Butter Swim Biscuit Recipe (One Bowl)

If there was one thing I could count on from my Grandma Olga Mae, it’s that there would always be biscuits at Sunday supper. Normally she would make her flaky buttermilk biscuits before leaving for church, but every once in a while she would whip up what she called a biscuit cake. I now recognize them as being very similar to butter swim biscuits.

When developing my own butter swim biscuit recipe, I started by melting butter in a square baking pan. Then I made what can only be described as a pourable biscuit dough and spread it into the pan of melted butter.

It may seem like too much butter—I certainly thought so. But it’s the same amount of butter you’d add into classic biscuit dough.

While it baked, the biscuit dough soaked up all the butter, creating the fluffiest, most buttery-tasting biscuits of my life with an almost cake-like consistency. And so now I get why Olga Mae called it her biscuit cake. The biscuits also developed a crispy bottom and sides, reminiscent of focaccia. I loved everything about them.

This recipe makes nine big, fluffy, tall biscuits. To serve, you can drizzle your butter swim biscuits with honey, smear them with some jam, or—oh my goodness—bring on the sausage gravy. They would also be delicious with a bowl of stew or soup.

Simple Substitutions

• If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute with plain yogurt. You can also use whole milk instead for a milder flavor. If you use milk, exclude the baking soda and add one more teaspoon of baking powder for a total of 3 teaspoons.
• I use unsalted butter so that I can control the saltiness of my baking. If you only have salted butter, decrease the salt in your biscuits by half, using 1/2 teaspoon. 
• If you are using table salt instead of kosher salt, decrease by half, using 1/2 teaspoon. 

Biscuit Party