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Home » Recipes » Easy Butter Swim Biscuits Recipe

Easy Butter Swim Biscuits Recipe

Published: Aug 16, 2021 · Modified: Nov 16, 2022 by Lynda · This post may contain affiliate links.

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This Butter Swim Biscuit recipe is one of the easiest biscuit recipes that you can make. Buttermilk biscuits are baked in a pool of melted butter. The result is a tender crumb that melts in your mouth.

White plate with stack of butter swim biscuits.

Make these scrumptious buttermilk biscuits and enjoy with breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Perfect to serve as part of a brunch menu or on its own for any occasion!

Jump to:
  • 🥘Butter Swim Biscuits Ingredients
  • 🔪 Instructions
  • ⏲️ Baking Time
  • Wooden Pick Test
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • 📖 Recipe

These melt-in-your-mouth homemade biscuits are perfect served alongside scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage links, and fresh fruit salad (and we have just what you need for those too!) This easy scratch baking recipe will be ready before you know it.

These delicious Butter Swim Biscuits are easier to make than typical buttermilk biscuits because you don’t have to grate or chop cold butter and work it into the biscuit dough. You don’t even need a biscuit cutter! Let’s take a look at how easy it is to make these biscuits.

🥘Butter Swim Biscuits Ingredients

Before you get started, make sure you have all of your ingredients in place (mise en place). For basic Butter Swim Biscuits, you need the following simple ingredients:

  • butter
  • all-purpose flour
  • sugar
  • baking powder
  • salt
  • buttermilk

🔪 Instructions

The very first thing to do is to create the “pool” of butter. That’s what the biscuit dough needs in order to “swim.” Get it?

To make the buttery pool, place a stick of butter in an 8×8-inch square baking dish. Place it in your oven and let it melt while the oven heats up to 450 degrees.

Be sure to keep an eye on the butter. You don’t want it to burn. If it browns just a little bit, that will be fine. You can also remove it from the oven when it is mostly melted. The warm dish will continue to melt the butter even once it has been removed from the toasty environment.

Once you have taken care of the pool of butter, it’s time to move on to the biscuit making. This will only take a couple of minutes.

Glass bowl with flour and wooden spoon by a measuring cup with buttermilk.

Next, whisk together all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisking it together is a good way of getting the dry ingredients well blended.

Stirring buttermilk into flour with a wooden spoon.

Pour buttermilk into the flour mixture and stir. The dough will become “shaggy” once the buttermilk starts to react with the baking powder.

It’s baking chemistry at its finest – baking soda is a base and buttermilk is an acid and when the two get together, they create carbon dioxide bubbles. That is what helps to make the biscuits rise.

Cool, huh?

Mixed butter swim biscuit dough in a glass bowl with a wooden spoon.

Now place 9 spoonfuls of biscuit dough into the pool of butter, aka butter bath. I place 3 rows of 3. This makes it easier for the butter to get in between the biscuits. Alternatively, you can just place all of the dough into the butter and create one ginormous biscuit. You can later cut that biscuit into however many biscuits you would like.

Unbaked biscuit dough in a white ceramic baking dish.

⏲️ Baking Time

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes in the hot oven. Carefully remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until the biscuits have reached the desired doneness. What do I mean by that?

White baking pan filled with baked butter swim biscuits.

Some people like their biscuits to be nice and golden brown. Some people define golden brown as being dark, while others like it on the lighter side. So, it all depends on how you define golden. The main test that you need to pass is the wooden pick test.

Wooden Pick Test

Insert a toothpick or wooden pick or some other food-safe device like a skewer into the center of the baked biscuits. When you pull the pick out, it should come out clean. If there is biscuit dough still on the pick, bake for an additional 5 minutes and then re-test.

Plate of butter swim biscuits and eggs and sausage.

Love biscuits? Be sure to check out these other delicious biscuit recipes at Southern Kissed:

  • Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
  • Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Copycat Recipe
  • Southern Biscuit Recipe Made Without Buttermilk
  • Keto Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use self-rising flour in this recipe?

Yes. If you have self-rising flour, you can use it to replace the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.

What if I don’t have buttermilk?

You can make “sour milk” by placing 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a 2-cup measuring cup and adding milk to the 2-cup mark. Let it sit for 10 minutes. This will make a buttermilk substitute.

📖 Recipe

White plate with stack of butter swim biscuits.

Butter Swim Biscuits

Baked over a pool of butter, these biscuits are tender and melt in your mouth.
4.75 from 12 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Breads
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 9 biscuits
Calories: 256kcal
Author: Lynda

Equipment

  • 8-inch baking dish
  • Mixing bowl

Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 2 cups buttermilk

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 450° Fahrenheit. Place butter in an 8×8-inch baking dish and place in the oven to melt.  Keep a watch on the butter and do not let it burn.  Once the butter hasmelted, remove it from the oven and let the oven finish heating.
  • Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
  • Pour buttermilk into flour mixture and mix with a spoon toform a shaggy dough.
  • Scoop 9 spoonfuls of biscuit dough onto meltedbutter
  • Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 15minutes.
  • Remove foil from baking dish and bake biscuits for anadditional 10 minutes or until baked through and golden brown.
  • Remove from oven and allow biscuits to cool for 5 minutesbefore serving.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 1biscuit | Calories: 256kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 536mg | Potassium: 292mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 402IU | Calcium: 147mg | Iron: 2mg
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Butter Swim Biscuits on a white plate.

Now you know how to make a scrumptious batch of buttery biscuits that will melt in your mouth with this easy-to-follow, scratch recipe.

Don’t Forget To Come Back And Let Me Know How Your Butter Swim Biscuits Turned Out!

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Gina says

    August 21, 2022 at 1:57 am

    5 stars
    I omitted the sugar to avoid a “batter”. Excellent results! Ty!

    Reply
  2. Jenny says

    May 21, 2022 at 8:46 am

    4 stars
    It isn’t dough, but batter. I poured it into the melted butter. No way it could be formed. It tasted very good and I will keep the recipe, but texture is like cake not biscuits. Love the crunchy bottom!

    Reply
  3. Tammaney Willmann says

    February 20, 2022 at 12:31 pm

    Trust the process , y’all. Yes,it doesn’t look like a traditional biscuit dough, but it cooks up beautifully.
    I mixed all my ingredients in my food processor and melted the butter in a cast iron on the stove. Dumped in the dough and spread it around. It’s a wonderful recipe that I have made several times and my mother in law requests them when ever she stays with us .

    Reply
    • Lynda says

      February 21, 2022 at 7:50 am

      💕

      Reply
  4. Linda Melton says

    January 28, 2022 at 8:48 pm

    Great recipe. Turned out wonderful. So easy.

    Reply
  5. Sharon says

    January 08, 2022 at 9:37 am

    I didn’t get a dough, more like a batter and it was impossible to scoop or spread onto the melted butter. Wasted 2 1/2 cups of flour and 2 cups of buttermilk.

    Reply
    • Lynda says

      January 08, 2022 at 10:32 am

      I am sorry it did not work out for you.

      Reply
    • GS says

      January 22, 2022 at 11:50 am

      I agree! I did the exact measurements, but it was a batter, not a dough. I just put it in the oven. We’ll see if it turns into biscuits.

      What I don’t understand is how anyone else got a different result and ended up with a dough? 2 1/2 cups of flour and 2 cups of liquid does not make a dough.

      Reply
      • Lynda says

        January 22, 2022 at 4:49 pm

        Please come back and tell us about the end results.

        Reply
  6. Angela Mason says

    December 29, 2021 at 11:23 pm

    5 stars
    So fast, so easy, so good! Thank you!

    Reply
  7. Greg Howell says

    November 26, 2021 at 12:42 pm

    5 stars
    These biscuits are awesome! They’re great with jelly, or even better with homemade gravy!

    Reply

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Lynda and Johnny statue

My name is Lynda and I am a recovering sugar addict and travel junkie. I'm also a mom of two children & 2 dogs, wife of 1....and a messy cook taking life one bite at a time.

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