Drop biscuits are simpler to make than classic buttermilk biscuits – no pastry board or biscuit cutter required – and their texture is slightly, delightfully, different: tender and cakey on the inside, and crispy and crumbly on the outside.
Extra buttermilk makes the dough just loose enough to dollop onto the baking sheet with a spoon (instead of being rolled out and cut), but still firm enough to stand up in rough and raggedy peaks. It’s those peaks that will turn golden brown in the oven, forming crusty crags that contrast with the soft interior.
Drop biscuits can go anywhere and do anything a classic buttermilk biscuit can. Tuck them into a bread basket to serve alongside fried chicken, barbecued ribs, meatloaf, or ham. Slice them and fill them with sausage, eggs and cheese for a breakfast sandwich that blows away the diner and fast food versions. My favorite way to enjoy them is with a pat of butter melted on top, and a prodigious drizzle of local honey.
Making Drop Biscuits ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- Drop Biscuits are best served hot from the oven. To prep these ahead, mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter and lard, then keep the mixture chilled until needed. At the last minute, stir in the buttermilk and bake.
- Leftovers revive quite beautifully in a 350 degree oven, baked directly on the oven rack without a baking sheet, for about 10 minutes. They’ll get a little darker and crispier on the outside when they’re re-baked like this – the photo above of the biscuit being drizzled with honey was taken with a day-old, reheated biscuit. Use leftovers within a day or two.
To see this recipe as part of a spectacular summer seafood dinner menu, check out the post for Saturday July 10, 2021.
Drop Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240 grams/8½ ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, or ½ teaspoon Morton’s
- 6 tablespoons (84 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 4 tablespoons (56 grams) cold lard, cut into cubes (or use all butter)
- 7/8 cup (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) cold buttermilk
Directions
- Step 1 Heat the oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the upper third. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Step 2 Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse a few times to mix the dry ingredients together.
- Step 3 Add the cubes of butter and lard, and pulse until the butter and lard are broken up into pieces the size of peas. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.
- Step 4 Gradually pour in the buttermilk while constantly but gently stirring the mixture with a fork. Stop pouring every few seconds, and use the fork to gently turn the moistened batter to expose any dry mixture underneath, then pour in a little more buttermilk. The idea is to add just enough buttermilk so the flour mixture is evenly moistened but not wet, and not to overmix. You may not need to use all the buttermilk, so stop as soon as you no longer see any clumps of dry flour.
- Step 5 Use a large spoon to scoop out eight blobs of batter of roughly equal size, and space them out evenly on the prepared baking sheet. If desired, use lightly moistened fingers to smooth the outside edge of each biscuit to make them rounder and less misshappen around the bottom – but don’t smooth the tops. You want lots of craggy edges on top to brown in the oven.
- Step 6 Bake the biscuits in the top third of the oven for 20 minutes, turning the sheet from front to back halfway through. When they’re done the biscuits will still be golden brown on the bottoms, edges and the tips of the crags on top.
- Step 7 Serve the biscuits piping hot, or transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before storing.
