Chef Ally
Beignets with Powdered Sugar
Pillowy squares of yeasted dough, fried until golden and hollow inside, then buried beneath a mountain of powdered sugar. Simple enough for a Sunday morning, celebratory enough for any occasion worth marking.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Buttermilk Drop Biscuits with Cane Syrup
Created by Chef Remy
Tender, fluffy buttermilk biscuits with golden tops and soft centers, split warm from the oven and flooded with dark, earthy Louisiana cane syrup, the way four generations of bayou families have started their mornings.
Pastries & Cookies
Cajun
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
15 min cook•30 min total
Yield12 biscuits
The secret to a good biscuit is knowing when to stop. Most folks overmix. They keep stirring until the dough looks smooth and perfect, and then they wonder why their biscuits could double as hockey pucks. A proper biscuit dough should look messy. Shaggy. Like it might fall apart. That's when you know you've done it right.
My grandmother Evangeline made biscuits every single morning until she was ninety-two years old. Never measured a thing. She'd scoop flour into a wooden bowl that had seen fifty years of biscuit making, pinch in some salt, cut the butter with a fork, pour in buttermilk from the icebox, and have a dozen biscuits in the oven before the coffee finished perking. Drop biscuits, she called them. None of that rolling and cutting nonsense. Just scoop and bake.
Now, you can eat these biscuits with butter and jam if you want. But if you've never tasted real Louisiana cane syrup, you're missing something special. It's not molasses, though people confuse them. Cane syrup is lighter, cleaner, with notes of caramel and a sweetness that doesn't overwhelm. Steen's is the one you want. They've been making it in Abbeville since 1910. Pour it warm over a hot biscuit and you'll understand why folks down here guard their syrup recipes like family secrets.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose flour
Quantity
2 cups (240g)
baking powder
Quantity
1 tablespoon
baking soda
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
granulated sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
unsalted butter
Quantity
6 tablespoons (85g)
cold, cut into small cubes
buttermilk
Quantity
1 cup
cold, well shaken
salted butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons
melted, for brushing
pure Louisiana cane syrup
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose flour | 2 cups (240g) |
| baking powder | 1 tablespoon |
| baking soda | 1/2 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | 1 teaspoon |
| granulated sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| unsalted buttercold, cut into small cubes | 6 tablespoons (85g) |
| buttermilkcold, well shaken | 1 cup |
| salted buttermelted, for brushing | 2 tablespoons |
| pure Louisiana cane syrup | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Pastry blender or two forks
- •Heavy baking sheet or 12-inch cast iron skillet
- •Pastry brush
Instructions
- 1
Preheat and prepare
Get your oven hot: 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper. High heat is essential here. It creates steam inside the biscuit that lifts it up and gives you those tender, flaky layers. A timid oven makes dense biscuits.
If you have a cast iron skillet, use it instead of a baking sheet. The iron holds heat beautifully and gives the bottoms a golden crust my grandmother Evangeline would approve of. - 2
Mix the dry ingredients
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Make sure that leavening is evenly distributed. Lumps of baking powder mean some biscuits rise beautifully while others sit there looking sad. Nobody wants that.
- 3
Cut in the cold butter
Add those cold butter cubes to your flour mixture. Using your fingertips, a pastry blender, or two forks, work the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal with some pea-sized butter pieces remaining. Those larger bits create pockets of steam when they hit the hot oven. That's how you get flaky layers.
Cold butter is not negotiable. If your hands run warm, periodically stick them in a bowl of ice water and dry them before continuing. At Lagniappe, we keep our butter in the freezer until the moment we need it. - 4
Add the buttermilk
Pour the cold buttermilk over the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula just until the dough comes together. It will look shaggy and rough. That's exactly right. The moment you no longer see dry flour, stop. Overworking this dough is the fastest way to tough biscuits. Ten to fifteen stirs is all you need.
- 5
Drop the biscuits
Using a large spoon or a quarter-cup measure, drop generous mounds of dough onto your prepared baking sheet, spacing them about two inches apart. These are drop biscuits, so they should look rustic and imperfect. Lumpy tops are honest tops. Don't fuss with them.
Dip your spoon in flour between scoops if the dough sticks. A light dusting keeps things moving without adding too much extra flour to the biscuits. - 6
Bake until golden
Slide the biscuits into that hot oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. You're looking for tall, proud biscuits with golden tops and lightly browned bottoms. They should smell like butter and promise. If they're still pale on top, give them another minute or two. Trust your eyes more than the timer.
- 7
Brush with butter and serve
The moment those biscuits come out of the oven, brush the tops generously with melted salted butter. Watch it soak in, glossy and fragrant. Let them cool just long enough that you won't burn your mouth. Split one open, watch that steam escape, and pour a generous ribbon of Louisiana cane syrup right into the center. Let it pool and soak in. That first bite is what Sunday morning is supposed to taste like.
Chef Tips
- •Cold ingredients make flaky biscuits. Keep your butter in the freezer and your buttermilk in the back of the fridge where it's coldest. If your kitchen runs warm, chill your mixing bowl too.
- •No buttermilk? Make your own: stir one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into one cup of whole milk. Let it sit for five minutes until it curdles slightly. It's not the same as real cultured buttermilk, but it'll do in a pinch.
- •Steen's Pure Cane Syrup is the gold standard in Louisiana. Look for it in the grocery store near the pancake syrups, or order it online. Accept no substitutes. Maple syrup is fine, but it's not the same experience.
- •These biscuits are best eaten within an hour of baking. If you must store them, wrap them tightly and reheat in a 350 degree oven for five minutes. Never microwave a biscuit unless you want to chew on a sponge.
Advance Preparation
- •The dry ingredients can be mixed together and stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks. When you're ready to bake, just cut in the cold butter and add the buttermilk.
- •Unbaked biscuit dough can be scooped onto a baking sheet, frozen solid, then transferred to a freezer bag for up to two months. Bake directly from frozen, adding three to four minutes to the baking time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 biscuit with syrup (about 65g)
Calories
210 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
21 mg
Sodium
400 mg
Total Carbohydrates
32 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
16 g
Protein
3 g
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