Cinnamon Sugar Butter Swim Biscuits are buttermilk biscuits baked in melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon and topped with more cinnamon and sugar. They are baked to golden brown with a fluffy interior and slightly crispy exterior. Just wait until you bite into one of these biscuits (I love the caramelized bottom crust, especially)! They are so buttery, full of cinnamon flavor, and delicious! It all starts with my butter swim biscuits, which you will want to try, too!
Ingredients & Substitutions
Sugar: You will need both granulated and brown sugar for this recipe. Use granulated sugar in the dough and on top of the biscuits. Mix brown sugar with the melted butter and cinnamon.
Buttermilk: We can’t have buttermilk biscuits without buttermilk! If you don’t have any on hand, make homemade buttermilk. I do not recommend substituting milk, as you will miss the tanginess.
Butter: Using unsalted butter gives you more control over salt added to recipes. If using salted butter, you may want to lessen the amount of salt in the biscuits. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon with melted butter for the biscuits to bake in.
Cinnamon: There is just the right amount of cinnamon flavor in each bite. Add cinnamon to the melted butter and add some more on top of the biscuits.
Can I Make The Biscuits In A Different Pan?
Sure! A 9×9-inch or 11×7-inch baking dish will work for this recipe, but the biscuits will be thinner. Watch the biscuits closely if using a different pan. Adjust the baking time as needed.
Storing & Reheating Butter Swim Biscuits
Although best served fresh on the day of baking, the biscuits will last for a couple of days when stored properly. To store:
- Allow the biscuits to cool to room temperature.
- Wrap tightly with aluminum foil. (Using plastic wrap could make the biscuits soggy, especially if they are not completely cooled.)
- Store at room temperature for a day or two. (For longer storage, you could refrigerate the biscuits. However, that could dry them out faster.)
- Warm in the oven at the lowest temperature for up to 10 minutes when ready to serve.
Can I Freeze Butter Swim Biscuits?
Yes! To freeze the biscuits, first, let them cool completely. Next, wrap the biscuits tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and then in a freezer-safe storage bag. If they are wrapped tightly and air can’t get to them, they should remain fresh for a couple of months. Thaw biscuits at room temperature.
Cinnamon Sugar Butter Swim Biscuits
Ingredients
Biscuits
- 2 ½ cups (312.5 g) all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups (490 g) buttermilk
- ½ cup (1 stick / 113 g) unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cinnamon Biscuit Topping (optional)
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, tablespoon of granulated sugar, and salt.
- Pour in the buttermilk. Stir until mostly combined, being careful not to overwork the dough.
- In a small bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
- Pour the melted butter mixture into an 8×8-inch baking dish. Place the dough on top of the butter. Using a spatula (or your hands), evenly spread the dough out to the edges of the pan.
- In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the mixture over the biscuits.
- Score the unbaked dough into 9 equal squares (3×3 pattern). Bake for 28-30 minutes, or until the the biscuits are golden brown.
- After removing the biscuits from the oven, sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture on top. (optional)
- Serve.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
What the Test Kitchen had to say about this recipe:
Autumn
You won't believe how easy it is to make these! The flavor is out of this world! Buttery and sweet and so soft and fluffy!
Elizabeth
These biscuits would be delicious with a cup of coffee or served as a dessert! I love the 'crispier' top and bottom with the fluffy inside. And, the cinnamon and sugar do shine through, which I love.
Bella
Wow, these are so fluffy inside! The butter mixture beautifully coats the bottom of the biscuit. So good and buttery.
Annabelle
These are so tasty! They have a caramel-like quality to the bottom crust, and they're so easy to make!
Selena
These are so delicious. I almost felt like I was having dessert! Simple but quite special!
Can these cinnamon biscuits be made ahead of time, the night before? Or are they best freshly baked in the morning?
Sure- here is what it says in the blog post above.
Storing & Reheating Butter Swim Biscuits
Although best served fresh on the day of baking, the biscuits will last for a couple of days when stored properly. To store:
Allow the biscuits to cool to room temperature.
Wrap tightly with aluminum foil. (Using plastic wrap could make the biscuits soggy, especially if they are not completely cooled.)
Store at room temperature for a day or two. (For longer storage, you could refrigerate the biscuits. However, that could dry them out faster.)
Warm in the oven at the lowest temperature for up to 10 minutes when ready to serve.
Very easy to make and tasted great! I really like the texture of the biscuit, it was light and fluffy, the bottom & top crust – yum! I did find it challenging to spread the batter, it is a wet batter, but I’ll definitely be making this again and again!
I made these today. The only change I made was adding more cinnamon.
The dough was really a batter (I’m wondering if 2 cups of buttermilk is possibly a mistype). There was no cutting into any shapes before baking because the batter was way way too wet (almost like a pancake batter). I was surprised that it still cooked up in the amount of time recommended, but I wasn’t thrilled with the texture. It was more like a coffee cake than a biscuit.
Despite the fact that I added significantly more cinnamon, there was very little flavor. I ended up putting jam on it, and it was better, but we were disappointed in the final result.
Respectfully, we have made these several times testing variations to the recipe- flavor, texture, and consistency. This recipe, when properly executed, bakes up exactly as the pictures indicate. (Video coming soon!) They are a traditional butter swim biscuit with an amazing caramelized edge and light, fluffy interior.
I will try to trouble-shoot this for you, as these biscuits are absolutely delicious.
Measuring inaccuracies: Despite mentioning that you followed the recipe, you may have accidentally mis-measured one or more ingredients. This could include incorrectly measuring the flour or buttermilk, leading to a wetter dough consistency than intended. Two cups of buttermilk is correct, as evidenced by the 5 separate butter swim recipes I have on this blog alone. All excellent recipes.
Oven temperature: You mentioned that the biscuits cooked in the recommended time, despite the wet batter-like consistency. It’s possible that your oven runs hotter than indicated, which could have caused the biscuits to cook faster but with a less-than-ideal texture.
Baking dish size: The recipe calls for an 8×8-inch baking dish, but if you used a larger dish, the batter may have spread out too thinly, resulting in a more cake-like texture instead of individual biscuits.
Omission of the cinnamon sugar topping: You did not mention sprinkling the cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the biscuits after removing them from the oven. This step could have added additional flavor and sweetness, enhancing the overall taste experience.
Adding more cinnamon: While personal preference is important in cooking, adding significantly more cinnamon may have affected the texture and taste of the biscuits. Too much cinnamon can overpower other flavors and may also affect the structure of the dough/batter.
Flavor balance: This could be due to the overpowering nature of the additional cinnamon, which might have masked other flavors. It was tested to have the perfect amount, so no additional cinnamon needs to be added.
I just made your butter swim biscuits and wanted to try these next. I think I like them better than the original, if that is possible, both are great and have a time and place at my table. Excellent, excellent, excellent recipe, I can’t rate it high enough!! 10/10
I used to make these
But Added cheese and onion. But we call them monkey bread. An EZ& Yummerz
Thank You.
GR8 AND TASTY RECIPE GOOD ENOUGH FOR FINICKY EATERS!!! PLUS AT A GR8 DEAL
Going to do these in the morning. My family loved the butter swim so I’ll knock their socks off with this change up of the recipe thank you for the tips before I make them again.
I used a 10 / 10 PAN. It came out perfect.
Also wound up with a very wet batter. Though it baked up in the time indicated, there was no scoring to be done. The crispy cinnamon sugar bits were very good. The biscuity bits felt bland if you didn’t get much of the cinnamon sugar bits in a bite. Maybe more salt?
I did find it stuck pretty well to the bottom of the pan, making biscuit removal a dicey prospect.
Hi Mike! Thanks for letting me know what issues you ran into. It sounds to me that you maybe added the melted butter in with your dough which is why it was too wet. The melted butter needs to be in the pan, then the dough is poured on top of it. Not only does this ensure an amazing butter swim biscuit, but it also means nothing sticks to the pan. However, if the butter was added to the dough, the dough would be too wet and it may stick.
Hope that helps!