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Make quick and craggy gluten free drop biscuits in under 30 minutes with this simple recipe tonight. What they’re missing in flaky layers, they more than make up for in ease and buttery, crispy edges.
Over the many years of making gluten free pastries, I’ve come to think of drop biscuits as the chocolate chip cookies of the pastry world. They’re excellent taste and texture, easily made in one bowl without any special equipment, and totally beginner-friendly!
Why this recipe works
Drop biscuits are a quicker alternative to regular, cut-out biscuits for when you’re short on time and need a quick dinner side. But they’re more than that.
They’re made with the same ingredients as the roll-and-fold style of laminated biscuits, but with more buttermilk for a looser dough that comes together even more easily. You don’t have to handle the dough at all, just mix, scoop, and bake, so as long as you measure your gluten free flour by weight and choose your ingredients carefully, success is virtually guaranteed.
Plus, a denser drop biscuit is a better alternative to gluten free dinner rolls, with much less time and effort, perfect for savory gluten free soups, rich stews, gluten free gravy and other rich sauces.
How to make gluten free drop biscuits (step by step photos)
The full recipe with ingredient amounts is in the recipe card below. These step by step photos are designed to illustrate the process and explain why we do what we do for the perfect result:
Start with the dry mix. In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum if needed, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and a touch of sugar. Combine everything well so there are no clumps of baking soda and powder (and check dates to make sure they’re fresh or your biscuits will be flat).
Grate in the cold butter. Use the large holes on a standard box grater because drop biscuits don’t have layers so you don’t need big chunks of butter. Toss the shreds to coat in flour and keep the butter from melting. Be careful to avoid overprocessing the butter since solid butter lightens the biscuits.
Add cold buttermilk. Stir until the dough is just combined. It should be thick, sticky, and a little rough-looking—perfect for tender biscuits with crisp edges.
Scoop and bake. Use an ice cream scoop or two spoons to portion the dough onto a lined baking sheet. If it sticks, dip the scoop in cold water between portions. Bake in a very hot oven (425°F) for a short time (about 15 minutes), so the biscuits rise fast and the edges turn until golden brown.
Expert tips
Keep the dough rustic
There’s no need to shape or smooth the dough—just scoop and drop it onto the baking sheet. If the dough sticks, dip your scoop or spoon in cold water between portions to keep the mixture cold and avoid adding more flour, which could lead to dense biscuits.
Avoid small pebbles of butter
Even though we’re using grated butter in this recipe, avoid using a pastry blender which will reduce it to tiny pea-sized pieces. Some pastry recipes recommend that, but it really only works for professional bakers who know how to handle the dough expertly. For the rest of us, we need butter that is too big to melt until it gets to the oven.
Pick your path: quick or flaky
- These drop biscuits are scoop-and-bake simple, and on the table in about 30 minutes.
- If you’ve got a few extra minutes and are really missing Pillsbury Grands!, make our rolled, layered version of gluten free biscuits. The butter sheets you create during folding or lamination turn into those nostalgic, pull-apart layers.
Ingredient substitutions
No buttermilk
Use half plain yogurt (or sour cream) and half milk by volume. You can also use plain cultured kefir instead of buttermilk without any other changes.
Dairy free
Combine ½ cup plain nondairy yogurt with ½ cup unsweetened dairy free milk, and swap the butter for half block-style vegan butter like Melt or Miyoko’s Creamery, half shortening like Spectrum or Crisco brand. That combination should balance the moisture and keep the dough from leaking butter.
? Looking for Grands-style biscuits?
This recipe was made just for scoop-and-drop biscuits, with no gluten free puff pastry style laminating.
If you’re dying for layered Grands!-style biscuits, check out our classic gluten free biscuits recipe for full instructions.
Gluten Free Drop Biscuits
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Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon (12 g) granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, chilled
- 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) buttermilk, chilled
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
- Grate the cold butter using a standard box grater. Chill the butter if starts to soften from the heat of your hands during grating.
- Add the grated butter to the dry ingredients and toss to coat.
- Create a well in the center, add the buttermilk, and mix just until the dough comes together.
- Using a medium ice cream scoop or two spoons, drop mounds of dough about 1½ inches apart on the baking sheet. Don’t pack the dough into the scoop.
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter for a golden finish.
- Bake for 15–18 minutes, until golden brown and firm. Cool briefly before serving.
Notes
I recommend Better Batter’s original blend gluten free flour and Nicole’s Best multipurpose blend with added xanthan gum. Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour should also work, as long as you add an additional 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum to avoid having crumbly biscuits. Cup4Cup has changed its formula and I no longer recommend it. To make your own blend, including a blend that is just like the old Cup4Cup, visit my all purpose gluten free flour blends page for DIY “mock” recipes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
made these tonite …and as usual, couldn’t actually follow the recipe cause I didn’t have quite the non-dairy substitutes listed. I did put vinegar in my almond milk and hope! The dough still didn’t actually stick together, even after adding extra milk, but I went ahead and baked them …and much to my surprise they were very good in spite of the fact they didn’t look like I thought they should before putting them in the oven! Thanks for the surprise! They went very well with my first hotpot meal of the year!
Do you think these biscuits could be used as the dumpling in a chicken and dumpling recipe?
Please see my recipe for gluten free chicken and dumplings, Kelly.
Fluffy inside, crispy outside , buttery every bite!
I’m so glad you loved the biscuits, Grace! Thank you so much for sharing that.
These were delicious- very buttery & perfect with guava jam. I followed the recipe precisely (with bobs red mill), and instead of puffing up like a biscuit, they were flat like a cookie. Any suggestions? They still tasted amazing- they just didn’t look quite right.
Hi, Karrie, did you: 1. Add more xanthan gum to Bob’s as directed? 2. Measure your ingredients by weight, not volume? 3. Keep your butter cold? 4. Use actual buttermilk, or just soured milk? Any of those could be your issue!
Just made these for Father’s Day, and they are my new FAVORITE biscuits!!!! They are Wonderful! So buttery and delicious! I liked grating the butter, easier than using the pastry blender. I added a bit of sharp Cheddar in with the butter because that’s a flavor we love. I’m THRILLED to find this fantastic recipe! Thanks so much!!!
My 6 year old granddaughter and I made these and they were a huge hit! Easy to make and while I’m the only gf person in the family everyone loved them! This is my now “go to” biscuit recipe.
That’s so sweet, Donna! These are perfect for little hands to help with, and I’m so glad everyone ate and enjoyed the same food. Thank you for sharing that.
Greetings Nicole,
I have been following you for quite some time now and your recipes never disappoint!
Especially now in this AI world, where so many recipe sites are AI generated and thus are unreliable at best, and a complete waste of time and ingredients most often. I very much appreciate your real-life tested recipes!
Quick question, can I make this drop biscuit recipe ahead of time and refrigerate for a day before using it?
Thank you for being a reliable resource and sharing your expertise!
Thank you so, so much for the kind words and your appreciation of real-life, tested recipes. It’s getting harder and harder to break through the noise, as like you said there is more noise than ever! And yes, you can absolutely make and shape these biscuits, then cover and refrigerate and bake the following day. In fact, as long as they’re well-covered so they don’t dry out, you can refrigerate them for a few days or freeze them for longer. I’d recommend placing them on a room temperature baking sheet before baking them, though, since a cold baking sheet in a hot oven can cause the oven temperature to spike as the oven struggles to return to temp. Thank you again, and I hope you enjoy the biscuits!
I just made these and they are good!! It’s hard sometimes to make your own gluten-free breads, but I was so surprised at how great these turned out! So tasty! I made them dairy-free as well using Earth Balance butter and half milk/half yogurt instead of buttermilk. Thanks for this recipe!!