How to Make Easy Whole Wheat Sourdough Drop Biscuits

Made with whole wheat flour and without much fuss, these easy sourdough drop biscuits are a delicious, hearty companion to any meal.

Once you get into the habit of sourdough baking, you know that you have to plan ahead for your recipes. Like, 12-18 hours ahead.

Of course, that’s mostly hands-off time while you wait for the sourdough starter to do its magic through the dough. But it’s time you have to plan for, nonetheless.

So what do you do when you suddenly realize that you need some bread or something bread-ish for an upcoming meal, but you’ve only got 6-8 hours?

You could rush a loaf of bread and just deal with whatever rise you get, knowing you’ll probably end up with less than stellar results.

Or, you could go the super easy route and whip up a batch of these whole wheat sourdough drop biscuits. There’s no kneading required, you won’t roll a thing out, and you’ll really just mix, wait, drop, and bake.

Split sourdough drop biscuit with butter

Sourdough Biscuits: Even Easier to Make Than Sourdough Bread

Next to my basic sourdough sandwich bread, I probably make sourdough biscuits with my starter most often.

Even if you haven’t mastered a great sourdough bread loaf yet, these biscuits are really quite simple to make once you have a healthy sourdough starter.

In fact, I might argue that they’re even easier to make than bread. You don’t have to knead anything and the recipe is very forgiving.

If you add too much liquid and your dough is a little more like pancake batter, don’t worry. You’ll just get what we affectionately call “biscuit cookies.”

If you have too much flour in your dough and it’s a bit stiff, you won’t end up with bricks. The biscuits might be a little hockey puck-esque, but a little butter will fix that.

We love these tasty biscuits with soups, stews, egg dishes, meat dishes, vegetable dishes, and really, anything! I always try to make extra for the next meal, whether that’s breakfast the next day or supper later that night.

But they’re so good I usually have to ration them off to make sure my crew doesn’t eat them all in one sitting. Even when they’re biscuit cookies.

Easy Whole Wheat Sourdough Drop Biscuits Recipe

These drop biscuits are heartier than the light, flaky, white biscuits from restaurants. However, they’re full of delicious sourdough flavor and have a light texture for a whole grain food. And they couldn’t be easier!

All the recipe details and photos follow, but be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for a printable recipe card.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups whole wheat flour or 3 cups whole wheat and 1 cup whole oat flour (I freshly grind mine in my WonderMill)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I use Real Salt)
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup active sourdough starter
  • 1 1/4 cup milk, buttermilk, or thinned yogurt (I usually use sour milk in mine)

Instructions

1. Stir together the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2. Cut in the butter with a fork, two knives, or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles crumbs. If the butter is hard when you’re cutting it in, you can use your hands to quickly and evenly rub it into the flour.

3. Stir together the sourdough starter and milk in a mixing cup. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the starter and milk into the well.

4. Gently fold in the flour from the outside of the bowl into the well in the center so that the dough is evenly combined but not overmixed.

Sourdough drop biscuit dough

5. Allow it to rise and ferment for 6-8 hours.

6. Preheat the oven to 400*F. Carefully scoop the dough onto a greased baking sheet, taking care to not deflate the biscuits as much as possible.

sourdough drop biscuits before baking

7. Bake at 400*F for about 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack until you’re ready to eat them.

Of course, we like these best with a nice layer of butter on them. Really, isn’t everything better with butter?

This recipe makes about 2 dozen biscuits, depending on the size of each biscuit. 

Be sure to give these a try if you are looking for more ways to enjoy that wonderful concoction called sourdough starter! Especially on those days when you forgot about that longer prep time.

More Sourdough Recipes to Try

If you enjoyed this recipe, be sure to check out my other sourdough recipes. Hopefully they give you great results and enough confidence to branch out and try making up your own sourdough goodies!

Printable Recipe Card: Easy Whole Wheat Sourdough Drop Biscuits

Split sourdough drop biscuit with butter

Easy Whole Wheat Sourdough Drop Biscuits

Yield: 24
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Additional Time: 6 hours
Total Time: 6 hours 40 minutes

Made with whole wheat flour and without much fuss, these easy sourdough drop biscuits are a delicious, hearty companion to any meal.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon quality sea salt
  • 1/2 cup butter (one stick)
  • 1 cup active sourdough starter
  • 1 1/4 cup milk, buttermilk, or thinned yogurt

Instructions

  1. Stir together the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl, then cut in the butter with a fork, pastry blender, or two knives.
  2. Stir together the sourdough starter and milk in a large mixing cup.
  3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the starter and milk to the well. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until it is just combined, taking care not to overmix.
  4. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise and ferment for 6-8 hours.
  5. Butter a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 400°F. Carefully scoop out the biscuit dough with a spoon (taking care to not deflate the dough) and place on the baking sheet.
  6. Bake in the preheated oven for around 20-30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack until ready to serve.

Notes

You can also use 1 cup of oat or rye flour in place of 1 cup of whole wheat flour. Oat flour may require an extra 1/4 cup of milk.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 135Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 12mgSodium: 194mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 2gSugar: 1gProtein: 4g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated based on ingredients and may not reflect the final product or fermentation process.

Are you a fan of drop biscuits or cut-out biscuits?

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    4 Comments

    1. Hello!
      I tried this recipe and I am not sure if it came out right….are the balls prior to baking supposed to be fragile and dryish? Do you know what I may have done wrong?
      thank you!
      Sabina

      1. Hi Sabina. The biscuit dough will firm up after it ferments since the flour will slowly absorb more moisture over the hours. But it sounds like yours might have been too dry. If they were really dense or hard after baking, they likely needed more moisture. There’s definitely an art to baking because air humidity, altitude, and flour characteristics can all change how a dough behaves. I’ve been baking for years and still have my flops with faithful recipes! 🙂 If you want to try again, aim to have your biscuit dough in between thick pancake batter and bread dough, either by adding extra liquid or using less flour. I hope that helps!

    2. Hi Kristen!
      I was planning on trying out your drop biscuits. They look delicious! But I was wondering, how many hours before baking do you feed your sourdough starter?

      1. Hi Mari! It will depend on how long it’s been since I fed it last. But usually, I pull it out of the fridge, feed it, and give it 3-4 hours to perk up again.