My partner Ben is from Iowa, so naturally his favorite breakfast food is biscuits and gravy. We have different tastes in this regard because I’ve never been a huge fan of biscuits in general, and the only dishes I really liked smothered in gravy tend to be Hawaiian/Asian dishes like loco moco or rad na.
But when we started dating 5 years ago, I knew I had to take a stab at making a great biscuits and gravy we could both enjoy. I was mostly at a loss — biscuits come in all shapes and sizes but the ones I was most familiar with were (A) flaky or (B) dry crumbly drop biscuits made from a box mix.
Neither of these were very appealing to me but luckily I was saved by the talented Nicole Rucker, who randomly one day posted a recipe to her stories. This drop biscuit recipe used a technique I had never seen, and one that I still use today, that makes the biscuits not only super tender, fluffy, and moist, but also incredibly easy to pull together when the last thing I want to do is break out a rolling pin and biscuit cutter.
I’ve tweaked the recipe a tiny bit since I adopted it, but some things remain true:
- These are super fluffy and not dry at all
- If you bake them in a cast iron skillet they come out with the most incredible crispy crust on the bottom
- They’re multipurpose! If you brush the tops with butter and sprinkle them liberally with a coarse sugar like turbinado, they magically become the best shortcake to pair with strawberries and whipped cream that you’ve ever had
- They come together in 5 minutes flat and only need to be chilled about as long as it takes to preheat your oven
Ben now says these are his favorite biscuits, but I can’t be fully sure whether he’s telling the truth since I’m his main source of biscuits these days. I think he could be worried that if he critiques the dish his supply of biscuits may be cut off…
Of course, I highly recommend making these alongside some country gravy for an iconic and indulgent midwestern weekend breakfast.
Fluffy, Tender Drop Biscuits (that Double as an Incredible Shortcake)
Ingredients
- 412 g all purpose flour
- 1.5 tsp granulated sugar
- 1.5 tsp kosher salt half as much if using table salt
- 1.5 Tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 170 g butter melted
- 3 Tbsp butter melted
- 340 g buttermilk cold
- 3 Tbsp coarse sugar like turbinado optional
Instructions
- Add cold buttermilk to a medium sized bowl. While constantly stirring with a fork, pour a thin, steady stream of melted butter into the buttermilk. As you mix, you should see little beads of butter form as they cool. Refrigerate while you prepare the flour mixture.340 g buttermilk, 170 g butter
- Add the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar to a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine. Pour in the lumpy buttermilk mixture all at once and fold together with a spatula *just* until combined, and making sure to not over-mix.412 g all purpose flour, 1.5 tsp kosher salt, 1.5 Tbsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1.5 tsp granulated sugar
- Cover the bowl, then transfer to the fridge and chill for 20-30 minutes.
- In the meantime, preheat oven to 450F. Grease a cast iron* skillet (or 8-9" round baking dish) with butter.
- After chilling, using a large ice cream scoop (or a roughly 1/2 cup spoon/scoop) to drop biscuits into prepared baking dish with edges touching. Brush the tops with additional melted butter and sprinkle with sugar, if making shortcake.3 Tbsp butter, 3 Tbsp coarse sugar like turbinado
- Bake in the center of the oven for 25-30 minutes until deep golden brown and cooked all the way through.
- Serve warm with butter and honey or country gravy.