Drop biscuits are just what they sound like—biscuits made by dropping dough on a baking sheet. There’s no rolling or cutting, and you can get them in and out of the oven in under an hour. You probably could make any ol’ drop biscuit and have a fair amount of success but—like so many recipes from our cookbook “Milk Street Bakes”—our recipe for Rice Flour Drop Biscuits guarantees it.

A combination of wheat and rice flour keeps biscuits extra tender

At first glance, these biscuits seem pretty standard. You’ll find all-purpose flour, buttermilk, grated butter and some chemical leavening agents in the ingredients list. Less traditional is a small measure of rice flour, which helps ensure the perfect texture.

A good drop biscuit is tender and crumbly, with craggy tops that get pleasingly crisp in the oven. Getting the best texture can be a delicate balancing act. You need some gluten in there to help the dough rise as it bakes, but one has to take care not to encourage too much gluten development, which will render the finished product chewy—not what you want in a drop biscuit.

Minimizing the stirring can help, as agitation is what forms a strong network of gluten strands, but the easiest way to prevent gluten formation is to decrease the overall gluten content. Too much gluten will render your biscuits tough, but it also acts like a sponge, absorbing moisture and fat and giving the biscuits a chewier, oilier crust. Rice flour doesn’t contain any of the gluten-forming proteins found in wheat flour; by using a combination of all-purpose flour and rice flour, our biscuits have a superbly light, tender crumb and almost shatteringly crisp exteriors.

We especially like them made with brown rice flour, as it lends a subtly nutty flavor that complements the tang of the buttermilk, but white rice flour works equally well. Bob’s Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills are two brands widely available in supermarkets—just be sure steer clear of sweet rice flour and glutinous rice flour, which are used to make bouncy mochi and chewy dumplings and noodles.

Keep it cold

The butter in this recipe gives the biscuits their classic flavor and tender texture, but the temperature makes a big difference in the final product. Chilling the butter and grating it keeps it in small bits that are easy to distribute throughout the dough. During baking, the water in those bits of butter evaporates into steam, leaving behind air pockets that contribute to the desired tender, crumbly texture.

We know from a previous test that cold butter performs better than melted butter when making biscuits. While the melted butter was easier to mix into the dough, it produced tougher, disappointingly flat biscuits with no pockets. That’s partly because a little gluten actually benefits biscuits: It gives the dough some stretch, allowing it to rise and trap air to create a tender crumb. Melted butter completely coats the particles of flour, preventing the small amount of gluten development necessary for that elasticity. Additionally, the water in the melted butter doesn’t evaporate in the same way as cold or frozen butter.

For best results, pop your stick of butter in the freezer while the oven pre-heats, and chill your mixed dry ingredients in the fridge at the same time. This will keep everything as cold as possible, and ensure the butter stays in solid bits until the dough is baked. Chilling will also make the dough easier to work with when it comes time to scoop.

Scoop, don’t shape

Don’t aim for neat mounds with flat tops. These biscuits are best when they have a craggy, almost messy looking exterior. Just scoop and drop onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, using a small silicone spatula to coax the dough out of the measuring cup if needed. Doing so will guarantee plenty of crispy, browned bits for a lovely textural contrast.

Once you’ve made a plain batch, you can play around with inclusions. We like a combination of bacon, cheddar and dill, but experiment with other cheeses and salty meats if you feel inspired. Just be sure to pre-cook any ingredients that might release water or grease during cooking—the butter will provide plenty of moisture and fat.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.