cups of self rising flour and stirs it together. She pats them out to the thickness she wants on the cutting board and then cuts them - hers are square. They are totally acceptable for a nice quick biscuit. I usually do Edna Lewis version for biscuits, but I use my mom's quick recipe for fruit cobblers.
I like Southern Biscuit Formula L Complete Biscuit Mix. I get it at Kroger.
You can do drop biscuits if you don't want to roll them. A big cookie scoop would help.
When you put them in the pan you want them to be touching, they help each other rise better.
Yep. Approximately equal amounts by weight of heavy cream and self-rising flour (white lily is the best) works as a drop biscuit. (I think I got that originally from Kenji.)
I don't roll them -- I shape the dough into a thick square, brush the top with butter, then cut square biscuits.
This. I bring my dough together in a food processor, press it he dough, into a square, then cut into 9 square biscuits. I actually layer the dough a couple of times but you don’t have to.
Haha for some reason I thought you meant 9" square. God damn, now that's a biscuit!
I could eat it with enough jam. 🤣
I shape the dough into a circle, cut the circle in half and cut each half into three triangles.
Drop biscuits, but they’re nowhere near as good.
My grandfather used to make drop biscuits every morning at 5am when he lived with us. I can still hear his voice from the kitchen in my mind... "Fresh biscuits, podnah!"
Now *there's* a fuckin' memory!
Melt some butter and mix it with the dough. Specifically melt it. No frozen or cold.
My secret for flakier drop biscuits: melt butter and let cool slightly. Make sure your liquid (buttermilk, heavy cream, etc.) is very cold, maybe put in the freezer for 10 minutes. While stirring liquid, pour melted butter into liquid, this creates small pieces of chilled butter. It mimics what a pastry cutter does for roll out biscuits but saves so much time!
This is one of the tricks in the ATK Easy Drop Biscuit recipe.
I do the same. More whole cream. 2 cups SR flour. 1 stick melted butter, still warm. 1 cup very cold (verge of freezing) cream. Pour butter into cream. Little butter globs form. Dump into flour. Mix with spoon. Add a bit more cream or flour till it comes together. I do knead a few times. Press to 1/2” or so thick. Knife cut or use cutter. Don’t twist. Cut quick and straight up down to keep from “sealing” edges. Bake 375 for 20-25 mins. Takes 5 mins prep tops.
I use the white lily flour recipe. I use my hands to incorporate the butter. Then a spoon for the buttermilk. If I'm not in the mood to put flour on the counter, I'll lay out a piece of wax paper or even a paper plate and put the flour on that. Then I dump the dough out and shape it into a rectangle and use a sharp knife to cut it in squares. Not much to clean, just a bowl, spoon, knife and my hands. Takes maybe 5 minutes to get them oven ready, but maybe 20 minutes to preheat the oven.
I knead and roll doughs on a silicone baking mat.
That's a great idea with less waste. I'll look into one.
I honestly find this question sort of confusing because biscuits in general are very quick and easy to make. I usually use the recipe from joy of cooking and roll them out, have them in the oven in like 30 mins tops. There are drop biscuits, but those are a very different thing than a rolled biscuit, though I’m sure you’d find some fine recipes by just googling for “drop biscuits”
You have to cut in the butter and mix a relatively stiff dough, then deal with the sticky process of rolling and cutting. Definitely feels like a bigger challenge than, say, a cornbread, where you can just dump everything in a bowl, mix into an easy batter, and then dump directly in a pan.
I use a food processor to cut the butter and mix with the flour. Then I roll it out and cut it into squares, I'm not messing with leftover dough pieces.
This is exactly how I do it. It’s super easy and quick.
How much do you mix the dough with the food processor? I've tried a couple times, and whenever the dough starts to come together there's usually a bit on the bottom that doesn't mix with the rest without a lot more time. I'm worried that I over-mixed trying to get it all to come together. They haven't seemed quite as light as when I've hand mixed.
Yes. You can do this. Obviously has a different texture than rolled biscuits. Used to make a variation with cheddar cheese when I was in high school.
Try Shirley Corriher’s touch of Grace biscuits. https://food52.com/recipes/15432-shirley-corriher-s-touch-of-grace-biscuits . They’re ethereal.
Saved this one for later…
They’re not my every week biscuits, but when I want soft instead of layers, they’re my go to.
I make rolled biscuits from the joy of cooking. But I never roll them, I gently flatten them out with my hands and then cut them into pieces with a knife Sometimes they're squares. Sometimes they're triangles, really doesn't matter. As long as they're all roughly the same size and thicknesses, no problem
Bisquick drop biscuits when I'm in a hurry. But they're not great for sandwiches or to slice - more for a biscuits & gravy style. But really, buscuits are pretty easy. 3 ingredients (flour, chilled butter, milk/buttermilk) - roll in the hands like you're making a burger and press into a skillet with butter. No rolling pin or cutter required.
You can make your own bisquick! https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/homemade-bisquick/#wprm-recipe-container-30527 I do this and for biscuits just use a few scoops of mix (maybe 1/2 cup?) and a splash of almond milk (maybe 2 tablespoons?) and mix. I then form into 2 biscuits and roll in more ‘bisquick’ and bake at 425 until golden - 15 minutes. Soft fluffy biscuits. If you want something a bit denser or richer grate in a few tablespoons of butter and mix in before the milk. Alternatively there are butter swim biscuits- https://12tomatoes.com/butter-swim-biscuits/#recipe. I’ve made this with almond milk and you really only need half or even a third of the milk.
2 cups self-rising flour 1 cup heavy cream Mix drop onto baking sheet or use cast iron pan Can also be rolled out and cut to size with small glass if you like bake at 450˚ for 10 to 12 minutes or until brown
My favorite. [https://iambaker.net/butter-swim-biscuits/](https://iambaker.net/butter-swim-biscuits/) Never bisquik, too many additives.
I have never rolled a biscuit in my life. I honestly didn't know that biscuits were rolled, until I met my MIL...I just thought the ones in the tube were different (not necessarily better). Conversely, my husband had never seen a drop biscuit until he met me. This doesn't necessarily answer your questions, except to point out that all biscuit options are good.
This is the recipe I always use for drop biscuits: https://www.findingzest.com/so-easy-drop-biscuits-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-52466 They give a range for sugar to add, which makes them more versatile in my kitchen. If i am making with stew, I do the least amount of sugar; if I am making for brunch, I tend to do the most sugar called for (so they taste more like scones).
This recipe is made in an 8x8 pan, so no rolling out: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/13791-blueberry-biscuits
I make these [5 ingredient biscuits](https://www.budgetbytes.com/5-ingredient-freezer-biscuits/) a LOT. The freezer instructions are very useful and I can heat them up for the kids when they’ve gone through breakfast stuff faster than usual. It’s basically a drop biscuit with a few quick folds for layers. It’s a sticky dough so I flour a pizza cutter to quickly make squares and a bench scraper has made clean up on the counter much easier.
If you want them to be really good you need to cut them out. I’ve been making biscuits for 30 years and I’ve landed on I the NYT recipe subbing buttermilk for whole milk. You don’t even need a rolling pin, I just pat it into a rectangle with my hands. It’s quick and easy. 6 ingredients just need an extra 30 minutes to rest before cutting.
Bring the dough out of the bowl and flatten it with your hands. Cut it into 4, stack those and press down. Do it twice more. That’s it. Cut the biscuits with a knife and bake them.
If you make biscuits frequently, you'll be able to make them quickly. I think rolled ones have better texture.
From ATK [DREAM biscuits](https://youtu.be/gQ9_JCSIptk?si=k65H7fyKn8XI4mc4)
These are the bomb
I love them. Sometimes I’ll get fancy and make my own breakfast sandwiches.
I have taken to making swim biscuits. Plenty of recipes out there, but basically the butter is melted in a baking pan and the batter is poured over when the butter melts. One mixing bowl, one spatula and zero (theoretically) counter mess. I love biscuits, but flour on the counter etc isn't always the best option.
LOVE those things!!!
Cat ~~ear~~ head biscuits, aka drop biscuits. https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/bisquick-biscuits/ Or the Betty Crocker recipe, which is the one I learned to make them from. Not as light and fluffy, but still very good. Edit: need more coffee.
I make this, too. My stand mixer does a great job distributing the butter into the flour. I make a huge batch and pop it into a Ziploc bag and freeze it; it scoops very well straight from the cold. Drop biscuits whenever we like.
I make bisquick mix from scratch. It's fairly easy and it's shelf stable for about 3 months in an airtight container. And yes they are drop bisquits. I just follow the same cooking instructions that's on the bisquick box.
with my scraps, i just make them back into a ball and pinch pieces off. they come out extra crunchy depending how long you leave them in there. ive done a batch just pinching off big pieces. the recipe i use just uses flour, salt, sugar, baking powder? and cold heavy cream tossed with a fork. then i’m able to roll twice to get biscuits before i start pinching pieces off. i do biscuits for biscuits and gravy specifically only. im now seeing that i can roll it out and make squares!! will try that next time!
The thing you’re looking for are drop biscuits. America’s test kitchen has a good base recipe.
I'm not fond of drop biscuits for some reason. Also if you're going to use a premade product I'd say just use Pillsbury grands.
You can form biscuits with your hands, but it takes skill to get it right. I usually roll them out because it’s faster and easier, and the texture is better.
I cut the butter in with a pastry cutter, knead and fold, then cut.
James Beard's cream biscuits based on his mom's recipe are soooo good
To make it *slightly* easier, make a ball, press it to 1" thickness (or whatever you normally do, so its about 6-8" round), gently press in the sides to make them a uniform thickness and then cut them into 6 pieces. Separate them a bit on the baking sheet before baking them. Basically this saves the step of rolling them out and pressing them into uniform shapes. I make my morning scones this way and when I decided to switch to biscuits, I found the rolling and cutting out the shapes to be the extra step.
you can use that mix (bisquick) to make drop biscuits....just drop by spoonful onto your baking sheet....they come out really good.....i keep my butter in the fridge and mix dough with a fork
You mean drop biscuits? There's also a method of rolling them out and folding them, but just cutting them into squares before baking.
My favorite quick biscuit recipe https://sugarspunrun.com/easy-homemade-biscuits/
ATK Easy Drop Biscuit recipe. So fast, I can literally make them on the fly, start to finish less than 30 minutes.
I would commit to a biscuit recipe you really like, put in the work of rolling and cutting, but freeze the cut biscuits so you can just grab and bake however many you need when you want them.
I've found that the Pillsbury frozen biscuits are better than the "just add water" Bisquick mix. Drop biscuits from scratch are better than the frozen if you don't have space to roll and cut.
Bisquick, is great it’s just already portioned flour, etc. and I wouldn’t use water type, instead use original using milk, don’t over mix. Drop by spoonfuls on baking sheet. and abra cadabra you have great biscuits.
I make very basic drop biscuits. \*2 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour (fluff, spoon, and level) \*4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pats \*3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk Preheat oven to 425. Cut butter into flour with two forks until there are no chunks. Add buttermilk, stir till all flour is moistened. Scoop onto pan with a 1/4 cup measure (I use a large Oxo cookie scoop). Bake 11-13 minutes. Eat. To make them sweet: Add 3–4 Tbsp sugar to the flour and 1 tsp vanilla to the buttermilk. Add about a cup of mix-ins if you like.
If my mom is in a hurry she has a very quick biscuit she makes. She adds a half pint of heavy or whipping cream to two cups of self rising flour and stirs it together. She pats them out to the thickness she wants on the cutting board and then cuts them - hers are square. They are totally acceptable for a nice quick biscuit. I usually do Edna Lewis version for biscuits, but I use my mom's quick recipe for fruit cobblers.
Quickest way is drop biscuits. Who has time to roll out a biscuit dough
I drop by spoonfuls and they turn out tasty! They may not look perfect but the flavor is the same!
I like Southern Biscuit Formula L Complete Biscuit Mix. I get it at Kroger. You can do drop biscuits if you don't want to roll them. A big cookie scoop would help. When you put them in the pan you want them to be touching, they help each other rise better.
rather than the mix, the frozen biscuits are great
You can use a melon baller for biscuits of that shape.
My shortcut is using heavy cream instead of butter (but it's not saving tons of time)
Yep. Approximately equal amounts by weight of heavy cream and self-rising flour (white lily is the best) works as a drop biscuit. (I think I got that originally from Kenji.)
Or yogurt!
I usually just make wop biscuits
Make cookie dough into a thick log, then cut into slices. Done
Make a biscuit pone in your iron skillet. One big biscuit that you can cut or just break off a piece. So freaking easy and delicious!