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.
Lunagal says
Like many I was looking for a low fat biscuit recipe to reduce my husbands fat intake when he has his beloved biscuits and gravy. Not only did I solve that problem but they are also a good substitute for a traditional English scone. Being a Brit, my Mum’s scones (made with butter of course) were always a favorite of mine and her go to if family or friends turned up unexpectedly for a cuppa. Thank you!
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Lunagal,
Welcome to the blog.
Glad it works well for you. I do have a specific low-fat biscuit and gravy recipe that drops the fat in the dish from 34 gm to just 3 by using this recipe, low-fat turkey sausage, and a low-fat gravy method. https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/healthier-sausage-gravy-biscuits/
Thanks so much for the note and rating. Enjoy one of Mum's scones for me.
Dan
Shannon says
How is the sodium content so high if there’s only a half teaspoon of salt in the recipe?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Shannon,
Welcome to the blog.
The answer is about a third of the sodium is from the baking soda and some from the yogurt. I did just run this recipe though my new calculator and you will see lower values.
Dan
Joy Wolfe says
I found your recipe this afternoon before I started supper. I had ham with greens and pintos and felt like we needed a light biscuit to go with it all! I made mine with plain greek yogurt and added just a little milk to make a sticky dough. Then I dropped the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet and rounded out and smoothed the dough just a little. Mine baked in 10 minutes. I brushed a little melted light butter on the tops when they came out of the oven. They were great! My husband loved them and had no idea they were made with Greek yogurt. Thanks for a great recipe!
DrDan says
Hi Joy,
Welcome to the blog.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Sammie Ferrell says
I didn't have any yogurt so I decided to use same amount sour creme. I would love to know how that changed the nutritional values since I want to use this in my meal planning menus I do for a customer.
DrDan says
Hi Sammie,
Welcome to the site.
I had a sour cream version but removed it last year since I felt this one was much better. I felt there was a bit of an odd taste in my version. I do remember that with nonfat sour cream, it was more calories for worse results.
You can enter your version in several online recipe calculators. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator is just one available. It will depend on the version of sour cream you use of course.
Hope that helps some.
Dan
Grandi says
I was looking for a low fat canned biscuit brand when I stumbled upon this recipe. The comments frequently state fluffy/chewy as opposed to flaky/crumbly, which will be perfect for topping a healhier version of the chicken pot pie I’m planning. Made from scratch is always best! Thanks so much for sharing!
DrDan says
Hi Grandi,
Welcome to the blog.
I'm sure this would be fine on a chicken pot pie. I prefer a little flakey but that requires butter.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Rcmarti says
Just made the recipe and they came out great! I cut the recipe in half so got only four biscuits (see posted photo) but its good for just two people. I used regular AP flour so they were a little more dense and I did sift the flour, but would like to try using White Lily flour which is the best for making biscuits. I’ll see tomorrow how well they reheat. Thanks Dr Dan for a great fat free biscuit recipe!
DrDan says
Welcome to the blog.
This is an interesting recipe for me. It just came together and worked. You can also do this as drop biscuits which is what I usually do since I'M lazy.
If you're a fan of biscuits and gravy, I use it here for a low fat version that drops the fat by 90% https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/healthier-sausage-gravy-biscuits/
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Kate says
I baked these tonight and felt compelled to come and leave a comment to say thank you for the recipe! I stumbled across it while looking for a British biscuit recipe (cookies), these are what we’d call scones in the UK but they looked so good I had to try them. I have gallstones and haven’t tasted a real scone in about two years! These were more spongy than crumbly but they taste so good I don’t mind. I added a little low fat cheese and a pinch of rosemary to the recipe and they came out really well, you’d never dream they were made with yogurt. I’m going to try a sweet version with raisins next. Thank you again!
DrDan says
Hi Kate,
Welcome to the blog.
You are right, they are a little different texture but still, quite acceptable to me for the low-fat result. My son just had his GB out in Philidelphia. Life is better without stones.
Dan
Ruth Pilon says
I gave it a try. Sorry Dr. Dan, I thought they tasted flat, like eating flour and water.
Laurie says
I love this recipe! I always use Greek yogurt and I have never had an issue. I do cook them in a lower oven (375) and for 15-20 minutes and they are perfect.
DrDan says
Hi Laurie,
Welcome to the blog.
Glad it works well for you. I think the Greek Yogurt is fine if you like a bit of that taste.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
SB says
Ive made these SO many times. So easy and always turn out AMAZING!
Brooke Morrison says
Just wanted to say thank you for this recipe! My husband is on a reduced-fat diet and has been missing his biscuits and gravy in a bad way. I made these with gravy made from turkey sausage and skim milk and it turned out great! The biscuits were a hit! I will definitely be making these again.
Aish says
Hello. I'm planning to make these biscuits soon. Which one gives crispier results? Using yeast or using baking powder? Thanks.
DrDan says
Hi Aish,
Biscuits are generally crispier than a yeast roll but then again they are separate things. I have not and would not use yeast in this recipe. The closest thing I have to this in a yeast roll is https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/60-minute-yeast-dinner-rolls/ and that does have some fat.
Emily says
Very Good Butterless Biscuits! These slightly differ in texture in comparison to full-fat biscuits, but you still maintain the light/airy puff, and can indulge without guilt! I personally used low-fat, plain yogurt, kept the temperature at 400 degrees Fahrenheit and baked for fourteen minutes opposed to twelve, and they came out perfect! (Just make certain that you don't overmix, I incorporated a dribble of non-fat milk in order to pull the dough together, and avoid overmixing the yogurt into the dough.) Five Stars-- will definitely make again!! :)
Sheri says
I made these for dinner and my husband was delighted. Soooo good. I used non-fat Greek yogurt and self rising flour and am very happy with the results. There will be biscuits in our lives again, all kinds of biscuits. Thank you so much.
DrDan says
Hi Sheri,
This is a surprising recipe to me.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Sandy says
O. M. G. Made these tonight, no changes. They were wonderful!
Had one with dinner and had one made into strawberry shortcake. Amazing!
DrDan says
Hi Sandy
Thanks for the note. I'm still amazed this comes out so well. I was going to add a little sugar for the shortcake version, I just haven't got there yet.
Dan
Tammy says
I have light sour cream at home. I wonder if I could make this using sour cream.
DrDan says
Probably although I never have. Plain yogurt and sour cream are frequently used to substitute for each other.
Dan
DrDan says
Hi again Tammy,
I now remember doing sour cream biscuits years ago. They were ok but had a distant taste.
Dan