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
These biscuits look so good, Can't wait to try them. But I was wondering do you have to use Kosher salt?
Made these biscuits for dinner tonight. They are great! Added some garlic powder to the butter (yum!). Will make these again for sure!!
Best biscuits ever!! Have made them several times now. Try adding a bit of shredded cheese to the dried mix. Sooo Good!!!
Howdy-do,
My 7 year old made these ( and she even made a couple of mistakes) and these are amazing! We'll be back to try out some more of your yumminess!
The McVay Ladies
Hokey doodles!!! do these biscuits ever rise wonderfully! they're still hot so I haven't tasted them as of yet … can hardly wait! 🙂
omg you had me at biscuit! can't wait to try these
Amanda patton
nathanandamanda@gvtc.com
I have spent years trying to make the perfect biscuit with just the right taste and texture. Soft on the inside a little crunch on the outside, so they don't crumble when you eat them. This is it, and it didn't involve cutting in lard and covering my kitchen counter in flour. I've made these a few times now and I don't know that I will ever make traditional biscuits again. Last night I made a half batch because it is just me, my hubs, and my 5 year old little boy. I put the pan with the butter in the oven to melt while it preheated and then instead of pressing all the dough in the pan, I used a scoop and did drops. They turned out the perfect size for my son. The great thing about these is they stay soft for a few days. I just reheated a few for my lunch and they still taste fresh out of the oven. That is a feat I have found impossible for traditional homemade biscuits. I have also successfully used a 50/50 mix of sour cream and milk in place of the buttermilk. I consider myself an experienced cook and am not usually blown away by a recipe. But I just keep shaking my head wondering where this has been all my life. I so appreciate your simple family friendly recipes that are easy for a working Mom to get on the table during the week. Ever since I discovered your website, I find myself coming back daily to see what looks good for supper.
My neighbor saw my post on Facebook and wanted to know where all my yummy recipes were coming from. I turned her on to your website, and she made these biscuits and the Pina Colada poke cake the next Sunday for Sunday dinner. : )
Holy COW!! I like biscuits, I mean…they're good. I don't usually get overly excited about them, however. They're usually just on the side of a main dish or used as a vehicle to shovel sausage gravy into my face. But THESE. Dear Lord in Heaven! I practically had a seizure when I bit into one, hot out of the oven! The bottom was a little more buttery than the rest of the biscuit, the middle was perfectly done and nice and fluffy, and the outside had a salty, buttery crust. Awesome! I used 1 c. buttermilk and 3/4 c. heavy cream with just under a teaspoon of lemon juice added. I also left out the salt since I used salted butter, but I will add it next time, as I prefer a little more salt. There is no need to top these with anything…they're THAT good! SO easy to whip up, too. I am going to double the recipe next time and use a 9×13 pan. I know that once my 17-year old son wakes up these will be G-O-N-E!
These look great! I will definitely try them but I don't think I will be spreading any extra butter on them after they bake! Ha! 🙂
I will be making these. As to the missing biscuit cutter – I keep mine in the flour canister. Been doing it for years after seeing my mother-in-law keep her cutter there.
I just want to say that I love your blog and have tried several recipes already! Kudos!
I am not a biscuit eater, but I make them for the others at my house who love them. I made these for the first time two weeks ago and have made them twice since then. They are in great demand and have now replaced the Pilsbury Grands I usually have in my kitchen. They have been eaten with soup, gravy and warmed up with honey. They're super easy and even I enjoy them!
I made these for our church Homecoming this afternoon and doubled the recipe and put it in a huge pan. They looked great! I used salted butter and went against my gut feeling and followed the note to NOT add additional salt to the flour mixture. I wish I had. They are o.k. but really need some salt. (I had to sample the corner biscuit because I was curious as to how they came out.) I love the buttermilk flavor and texture, and of course, the butter! However, they are lacking in flavor and I know it is because they need some salt. Just a helpful hint… NOTE: I am also taking the pork chop hash brown casserole and banana pudding poke cake! I used your site for ALL my Homecoming recipes and can't wait to see how delicious the other recipes are!
The amount of salt in salted butter really varies across brands. Bummer that it didn't work for you, but I've had the exact opposite problem before when I used salted butter in a recipe calling for unsalted. Try these again, because they really are awesome (though a little too buttery for my family! We had to reduce the butter, sacrilegious I know).
I haven't made homemade biscuits in over 20 years. The first and last time I made them they came out so hard my husband and his friend took them outside and used them in place of their skeet when they were skeet shooting. My daughter has heard this story many times and said she didn't want any involvement in the disaster when I asked if she wanted to help me. She suggested I stick to the can kind. Thanks to your recipe my biscuit making skills have been redeemed and my husband had to eat his words (the best part).
Thanks again.
Would u be able to double recipe and bake in a 9×13 pan?
Donna
I just made these…. all I can say IS AWESOME! Thank You for Sharing! Sandra
I have made these several times and it is now the only biscuits I make. Thank you for a great recipe. They are so easy to make and the are AWESOME.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Woo hoo! SO happy to hear that!!
Do u need baking powder if u use self rising flour.
Nope, it's not necessary. Just make sure your self-rising flour is fresh stuff and hasn't been hanging around too long in the pantry 🙂
I made these last night at my boyfriends house. (a not so stocked kitchen by the way lol) I used homemade buttermilk with 2% milk n vinager. Did not have unsalted butter so I just used regular and since I used that and did not have Kosher Salt I just sprinkled the salt shaker a few times and prayed! They came out FANTASTIC! And altough I Fancy myself a decent cook and baker biscuts and pie dough have been my nemisis for years! This will be my new go to biscut recipie! Thank you sooo much!
Love hearing that Stephanie!! Yay!!
I just made these tonight, tonight and I can't get over how great they are. I used powdered buttermilk, and reconstituted it to make 1 1/2 cups worth of buttermilk. It needed more liquid, so I added about a 1/4 cup of milk. Thanks for sharing this recipe! Stephanie
Thanks so much Stephanie! Glad they turned out good for you!
I made these last night for dinner and they were great! The best biscuits ever! I have never been very good at making biscuits but these were so easy! Thanks for a wonderful recipe.
You are so welcome and thank you for taking the time to let me know how they turned out for you!!
Just made these and they were the best biscuits I have ever made! I didn't have an 8 inch square pan, but they cooked up just fine in my 9×13 inch pan. I also used self rising flour and just left out the extra salt and baking soda. My mother usually makes the biscuits and once she tasted these she dubbed me the biscuit maker of the house lol. I could eat the whole pan of them with honey! Yum. 🙂
Oh wow – that is SO great to hear! Makes my day to read comments like that. You are now Queen Biscuit Maker!
These are gorgeous! Made a batch for my Sunday roast chicken, and my kitchen smells divine! Thank you so much!
So sweet – thank you!
Mine turned out lovely!!! I have never been able to make a biscuit ever!!! So I was so proud I was able to make my southern boyfriend a good biscuit! <3 Cheers!
I made these just this morning. It really brought back memories for my elderly mother. She is going to be 87 on her birthday and suffers from Alzheimer's. When I was small, my grandmother and aunts called biscuits made like this "Hoe Cake". The recipe amounts were not set or passed down in my family; everyone just learned to put in an amount that "just looked right", so you never had Hoe Cakes exactly the same way twice. Over the years, I had forgotten the ingredients and amounts (since I was a child when my Nanny and Aunts died so I didn't have a lot of instructions on how to do this). Anyway, finding your recipe on Pinterest was simply a God-send. At breakfast this morning, my mother perked right up and said "You made Hoe Cakes!". What a blessing this was for her. She enjoyed every bite and talked about when she was younger and how her mother had made Hoe Cakes for the family. I bet I will be making these on a regular basis from now own. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
I made these just a little bit ago. I followed it to a T. Mine really had no flavor on the inside and seemed like they could of maybe baked longer? They was fluffy but kinda seemed too mushy. What could I have done?
Lori – hi! Sorry that didn't turn out like you expected. There's really no way to know unless I'm in the kitchen with you. I have literally made these hundreds of times using this exact recipe and I can't say I've ever had that problem. The only thing I can guess at is a lot of people mistake margarine for butter (see comments above). You have to use real butter (no substitutes)and I only use real buttermilk (not milk or milk with vinegar or lemon juice added). Milk absolutely cannot be substituted for buttermilk in this. If you did all that, the only thing I can assume is perhaps you need to double check that your oven is heating to the proper temperature by getting an oven thermometer. Most ovens, over time, can overheat (even though the digital display at the top says 350) it may actually be overheating or underheating by a few degrees and that will throw off the time to cook. For example, my oven says it is heated to 350F but when I put an oven thermometer in there, it actually is only really heated to 339F degrees, so I have to adjust the temperature up a bit to get it to truly come up top 350F. Hope that helps! 🙂 ~Brandie
hi i love ur recipes.can i sub.kosher salt to table salt and if so how much?and is kosher and table salt the same?
Hi Lori! Country Crock is not butter, it's actually margarine. The high oil content in margarine does not work well with these biscuits. You really need to use real butter. Hope that helps! 🙂
Michele – thank you!! I am so happy this was a winner for you! ~Brandie
Could I just use a stick of country crock butter? I read the ingredients and it does have salt, so I would skip the kosher salt then, right?
I made these using your recipe and my husband said they reminded him or Cracker Barrel's biscuits! That's saying a lot 🙂 Very easy to make and super tasty. Thanks!
Can't wait to try this! I have to say, though, that I'm a Southerner and have been all of my life and have never used the term "sweet milk" and only heard it for the first time about a year ago.
Made these last week and my family enjoyed them so much that I bought a big thing of buttermilk to make more this week. Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you! Trying them this morning!
Thank you for this recipe, I made it tonight and it was delicious. You've got a new fan. Love your site!
I have pinned your site and love the recipes and Thanks for the biscuit recipes No worry about salt for High blood pressure with the All purpose flour. They are great thanks . I also tried the praline cake I was sooooo good thanks I can't say thanks enough …
Hi, new to your site. Anxious to try this recipe, I can never seem to make biscuits that meet my standards. Noticed you have a picture of reduced fat buttermilk. Is that your preference?
I stumbled upon your site and just tried out this recipe. The biscuits are great! I'll warm up some for breakfast in the morning. Looking forward to trying out some of the other recipes here.
Ama – I've only ever made this with buttermilk. You can make your own buttermilk by adding a bit of lemon juice to your heavy cream. It will come very close to the flavor & texture of buttermilk. I have never cooked with soy flour or almond flour so I honestly could not tell you how that affects the other ingredients – I'm sorry!
Melissa – so happy this was a hit for you. Thank you for taking the time to let me know!
Renee – you could make this in a 13×9 pan. You could use this same recipe & put in the larger dish – they would just be a lot thinner or you could double this recipe for the big fluffy ones. I would just out a baking dish under your pan to catch any butter that might possibly bubble over. 🙂
I would like to mak this and double it but i do not want to use 2 baking dish would you use a 13×9 or i think i have an 11×9 baking dish?
Made these for breakfast/supper tonight. They were so very easy and delicious!! Thanks for making me feel like my Mammaw, now I have a delicious biscuit recipe as well.
i replace all purpose flour with soy flour or almond meal, do i need to change the amount of other ingredients? Also can i use heavy cream to replace buttermilk? I am from malaysia so it is hard to find buttermik here. Thx!
These look so easy never made biscuits because of all the work! Im going to double the recipe and cook in a 13×9' pan to serve more people!
Hi, saw this recipe on Pinterest. I just made these and they are so easy and taste really good! Thanks for such an easy and tasy recipe. I did use, 1 2/4 Cup 2% milk and mine were done in 15 minutes at 450F. I love how rustic and homemade they look. 😉
I just made these tonight using a 13×9 pan. At first I thought that it was a bad idea to try it because I was having trouble spreading it out with my hands, along with a scapula. I eventually got it to work. I forgot to cut them into squares, but they did come out very well! From the picture on this page, my biscuits came out 1/3 of the thickness. They were very good! I liked using the 13×9 pan so that it can feed more people!
I made these tonight. My 2 year old is such a picky eater and he loved them! He asked before bed if I could make them again tomorrow. Thank you for sharing such a great recipe!
Amazing!! I only had skim milk, but I added vinegar to it. Batter was a little runny, but they turned out great! Love. Love. Love. Thank you! Jennifer
I was wondering… can u double this recipe for a 13×9 pan? I have a big family lol
Someone posting earlier said they doubled it and used a 13×9 pan, so it must work.
Woo Hoo! I just love reading these wonderful comments! So, so happy you have had success with this recipe.
Renee – nope I think you got it right. Memaws just have that special touch!! Congratulations!!
I have never been able to make homemade biscuits before today…mine were always hockey pucks until now…I have a theory…see my very first granddaughter was just born 2 weeks ago…making me a Memaw now…and everyone knows only Memaws know how to make homemade biscuits (well maybe that awesome super easy recipe had ALITTLE bit to do with it too) thanks