These Healthy Biscuits are fluffy, tender, and almost fat-free, making them the ideal low-calorie biscuits for your healthy diet. Made with only non-fat yogurt and self-rising flour, these low-fat yogurt biscuits contain only 0.5 grams of fat and 137 calories each.
🥣Ingredients
Nonfat yogurt—regular or Greek
Self-rising flour—or flour, salt, and baking powder
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Featured Comment by Linda in Boston:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"This was a great recipe, and easy. I have struggled for years with butter-based recipes and was never satisfied. But these are great - soft and slightly chewy... "
I surprised my wife with these low-calorie biscuits, but they were cuts instead of drop biscuits (my usual). Besides being cut biscuits, she could not tell the difference even after being told.
These yogurt biscuits have an excellent taste and a fluffy texture. Will almost zero fat, they make a great side dish for almost any meal and are the perfect guilt-free addition to a healthy, low-fat, low-calorie diet.
For other biscuit options, check out Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Cornbread Biscuits, or Grilled Biscuits.
👨🍳How to Make Healthy Biscuits—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° regular. Make self-rising flour, if needed, with AP flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Add yogurt to the flour mixture and mix until combined, but do not over-mix.
4. Make 8-drop or cut biscuits
5. Place your biscuits (dropped or cut) on a prepared baking pan.
6. Be sure the oven is fully preheated, then bake until golden brown—about 12-15 minutes.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
👨🍳Make them your way—ingredient options
Important! Always use a fully preheated oven for biscuits.
Bake on baking sheets or pans, such as cast-iron skillets. Leave a little space between the biscuits for crispy edges.
I generally make my own "self-rising" flour. For years, baking powder and soda were both included in the recipe—a throwback to many years ago. Baking soda is no longer considered necessary, so I have removed it.
Whole wheat flour will require some milk or more yogurt for hydration and will have a poorer rise.
Use aluminum-free baking powder. The aluminum caused a bitter aftertaste for many people.
To cut biscuits, pat the dough about ¾ inch thick on a floured surface. Cut 8 biscuits with a floured 2-inch cutter, pressing straight down; do not twist. Rework scraps and continue until all the dough is used. A 2 ½ cutter will make 6 biscuits and take a minute or two longer to cook.
Unflavored yogurt is recommended. You can use regular, non-fat yogurt or Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt tends to be a bit dryer so that you may need more or a splash of milk.
Like any biscuit recipe, almost any herb or spice can be added—garlic is my favorite.
🤔Variations
Add a bit of sugar to make a sweet biscuit, and top it with fresh fruit for a sweet and low-calorie dessert.
Biscuits are great, but can we take them further? For a low-fat American classic, try my almost famous Healthier Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, which uses these biscuits with low-fat turkey sausage gravy. For dessert, check out my Low-Fat Blueberry Scones.
🤔How are yogurt biscuits different?
There is a slight yogurt tang, which is not very noticeable except if you know it has yogurt. It is a little more with Greek yogurt, but it is not bad, and many people won't notice.
Second, they are soft and fluffy but not flaky. If you want flaky, you must cut in some butter. I miss the flaky a little, but I will live with it for zero fat.
Third, the outside is a little firmer.
↕️How to adjust the number of biscuits
This recipe is easy to adjust to the number of biscuits you want.
- Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings to the number of biscuits you want.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
- Cook for the same amount of time.
🍽️Serving suggestions
Serve with low-fat meat recipes like Seared and Bake Chicken Breasts, Turkey Tenderloin, or Seared Pork Tenderloin.
They are also delicious with healthy chili recipes, such as Healthy White Chicken Chili, Texas Style Chili, or Crock Pot Turkey Chili.
❄️Storage
Stores well-sealed airtight at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can extend that to a week if you store them in the refrigerator.
You can also freeze them tightly sealed individually for 3-4 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
❓FAQs
There is a trace of fat per serving. Flour has about 1.2 grams of fat per cup (who would have known?), and there is a touch from the zero-fat yogurt (depending on the brand).
With my ingredients, the total recipe weighs 540 grams and contains 4.1 grams of fat or 0.76 grams per 100 grams. FDA rules say 0.65 grams of fat per 100 grams can be zero, so officially, there is almost but not quite zero fat. There are about 0.5 grams of fat and 137 calories per biscuit.
Self-rising flour is a standard combination of all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Originally, baking soda was included. However, modern commercial versions have adjusted the baking powder to compensate for the lack of baking soda. I have eliminated baking soda from this recipe.
Self-rising flour is very "old-school" and was a way for home cooks to speed up the preparation of biscuits, scones, pancakes, and other quick-bread recipes. Bisquik™ is similar but contains some fats to replace the oil/butter component in most recipes.
📖 Recipe
Healthy Biscuits
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Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup non-fat regular or Greek yogurt
- 2 cups self-rising flour
Substitute for self-rising flour.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° regular. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper, a silicon mat, or a light coat of PAM cooking spray.
- Use 2 cups of self-rising flour or combine 2 cups AP flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and ½ teaspoon salt.
- Add 1 ¼ cups of nonfat yogurt. Fold in until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. If you use Greek yogurt, you may need a tablespoon or so of milk or more yogurt.
- The easiest next step is to do 8-drop biscuits. If you want to cut biscuits, spread the dough on a floured surface about ¾ inches thick. Use a biscuit cutter and make six 2 ½ inch or eight 2-inch biscuits.
- Place your biscuits (dropped or cut) on the prepared baking pan.
- Be sure the oven is fully preheated for a good rise of the biscuits. Bake until golden brown—about 12-15 minutes.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- The exact nutrition values depend entirely on the ingredients you choose. Different brands may have different nutritional values and change their product over time.
- Greek yogurt works fine. However, it will have a stronger yogurt flavor and need a touch of milk or more yogurt. It may vary by brand, but 1-2 tablespoons of milk is the probable range.
- Store sealed at room temperature for 2-3 days, refrigerate for a week, or freeze for 3 months.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's Note: This article was originally published on March 16, 2013. It has been updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help with navigation.
Boni Watkins says
I and my husband love the biscuits made with plain yogurt! They are so Light and fluffy. I will be making them by your recipe all the time! Thank you for sharing!
Penny says
My body thanks you for creating a nonfat biscuit!! My cholesterol spiked and my doc has ordered a low fat diet.
The biscuits are just the way I like them... not fluffy and not soggy, a perfect biscuit! I made 1/2 unbleached flour and 1/2 whole white wheat and enjoyed the hearty flavor. The top crust turned brown but not hard and they taste good. I'm sure my family will load them up with butter but that's better than baking in the butter! I baked them on parchment paper cuz I hate spray oil.
4.5/5!! It will be my go to biscuit recipe!
Iris says
Just made these - they are light, fluffy and have a wonderful crispy bottom to them. Finally, I can make biscuits. I made them just as the recipe stated. I did use spray coconut oil on the pan. They are very satisfying. Thank you. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes. 5/5
Mr. M says
Wow! These are seriously good. Every bit as good as those loaded with fat. Thank you for this amazing recipe! This will be a staple in our household!
DrDan says
Hi Di and Mr. M
Thanks for the notes. I discovered to take pictures even with "experiments" like this. It just worked out so well
Dan
Di says
Tried this recipe today and the results were amazing!!!! Thank you so much........5 stars
Trish says
Have you thought about using a butter extract for that buttery flavor?
DrDan says
I thought about it but I don't usually keep it around. A little would be nice.
Thanks for the note.
DrDan
Liz says
I only had a single serve cup of ff Greek yogurt and self-rising flour. So I halved the recipe and only added 1 tsp of baking powder to the flour. I had to use 2 TBSP of milk because I was a bit short on the Greek yogurt and the batter was too dry. It made 4 good sized drop biscuits and cooked perfectly in 12 min on a double layer baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. The texture was a bit chewier than old fashioned-very fattening biscuits but they were quite good! Not too dry and light and fluffy. Thanks for the recipe!
jim says
I have made these twice now. It is easier to make them right than to make them wrong. The first batch I over kneaded the dough, rolled it out, then made about a dozen round dough balls that cooked up like bricks. They barely rose, and were basically pretty bad.
So I decided to try it again. I barely kneaded the dough, just fully incorporated the ingredients, patted it down to about 1/2 inch, not 1/4, and cut the dough in 6 equal parts with a pizza cutter. Success!!!
Easy excellent recipe, over kneading, over handling the dough, = BAD, result, Sort of like pancakes, over beat pancake batter and yuk. Just get the batter together and leave it alone. THIs IS NOT like BREAD, knead, rise, punch, etc., I treated it that way the first go. OLD DOGS DO LEARN.
Thanks for the recipe.
DrDan says
Hi Jim,
Yep, old habits die hard. I have been doing biscuits for many years but initially over mixed. So one of the secrets is to just mix until all the flour is incorporated. If you are adding things like cheese, I put it in with the flour. The exception would be like blueberries (see zero fat blueberry scones) then just gently fold them in at the end.
Thanks for the comment.
DrDan
Vaness says
***** Delicious! and so very easy!!
Philip says
Awesome biscuits, easy to make, delicious taste. I added some herbs on top before baking. Will experiment with other flavours.
DrDan says
I have been adding garlic and some low-fat cheese (I know... not zero fat) Kind of a Red Lobster type thing.
Glad it worked well for you.
Thanks for the note.
DrDan
James Guzman says
I'm on a low fat diet due to gallstones. These are a delicious godsend! I'll be sharing this recipe with family and friends. Thank you!!
Jody says
These are the best. I knead mine 10 or 12 times. I will never use another biscuit recipe again
Ann says
Tried your recipe and enjoyed them quite a bit. Thank you for posting.
DrDan says
I did a low fat version of biscuits with sausage gravy that drops the calories by over 50% at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/healthier-sausage-gravy-biscuits/ if your interested.
Thanks for the note and rating.
DrDan
Dianna says
I was a bit skeptical as to how these would turn out. I gave them a try be a use of how fluffy they looked in the picture. Mine did not turn out fat free as I only had regular yogurt in my fridge. Additionally, I added half a table spoon of butter because...well...butter. These biscuits turned out fantastic. They we even better slathered in sausage gravy.
Rhonda says
Wow! For fat free, these are great! Thank you! Super simple. Only thing I suggest is adding the comment next to yogurt....do not use Greek style. I did and had to add a little milk to get the right biscuit consistency.