Easy Sourdough Drop Biscuits – Old Fashioned Recipe (Video)

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These easy sourdough drop biscuits have the best flavor, and are soft and fluffy.  They can either be made with active starter and allowed to raise overnight, or with discard and baking powder for a quick side dish.  This is an old fashioned simple recipe without any cutting in of the butter, or rolling out of the biscuits which makes it especially easy to make with no mess.  You just mix them up, drop in them in a skillet, raise and bake.  There’s nothing better than soft, buttery sourdough biscuits made from scratch and served with some delicious sourdough gravy or alongside meat and vegetables for a healthy well-rounded meal.   This is a recipe the whole family will enjoy and ask for time and again.

These perfect sourdough drop biscuits are best when started a few hours before they are served.  This makes them healthier because they are long fermented, allows them to rise so they’ll be nice and fluffy biscuits.  This also makes it really easy to get them on the table in time for dinner because they’re already mixed up. They just have to be baked while you’re fixing the rest of the meal.  One of my favorite things about sourdough is it’s flexibility and that most recipes can be mixed up ahead of time, which makes them quick and easy to bake up in time for a quick meal.

This is a great recipe for making homemade sourdough biscuits over the campfire.  I’ve done it many times, and they bake up so nicely in a dutch oven.  Just be sure to put more coals on the top of your dutch oven, then on the bottom so they don’t burn.

Learn how to make sourdough sausage gravy here.

For more of our favorite delicious recipes from scratch, click here.

Ways We Enjoy These Easy Sourdough Biscuits

• Topped with gravy made with venison sausage for breakfast.  
• With butter and homemade jam or jelly alongside any meal or even for breakfast.
• Add some cheese and garlic to the biscuit dough and serve with soups or stews in the wintertime.
• They are also so good with homemade butter and raw honey. 
• Let’s be honest, any meal is better with flaky sourdough biscuits.  They add a wonderful healthy and comforting element to any home cooked meal.

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sourdough?

Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion.  Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well.  When the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, the gluten and phytic acid are broken down, making it easier to digest.  A lot of people that struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac), can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.   

In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down and the nutrients are more bio-available to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.

Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.

For more of our favorite sourdough recipes and tutorials on making sourdough bread, check out the sourdough portion of our website: Sourdough.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

Why Make Sourdough Drop Biscuits?

Sourdough biscuits have a delightful tang from the sourdough starter that makes them so delicious and unlike any other biscuit.  This biscuit recipe is my favorite because you don’t have to roll out the biscuit dough and cut out the biscuits.  

Simple Ingredients

Flour

All purpose flour or bread flour will make the best biscuits. You can also use whole grain flour as well.  It just depends on how light and fluffy you want you want them.

Sourdough starter

Learn how to make a sourdough starter here.

Fat

I like to use homemade butter because of the flavor, but you can use olive oil, coconut oil or melted beef tallow as well.

Kosher Salt

Redmond real salt from Azure Standard is my favorite, but any kind of table salt will be just fine.

Sweetener

Honey, cane sugar or white sugar all work fine.

Baking Powder, Optional

 If you’re mixing these biscuits up at the last minute, it’s cold in your kitchen, or you’re not planning to give them time to raise, you’ll want to add baking powder to make sure they raise.  

Tools You May Need

Medium mixing bowl

12” cast iron skillet or baking sheet

Measuring cups and spoons

Plastic Wrap or Beeswax Wrap

Tips 

• I like to mix these up and drop them into the cast iron skillet in the evening, so they’re ready to bake for breakfast first thing in the morning.  
• If you’re making sourdough discard biscuits instead of using active sourdough starter, add the baking powder to be sure they raise when you bake them.
• These biscuits are perfect for cooking over a camp fire in a dutch oven because you don’t have to roll them out.

How To Make This Easy Sourdough Biscuit Recipe

In a medium bowl, add sourdough starter and melted butter and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until it forms a shaggy dough.  You can add a small bit of flour if the dough is sticky or water if it’s too dry.

Knead for 2-3 minutes on a lightly floured surface until dough is nice and smooth.  

Pinch off golf ball sized dough pieces and roll into balls.

Place in a well greased 12” cast iron skillet.  If using active sourdough starter, and no baking powder, cover with a tea towel and allow to raise in a warm place for a few hours or overnight, until double in size.

The next morning preheat the oven to 375 degrees (I like to set my oven on time bake the night before so when I wake up, I can just stick the biscuits right into the oven).

Bake biscuits in preheated oven for 15-25 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Remove from the oven and brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter using a pastry brush if desired.

Remove from oven and brush the tops with butter.

Serve with sourdough sausage gravy, or with homemade butter and jam.

Store leftover homemade biscuits in an airtight container. They will keep on the counter for 2-3 days, or up to a week in the refrigerator.