Butter Dip Biscuits
Butter Dip Buttermilk Biscuits (also called Butter Swim Biscuits) are the easiest homemade biscuits. No biscuit cutter needed! Thick, fluffy and buttery!
A.K.A. Butter Swim Biscuits
Did the title of this recipe get your attention? I first shared this recipe back in 2012 (I’ve updated the photos since then) and it has been copied by many others over the years but this here is the original! If you want to see that original post, check it out HERE. I’ve come a long way since then! This is such an easy recipe. You don’t even have to roll out any dough or use biscuit cutters! Also, if you love this recipe be sure to check out my Blueberry Butter Dip Biscuits, Cinnamon Roll Butter Swim Biscuits, Strawberries and Cream Butter Dip Biscuits or my Cheddar Garlic Butter Dip Biscuits!
The best biscuits I have ever made in my life. And I am an expert baker and biscuit maker and these are the perfect biscuits. They taste great and so much easier to make. Ask any of my family members – I am the go-to guy for biscuits so I know what. I’m talking about.
– Norman
Frequently Asked Questions
I’ve slightly modified this Betty Crocker recipe since I’ve started making these. I started using buttermilk instead of the original milk and I doubled the ingredients so that they come out thicker. So yes, you can use milk but make sure it is not skim milk.
Honestly I am not sure. I only cook and bake with cow’s milk. But if you try it, please let me know how it turns out for you!
This is totally optional. I think it can depend on the brand used as well. We use quite a bit of baking powder in these so if you are sensitive at all to specific tastes, I would recommend using an aluminum free baking powder if possible. The ingredient image below shows a brand that does have aluminum in it but Bob’s Red Mill and Rumford make aluminum free versions that I really like.
These are definitely big and fluffy which is how we like them. But you can cut the recipe in half for a thinner biscuit or spread the batter into a larger baking dish.
Yes, absolutely! Just do not add the baking powder and salt to the recipe as it is already included in self-rising flour.
Either a glass or ceramic baking dish. Metal baking dishes can heat up the butter and cause it to burn as the biscuits are still baking.
Technically you do not need to. I just like to make doubly sure that the biscuits will not be sticking anywhere in my baking dish.
Buttermilk is a man ingredient in this and I prefer the real thick stuff. When you make your own buttermilk, you don’t get that exact same taste and texture. However, if you want to make your own: the ratio is typically one cup of milk mixed with one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. Allow it to sit for about 5-10 minutes before using.
Absolutely! I have a Butter Dip (or Butter Swim) Yeast Roll recipe here.
Ingredients Needed: (See Recipe Card Below For The Full Recipe)
- salted butter
- all-purpose flour * (see my notes above about self-rising flour)
- sugar
- baking powder I like to use an aluminum free baking powder when possible since I am sensitive to the taste of it. Please note, the brand used below is not aluminum free but if you are looking for one, Bob’s Red Mill makes a really good one and it is usually sold in a bag.
- salt
- buttermilk – if you forgot to pick up buttermilk from the store, see my post on How to Make Buttermilk.
How To Make Butter Dip Biscuits
Preheat oven to 450F degrees. Spray a glass or ceramic 9×9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray (I like the kind with flour in it). In a microwave-safe bowl, melt stick of butter in the microwave. Pour melted butter into prepared baking dish.
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Pour in the buttermilk.
Stir until a loose dough forms. Batter will be sticky.
Pour biscuit dough into baking dish (right on top of the melted butter.) Spread it out with the back of a spoon or a butter knife or your hand.
You won’t get it perfectly even, but hey, that’s okay, these are homemade, remember? Some of the butter will run over the top of the dough, that’s perfectly okay. Cut the dough into 9 squares. This will help with cutting later when they are done too.
Bake (on the middle oven rack) for about 25-30 minutes, rotating dish once during baking.
Oven times do vary since different ovens have different hot spots, but basically biscuits should be golden brown on top and spring back to the touch.
Slice and serve with butter!
Craving More?
Butter Dip Biscuits (a.k.a. Butter Swim Biscuits)
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted butter (1 stick)
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ¾ cups buttermilk (you may need up to two cups)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F degrees (yes, that is the correct temperature). Spray a glass or ceramic oven safe 9×9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray (I like the kind with flour in it). NOTE: You technically do not have to spray the pan since there is plenty of butter in this but I like to be extra careful.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, melt 1/2 cup salted butter in the microwave. Pour melted butter into prepared baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, mix together 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 Tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt.
- Pour in 1 3/4 cups buttermilk. Stir until a sticky batter forms. If batter still seems too dry add a tad bit more buttermilk until the batter is thick and sticky.
- Pour biscuit dough into baking dish (right on top of the melted butter.) Some of the butter will run over the top of the dough. Tip: I will spray my hand with some nonstick spray to help spread the dough out evenly in the pan.
- Cut the dough into 9 squares (as best you can). This will help with cutting later when the biscuits are baked.
- Bake (on the middle oven rack) for about 25-30 minutes, rotating dish once during baking.
- Oven times DO VARY since different ovens have different hot spots, but basically biscuits should be golden brown on top and spring back to the touch. Insert a toothpick into the center. If it comes out clean with no batter, they are done!
Video
Notes
- If using unsalted butter, be sure to add 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Eat within two days. Make sure to cover leftovers. If stored in the refrigerator, they will last for a week. These biscuits can also be frozen. Wrap well in freezer-safe plastic wrap and then store in a freezer-safe bag or container. Will freeze for up to 3 months.
- Self-rising flour can replace the all-purpose flour in this recipe. Just do not add the baking powder and salt to the recipe as it is already included in self-rising flour.
- If you only have an 8×8-inch baking dish, I would put a baking pan underneath to catch any possible butter drippings that may happen since it is smaller.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Originally published: February 2012
Updated photos and republished: April 2019
I made these for breakfast this morning! They were so good! Thank you for sharing your recipe!:)
Made these tonight!! Oh my goodness! These are definately becoming a staple in our household! YUMMY!
Gonna try and make the tonight wish me luck 🙂
Our dinner guests loved these biscuits. This recipe is now in my recipe box and my guests. Simple and delicious.
Made these for breakfast today and they are so light and fluffy I wanted to eat the whole pan! Didn't have enough buttermilk (just 1 C in the freezer) so I made up the difference w/some plain yogurt and cream – they came out lovely!
This is a keeper recipe for me, thanks for sharing!
I made these today with my Thanksgiving Brunch! Wow! Every one loved them. I will be making these a lot! I used a 9×13 pan and doubled the recipe…Perfect!
I made these but added bacon and chedder cheese and they were fantastic. Will be making them again soon. Leftover biscuits are great heated up in the micro and delious with my homemade red beet jelly!
I have recently had knee surgery and am not able to stand for long periods of time. I have been missing cooking and baking SO much! This looks like something I could handle! I'm going to surprise my family with these tonight! Break out the new jar of pumpkin butter….a feast is on the way! Lol I'll let you know how it goes. BTW, I sure enjoy your blog!
I just put these in the oven right now. I added garlic powder..pepper..cayenne pepper and onion powder..and on the top of it hot sauce…cant wait to try them. My sister tried the recipe with garlic in it..and it was awesome. Thank you for this. Found on Pinterest
Just saw this on Pintrest, can't wait to make them, but GF style 🙂
Hope I will do them justice.
WOW….I have been try'n to make biscuits to suit my taste for 64yrs….I have FINALLY found the recipe…my only regret is that I am pretty sure I will have to buy bigger clothes in a few months. These are soooo DELICIOUS..the taste & texture I've been search'n for…Thx a million!
If you are looking at this recipe and debating wether to make it or not my suggestion is to go ahead! This is a recipe you will want to keep in your recipe file. I have been on a mission to find a recipe for what I invision as the perfect biscuit and this is it! I've tried every one I've come across, including Paula Dean and Martha Stewart, and this one is perfect. Ive made them several times and they always come out great. I also use this same recipe for dumplins. I just add more flour while rolling the dough out. Next time I'm gonna try to cut back on the butter cause it worries my husband. Thanks for sharing this recipe. If it was mine I would be stingy and keep it all to myself. LOL ;)~
I made these bisuits lastnight after seeing them on The Better Baker blog. They were de-lish. I do, however think they should be called Butter Soaked Biscuits! Can anything cooked in a stick of butter be bad?
easy to make !love baking ! look yummy!
BISCUITS
Ok I decided I wanted to have a quick and easy biscuit to make really quick for my biscuits and gravy dinner. And remembered that I had pinned this recipe months ago. Decided to try it so ran to the store real quick to pick up buttermilk instead of making some. Just pulled these out of the oven and put the sausage gravy over it and just took my first bite……..O. M. G.!!!!!! These are so good. Nice and crispy on the outside and soft and buttery on the inside. I can't wait to try them with jam. Thank you so much and I'm so glad that I remembered I had your recipe pinned in Pintrest.
I made these last night, only I added minced garlic and baked it in a loaf pan! Delicious home-made garlic bread!
Just wondering if also adding cheese into the mix along with the garlic would work…love cheesy-garlic bread and we are having spaghetti and meatballs tonite. Did you have to adjust the time and/or temp for using a loaf pan???
Made these for supper tonight. YUM! I used Self rising flour, milk and sugar and of course butter. They were huge! Thanks!!!
Just made these tonight. Didn't have buttermilk so used sweet milk mad vinegar. I think I will cut out some of the butter next time but we loved them! Definitely going in my fav file!!!
Newest follower! Excited to find your blog. Hope you'll come follow me too 🙂
betty
I made these for breakfast on Saturday and they were wonderful!
I'm going to try these today, can't wait!
I made these for the first time and I think they will be in my recipe file. My daughter like them so I know they were good.
Just did this… and they are delicious!! Yummy! will send you a couple of pictures through Twitter! Since in Spain is impossible to find Buttermilk, I just used reg milk and put some lime in it so it was more thick in consistency, and it worked out great =) Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!!
Seriously…don't wonder if these are good…just MAKE them!!! I made THESE to go with my crockpot roast that the whole family raves over…and all I heard…is "hey..where's the rest of the biscuits?"…when they were gone…tomorrow a double batch!!! TRUST ME…just do it!!!
I am going to try these in wheat as well as ALL Purpose Flour. Pray they turn out as our Bishop is coming in the morn…LOL!!!
Hey Bella – I'm by no means an expert on baking but I can tell you I've made these more times than I can count & they've never turned out like bricks. It sounds like you might've forgotten to add the baking powder. Generally, if some sort of leavener is not added like baking soda or powder or yeast, your breads will be dense and hard. Hope that helps!
Hello,
I don't know where I went wrong….I ended up with nine little bricks. Definitely going to try it again, they sound wonderful!
These are GREAT!!! I'm not much on biscuits, but these are awesome! I made two batches today, one with regular sugar and the other with Splenda. Even after they have sat and got cold they taste good.
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Oh my word!!! Those sound absolutely amazing, I am going to make those one day very soon!
Thanks for the recipe and for putting it on Pinterest.
Hugs, Cindy
I made these biscuits last weekend and they came out awesome! I didn't have buttermilk, so I used the old tablespoon of lemon juice to one cup of milk trick. Fluffy and just delicious. Will definitely be making these again. Thank you for the recipe!
Totally awesome! Thank you for sharing.
I made this for the 2nd time tonight, using the correct amount of butter milk (not enough last time – but still good!)and this time my cast iron skillet (instead of a glass pan)
They ROCK!
There was a comment on here about using I Can't Believe It's Not Butter – not sure where the comment is but I'll answer in case you check back. 🙂
I think this is one of those recipes where you really gotta follow the exact ingredients. Now I have used Smart Balance butter baking sticks and those worked great. But I wouldn't recommend margarine for this. And the buttermilk adds a lot of flavor as well. Hope that helps!
OMG this is a great alternative when I am not in the mood to roll dough or when I can not find my cutter…plus it is perfect for teaching my daughter how to cook. Can you make them in a 13×9 dish because they came out really thick the last time we made them.
I prefer these on the big & fluffy side but if you want them a lot smaller, you could make these in a 9×13 pan. I've never made it in that size of a pan before so I'm not sure exactly how thin they would be…
🙂
Hi Edgar!!! So glad you are enjoying this recipe!! Thank you so very much for taking the time to let me know!!
These are the best!!! I have them 6 or 7 times since you first posted this recipe – and everyone that has tried them raves about how good they are — THANK YOU!!!!!!
Hi Jen! White Lily is a popular brand of flour in the south. You can get White Lily All-purpose flour, self rising flour and they also make corn meal. I'm not particularly devoted to any one brand of flour. I usually go with whatever is cheapest or on sale to be honest. For me, the main key for these biscuits is the buttermilk. Now, you can make your own buttermilk using sweet (regular milk) and vinegar or lemon juice but I still don't think it gives you that nice thick consistency of true buttermilk so if I'm picky about anything in this recipe, it's the use of buttermilk. Hope that helps! 🙂
These look really good! I saw that you use all-purpose flour. I've seen a lot of buttermilk biscuit recipes that call for White Lilly flour and claim that it's the best, but last time I tried to make biscuits with White Lilly my biscuits came out tasting like cornbread. Have you had any luck with White Lilly, or would you recommend just sticking with regular old white all purpose flour?
Hi Dena! Thank you for your comment! I have not tried to freeze this. I have a very small freezer and space is very limited so I mostly keep frozen ground beef & veggies in my freezer, no extra room for fun stuff like biscuits. I don't see why you couldn't freeze these if you have a food saver. I suppose the real enemy to anything you freeze is freezer burn. So packaging these up airtight would be key. Maybe flash freeze them first, then seal them up in a freezer safe bag, removing as much air as possible. If you give it a try, let me know. I'd love to know how it turns out for you. 🙂
I am looking forward to trying this recipe. But, had a quick question – have you tried freezing these? Either before or after baking? If I start using this recipe, I might need to make just 2 or 4 and even in the smallest pan I might end up with 6 cooked biscuits. I'm just wondering about their freeze-ability.
Thank you!
Dena
http://www.blueridgeinnbandb.com
Funny story: I was so excited to make these and made them for company one Sunday morning; just knew they'd be perfect. During the baking time, my husband said, Hon – is something burning? Oh boy…not a good sign. I saw that there was smoke coming out of the vents of the oven so I carefully opened the oven and the house filled with tons of smoke; we had to open all the doors, windows and start the fans. The butter boiled over the biscuits and covered the bottom of the oven…needless to say the biscuits had a smokie taste. We still ate them but I guess next time I'll be more careful. Any on keeping the butter in the dish for next time? LOL
Oh no Lisa! Well, I gotta say that is a new one on me..lol. In all the times I've made it, I don't recall that ever happening. I guess you could cut down on the amount of butter or use a 9-inch square dish instead of the 8-inch square. I've made these with half a stick of butter before and the taste was still good!
I could eat the entire pan in one sitting they are so good. I used low fat butter milk and next time I am going to experiment with the powdered butter milk. Easy and very tasty!!!!
Hello! I found your recipe thanks to Pinterest and made your biscuits tonight. I used whole wheat pastry flour and a touch more buttermilk, just to be on the safe side. I also let them sit in the pan for a few minutes before putting in the oven (I've found letting whole wheat baked goods sit and hydrate for a few minutes turns out moister, softer goodies!). My only 'complaint' is that I did not read through all your comments until they were already in there baking, and thus did not realize that kosher salt and sea salt are not perfectly interchangeable. So this batch came out a spot on the salty side. =/ Would you consider putting that in parentheses after the kosher salt in the ingredients? I probably should have known that, but I didn't! Otherwise, this technique is AWESOME and the texture and flavor is SOOO good!! I'll probably slice these into thin slices and toast to make 'panko' breadcrumbs. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Hi Jan!! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know how they turned out for you!! So happy you enjoyed these!!
I made these last night, let me just say….AMAZING!! My husband said, "now these are the ticket!!". Thank you very much for THE best biscuit recipe!!
So happy you enjoyed this recipe! And thank you so much for taking the time & letting me know how they turned out for you!!
I made these biscuits on Sunday and they were delicious.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!!
I made these alongside a chickey and corn chowder for dinner and let me tell you this was the most fabulous dinner I've had in a while! These biscuits are TO DIE FOR! I just found a new go to recipe! Thank you!!!
Yay!! So, so happy to hear you loved these!