Drop Biscuits

This recipe comes from The Joy of Baking.

Ingredients

  • 195g all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon fine kosher salt, or table salt
  • 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar optional
  • 6 tablespoons (85g) cold unsalted butter cut into chunks
  • 160ml cold milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs (use a pastry blender, two knives, or fingertips). Add the milk, all at once, and stir with a fork until the dough comes together and all the flour is moistened (the texture should be sticky, shaggy, and moist).
  3. Using your fork or a cookie scoop, drop 6 mounds (1/3 cup each (75 grams)) onto your baking sheet. You can smooth the top and sides of the biscuits or leave them shaggy. Bake for about 16 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with butter and/or jam.

Notes

10 August 2023: I made these using 4 tablespoons unsalted butter and 2 tablespoons salted European-style butter, and only 1 teaspoon of sugar. Left them shaggy, did not form them. Baked on rack 3 on a cookie sheet lined with a silicone pad. They took 18-19 minutes to brown to our liking.

6 October 2023: I made these today similarly to above, although I used 6 tablespoons of Vermont Creamery unsalted butter, and divided the dough into 5 90g biscuits. Baked in the bun pan on rack 3 for 18-19 minutes.

10 October 2023: Today I used 4 tablespoons of Land O Lakes unsalted butter and 2 tablespoons of Vermont Creamery unsalted butter. I grated the butter (frozen) rather than cutting it up. I formed the dough in the bowl into a disk, as if making scones, and then cut into 4 112g quarters and loosely shaped them to fit the wells of the bun pan. Baked in bun pan on rack 3 for 18 minutes. These were the best yet (at least of the larger size in the bun pan).

17 November 2023: Today I made these for our early Thanksgiving dinner. I increased the quantities by 1.5x (as given below) to make 6 biscuits in the hamburger bun pan:

  • 293g Gold Medal AP flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • ⅜ teaspoon table salt
  • 1½ teaspoons sugar
  • 6 tablepoons Land O Lakes unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons Vermont Creamery unsalted butter
  • 240g cold milk

Like the last time I made these, I grated the butter and re-froze it for a few minutes. After gently blending in with the pastry blender, I added the milk and, as above, formed into 6 disks of about 110g each, flattened gently and placed into the hamburger bun pan. It was a warm morning, so I froze the biscuits in the pan for about 5 minutes before putting them into the oven. They needed 20 minutes this time, on rack 3.

4 December 2023: I made 6 of these again today in the hamburger bun pan using the grated frozen butter method, as above. I didn’t have enough of the unsalted butter that I’ve used before, so I used a mix of salted and unsalted butter, keeping the amounts of European and American butter the same. I used mostly salted butter, so only added a small pinch of salt. I chilled them in the freezer for a few minutes before baking, and they baked on rack 3 for 19 minutes.