Lighter, easier buttermilk drop biscuits

If you like biscuits, I have a little discovery to share with you.  This is an incredibly easy recipe for buttermilk drop biscuits.  They can be whipped up in about 20 minutes - no need to cut butter, roll out dough, or haul out any machinery.  As an added bonus, they are also lighter - a little bit better for you -than the average biscuits!

In the words of my 7-year old: "these biscuits are so good!"

This recipe really caught my attention though I was a tad skeptical at first because it sounded maybe a little too good to be true.  Lighter, easy and quick-to-make buttermilk biscuits...and they taste good?  Luckily, it really turned out to be all those things!

I found this recipe in the latest issue of Cooking Light magazine.  I automatically thought about giving them a try for one of our leisurely weekend breakfasts.  We love our pancakes and dutch babies on any given Sunday but I'm always on the lookout for something new to cook up for my family.  These biscuits were a snap to get on the table.  I was able to make them fresh and serve them warm, alongside some scrambled eggs and turkey bacon for an early Sunday breakfast this past weekend.

The easy part of this recipe  was what really lured me in.  The process literally requires simply stirring everything together and dropping the batter onto the baking sheet with a spoon.  There is no butter to cut or roll pin to contend with!  The secret is to stir melted butter into cold buttermilk.   You know how warm, just melted butter will get rather unattractive and clumpy when it hits cold liquid?  That's precisely what you want to happen here.  Those clumps of butter will help create a fluffy, moist buttermilk biscuit!  It's kind of like pancake batter.

And these biscuits are lighter, and a little better for you, by having less butter (just 4 tablespoons for a dozen biscuits) and just a bit of canola oil in them.  And rather than purely all-purpose flour, these have some white whole-wheat flour in them, and you could even use fat-free buttermilk (I used the typical low-fat kind).

These biscuits are fluffy and tender.  I love the bit of whole wheat nuttiness you get from white whole-wheat flour.  I'm not necessarily always looking to cut fat or "go light" if it means sacrificing flavor but I don't usually want a super heavy biscuit that leaves my fingers completely greasy and feels like a meal unto itself.  Plus, I think a lighter biscuit makes a lot of sense given all the stuff we're likely to put on or have with them - whether it be butter, honey, jam, or bacon and eggs as in my case here.

These biscuits are good all by themselves and doesn't even need all those accompaniments.  The little guy's reaction was "mmm..." at first bite and my husband and I were impressed by how good they tasted!  This is a great way to use up buttermilk and I plan to make this recipe a part of my regular repertoire.  In fact, it has not only shown up at breakfast but also been a part of dinner this week!  I'm really glad I clipped the recipe out of the magazine and gave it a try.  It's turned out to be a great little discovery (I'm not often this enthusiastic about a non-chocolate recipe)!

I'm eager to show you how fast and easy it is to get these buttermilk biscuits into the oven and onto your plate!

First, just mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.  This recipe uses a blend of all-purpose flour and a bit of white whole-wheat flour, which I'm a fan of.  It has all the goodness of standard whole wheat flour but a milder taste (you still get that bit of nuttiness I really enjoy).  I also use whole wheat pastry flour in cases that call for whole wheat or where I want to substitute some of the white flour in a recipe (I think it works especially well in recipes containing ingredients like nuts, oats, bananas...).

If it looks like a small volume in the pictures, that's because I divided the recipe in half for our breakfast for 3. Making the half batch worked very well. I even froze a couple of biscuits, and will report back on how they bake up at another time.  (*Update: These biscuits froze well and baked up very nicely.  Simply take the frozen biscuits straight out of the freezer and bake according to instructions, adding a few extra minutes to the bake time.  They are done once they turn golden brown.)

Those clumps of butter are exactly what you want!

Now secondly, all you need to do is combine the wet ingredients.  I place cold buttermilk into a measuring cup, add the microwave-melted butter, stir it together and add the small amount of canola oil.  Once the warm, melted butter hits the cold buttermilk, you'll see the butter congeal.  That is exactly what you want!

All that remains to be done is to combine the wet ingredients into the dry.  Stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. 

The recipe noted that the batter will be very wet, which made me worry a little, but it came together very nicely and was very easy to work with.  You'll see bits of the butter dispersed within the mounds, which will help the biscuits bake up fluffy and tasty.

Take a spoon and drop about 2-tablespoons of batter per biscuit onto a lined baking sheet.  No need to be neat - just drop them free-form; the rough edges will brown and be the best part.  You could make them slightly larger than the recipe suggests, depending on what purpose you have in mind for them.  I ended up making 5 biscuits (instead of 6) for the half recipe.   

Into a 450 degree oven, the biscuits are done in about 10-11 minutes, once they turn golden.  I particularly love the crispy browned bits, edges, and bottom.

Let the biscuit cool for a minute or two and then get them on the table while they're still warm.  Enjoy them all by themselves or sliced open with whatever stuffing you want! 

I love our leisurely family breakfasts and any meal where we can relax and spend time together over some good grub!


Recipe:

Lighter, Easier Buttermilk Drop Biscuits
Adapted from the May 2013 issue of Cooking Light

- For 12 biscuits (though you could make fewer, slightly larger ones, if you like) -

5.6 ounces (about 1 1/4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
3.6 ounces (about 3/4 cup) white whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons (half a stick) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups very cold fat-free (I used low-fat) buttermilk
1 tablespoon canola oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat.

Whisk the flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl to combine. 

Place buttermilk in a 2-cup measuring cup or large bowl.  Place butter in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on "high" for about a minute, or until completely melted.  And the melted butter to the cold buttermilk, stirring to combine.  You will see clumps of butter form in the liquid; that's what you want.  Add oil and stir to combine.

Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients.  Use a rubber spatula and stir together until just combined.  Do not overmix.

Divide batter and drop into 12 mounds with a spoon, about 2-tablespoons each (or make fewer, slightly larger biscuits).  Bake until golden, about 11 minutes.  Remove from the oven, let cool for a couple minutes and serve biscuits warm.

To freeze biscuits:  Drop biscuit mounds you'd like to freeze onto a baking sheet or plate lined with wax or parchment paper.  Place in the freezer for several hours until biscuits are frozen.  Then remove the biscuits, wrapping each in plastic wrap and foil, then placing them in a freezer bag.  To bake, place the frozen biscuits into a 450 degree oven, adding a few extra minutes to the baking time.  They are done when they turn golden.