Ridiculously Easy Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits

These Ridiculously Easy Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits can be thrown together with minimal effort and can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner! They're also ridiculously delicious!

I love that these Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits go well with breakfast entrees, with soups and salads and are a perfect choice to serve for both casual and fancy dinners.

No need to reinvent the wheel

So many of you have written to say how much you've loved our Ridiculously Easy Buttermilk Biscuits. Here are just a few comments from the long list of happy readers regarding the easy breakfast fare:

I have been looking for a go-to biscuit recipe for years but never found one I loved. These are hands down the easiest and best biscuits I have ever made! I am so glad I stumbled upon this recipe. The freezing for 10 minutes of the buttermilk is genius. Thank you!

Hi Chris, these were wonderful! First time in my life ( and that is a long time) that I made homemade biscuits. I think they intimated me before. These were just wonderful and so easy… and didn’t take much time at all! I used a medium-size cookie scoop and just dropped them on the cookie sheet… Thank you for such a wonderful recipe!

OH.MY.GOODNESS – Melt in your mouth deliciousness. S-o-o-o much quicker than traditional biscuit recipes. I hate cutting butter into dry, never seems like I get it right. But these are just so WOW!

I have made these a few times and I am amazed at how much easier the buttermilk and butter method is compared to cutting in butter which I never really liked doing. Definitely the easiest recipe for biscuits I ever used, excellent!!

This technique was amazing! Worked perfectly! Whenever I think of making biscuits, I usually pass because of the hassle of cutting in the butter.

The comments go on and on but, as you might surmise, these Buttermilk Biscuits have been a huge hit. I knew there was no need to reinvent the wheel so these Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits are simply an adaptation of that original with the addition of fresh rosemary and Parmesan cheese.

But they're actually easier to make than the original recipe because, instead of being a rolled-out biscuit, they're a drop biscuit. That means you just mix up the dough, scoop it up, drop the scoops onto a sheet pan and bake. It doesn't get much easier than that! Perhaps I should have named this recipe Ridiculously, Ridiculously Easy Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits. Then again, maybe not... um... that would be ridiculous!

Ridiculously Easy

If you're new to The Café, you might not be aware that we have a recipe collection called "Ridiculously Easy". You can read more about them in detail, but in a nutshell, these are super easy but also super delicious recipes. They're recipes that look and taste impressive but, in reality,  are uncomplicated and can put together quickly. I like to describe them as the recipes that make you look like a kitchen rock star with minimal effort on your part.

Sound good? Check out more of our Ridiculously Easy Recipes. You'll be so happy you did! You can either click on the pictures on the top of this post OR click here, for a complete list.

A Magic Trick

Besides the fact that these are drop-biscuits with no rolling or biscuit cutters involved, there's a little magical technique included in this Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits recipe that several readers mentioned in the comments above. It's an amazing trick that takes all of the intimidation out of making biscuits.

I can't take credit for this technique myself as I discovered it on the Cook's Illustrated website several years ago but I've been running with it ever since and use it in all of my scone and biscuit recipes.

To understand this we have to have a little discussion about traditional biscuits. Traditional biscuits get their flakiness and layers of buttery deliciousness from a technique that involves "cutting" cold butter into the flour. This can be done with your fingers, a pastry cutter, two knives or even a food processor. The result is small lumps of butter throughout the flour. When the dough is mixed up and the biscuits are baked, the tiny suspended bits of butter melt and create steam pockets which are responsible for that classic flaky, tender biscuit texture.

The Cook's Illustrated method yields the same results but in a much easier way. Simply place a cup of buttermilk in the freezer for 10 minutes. You'll also want to melt a stick (4-ounces) of butter in the microwave and let it cool a bit while you prep the other ingredients. All that involves is stirring together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium-sized bowl.

After the buttermilk has chilled and the butter has cooled a bit, simply stir the two together with a fork. Voila! The same little "bits of butter" are now suspended in the buttermilk (see the picture below). When mixed with the dry ingredients, form the little magical pockets of steam in the oven, just as if you had spent the time and effort to meticulously "cut" the butter into the flour!

See what I mean? Easy. Ridiculously easy!

A match made in heaven

I love the combination of rosemary and Parmesan cheese to create a whole new delicious flavor sensation. We love to enjoy these Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits with a smear of melting butter and a drizzle of honey for a fabulous breakfast treat. As mentioned above, they're also wonderful as a side to soups and salads and are always well received when made with a small scoop and served in the dinner breadbasket.

You probably have most of the ingredients on hand to whip up a batch of these Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits. They won't take long to put together and when that delicious aroma comes wafting out of your oven, you (as well as your family, friends, neighbors, guests...) will be so happy you did!

Cafe Tips for making these Ridiculously Easy Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits

• No buttermilk? It's easy to make your own! Simply place 1 tablespoon of plain old white vinegar in a measuring cup. Fill it with milk to measure 1 cup and stir well. Allow the mixture to sit for 5-10 minutes or until slightly thickened. The mixture may curdle a bit, that’s okay! Use in recipes in lieu of buttermilk.
• If you're not a fan of rosemary, fresh thyme leaves would be a delicious substitute.
• Don’t skip chilling the buttermilk. This is really important. If the buttermilk isn’t really cold, the little butter globules won’t form.
• These biscuits freeze well, both unbaked and baked. To freeze them unbaked or baked, place biscuits on a sheet pan or a plate spaced at least a half-inch from each other. Freeze till frozen, then transfer biscuits to a ziplock bag or air-tight storage container. If you’ve frozen them unbaked, bake them as directed in the recipe right from the freezer. Give them a couple of extra minutes in the oven to compensate for the fact that they were frozen.
• If you freeze these buttermilk biscuits after baking, allow them to thaw when you’re ready to use them and then warm in the oven for 5-8 minutes at 300˚F.
• You can use packaged shredded Parmesan cheese or shred your own. Either way, make sure it’s finely shredded. The biscuits will come out prettier that way.
• If purchasing fresh rosemary at the grocery store, you may find them in nice big bunches in the produce section. Most of the time, however, they’ll be sold with other herbs in little plastic packages. One package will be plenty.
• You can make these Ridiculously Easy Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits any size you want. Miniature ones are really nice for a dinner party, but if you’re making breakfast or lunch sandwiches, larger biscuits are nice. I use a 4-tablespoon scoop to make medium-size breakfast biscuits and a 3-tablespoon scoop if I want to serve them as biscuits to accompany dinner. Feel free to make them any size you want!
• In the market for sheet pans? I love these OXO Good Grip sheet pans. They're sturdy and made to last for a long time (even for a crazy baker like myself).
• One other product I love that simplifies baking biscuits, scones, cookies, etc. are these precut parchment paper sheets, perfectly sized for sheet pans. They come in a flat box for easy storage and a box lasts forever.
• For our UK readers... when our daughter lived in London I learned that all-purpose flour (Plain flour) is a bit different there and it seemed like I needed more, probably closer to 2 ¼ cups.

Thought for the day:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121: 1&2

What we're listening to for inspiration:

Psalm 121

If you enjoyed this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review! It’s so helpful to other readers to hear your results, adaptations and ideas for variations.

4.84 from 6 votes

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Ridiculously Easy Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits

These Ridiculously Easy Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits can be thrown together with minimal effort and can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner! They're also ridiculously delicious!

Author: Chris Scheuer

Course: Breads, Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits

Prep Time: 25 mins

Total Time: 25 mins

Servings: 10

Calories: 215 kcal

Ingredients

For the biscuits:

• 1 cup cold buttermilk
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt

For finishing:

• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh parsley

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For the biscuits:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or spray a sheet pan with cooking spray.
2. Measure 1 cup of buttermilk and place cup in the freezer while prepping other ingredients (you want it to be in the freezer 10 -15 minutes.
3. Place butter in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with a paper towel and heat on high for 1 minute. If not completely melted, return to the microwave for 10-second intervals till melted. Set aside to cool a bit while prepping other ingredients.
4. Whisk flour, Parmesan, herbs, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine.
5. After buttermilk has been chilled in the freezer for at least 10 minutes, combine it with the melted butter. Stir with a fork until butter forms small clumps or globules.
6. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula just until all flour is incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of the bowl. The dough will be fairly stiff and not super wet. If the dough is wet and loose, add more flour 1 tablespoons at a time, stirring to combine, until dough is fairly stiff.

7. With an ice cream scoop (see Café Tips for sizes) or a spoon, scoop the dough in rounded mounds onto the prepared sheet pan, spacing about 1½-2 inches apart.

8. Place in oven and bake until tops are light golden brown and crisp, 10 to 18 minutes. Check after about 8 minutes and every few minutes after that, as every oven is different.

For finishing:

1. Towards the end of the baking time, melt the one tablespoon of butter and stir in the rosemary and parsley. Brush the tops of the hot biscuits with melted herb butter. Serve and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

See Café Tips above in the post for more detailed instructions and tips.

Nutritional information is for medium-size breakfast biscuits.

These biscuits freezer well. To freeze, place biscuits on a sheet pan or a plate spaced at least a half-inch from each other. Freeze till frozen, then transfer biscuits to a ziplock bag or air-tight storage container.

Calories 215kcal

Fat 12g

Saturated fat 8g

Trans fat 1g

Cholesterol 32mg

Sodium 399mg

Potassium 152mg

Carbohydrates 22g

Fiber 1g

Sugar 2g

Protein 5g

Vitamin A 455%

Vitamin C 1%

Calcium 110%

Iron 1%