These delicious, healthy, low-fat yogurt biscuits are tender and fluffy. They're a fast and easy low-calorie biscuit recipe to make in under 30 minutes with only 2 ingredients or 5 ingredients if you don't have self-rising flour.
The perfect no-guilt addition to your healthy low-fat diet with about 0.5 grams of fat and 137 calories per biscuit.
🥣Ingredients
- Nonfat yogurt—regular or Greek
- Self-rising flour—or flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda
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Featured Comment from Rita: "
Love, love, love these biscuits!!!!"
I surprised my wife with these 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.
They taste excellent and have a fluffy texture; they make a great side dish for many meals. I had called this recipe "zero-fat," but it is almost but not quite right since there is a trace of fat in flour and "fat-free" yogurt.
👨🍳How to Make Healthy Biscuits—Step-by-Step
1. Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° regular.
2. Use 2 cups of self-rising flour or combine AP flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add 1 ¼ cups of nonfat yogurt. Fold in until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.
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.
Variations
Biscuits are great, but can we take it further? Try my almost famous Healthier Sausage Gravy and Biscuits using these biscuits with turkey sausage gravy for a low-fat American classic. And for dessert, check out my Low-Fat Blueberry Scones.
Serving suggestions
Serve with low-fat meat recipes like Seared and Bake Chicken Breasts, Turkey Tenderloin, or Seared Tenderloin.
They are also delicious with healthy chili recipes, such as Healthy White Chicken Chili, Texas Style Chili, or Crock Pot Turkey Chili.
How do they taste?
There is a slight yogurt tang, not very noticeable except if you know it has yogurt. It is a little more with Greek yogurt, but it is not bad, and most 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 make this a "for two" or "family size" recipe
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.
❄️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 a touch from the zero-fat yogurt (depending on the brand.)
With my ingredients, the total recipe is 540 grams and has 4.1 gms of fat for 0.76 gms per 100 grams. FDA rules say there is 0.65 gms of fat per 100 gms can be called zero. Per biscuit, they 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. Baking soda was originally included. In modern times, commercial versions mainly adjust the baking powder to compensate for the lack of baking soda. If I make my own, I go with the original version
It is a bit "old-school" and was a way for home cooks to speed up making biscuits, scones, pancakes, and other quick-bread-based recipes. Bisquik™ is similar but contains some fats to replace the oil/butter component in most recipes.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
📖 Recipe
Healthy Low-Fat Biscuits
Video Slideshow
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 baking soda
- 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, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt.
- Add 1 ¼ cups of nonfat yogurt. Fold in until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. You may need a tablespoon or so of milk if you use Greek 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 biscuits 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.
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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. But it will have a stronger yogurt flavor and need a touch of milk. It may vary by brand, but 1-2 tablespoons 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.
Laura in Colorado says
I really love this recipe, and have been using it for a couple years. Biscuits are a high fat food, and this has been an excellent low fat substitute for me, time and again. I don't have to eat fat free, I just find I feel better when I eat lower fat foods. One of these biscuits combined with a low fat turkey sausage patty makes an excellent sub for a sausage biscuit without leaving me feeling like I ate a brick. Thanks!
Pam says
I made these tonight and only had vanilla yogurt on hand. It worked out ok, but will be glad to try it with plain. Grateful to have this recipe to lower my numbers. Breads are my weakness!
Rebekah says
I have been making these with white whole wheat flour and I add a little sugar. They are excellent - though not really “biscuits”....I love them!
Mary Richardson says
Made for the first time with Greek yogurt fat free
and whole wheat flour. Made 9 big biscuits. A little tough cuz I overworked. Kept adding more yogurt to get it to come together and a little milk. I will try again.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Mary,
Welcome to the blog.
Whole wheat flour will always take more liquid and the yogurt won't quit do it. Start with about a tablespoon of milk and adjust from there. Also, with the whole wheat, they will be a lot more dense—more than I would want.
Dan
kye says
Just made these (drop style) this eve to have with my homemade veggie soup. They were very delicious and a keeper recipe! Light and fluffy inside and a great crunch outside. The only thing I had to do different was to use the low fat plain yogurt I had on hand (Kroger brand), so mine aren't zero fat. One of these will be delightful tomorrow morning heated up a bit with a drizzle of honey to go with a hot cup of coffee!
Thanks so much for sharing the recipe Dr Dan!
Cathy says
Made these with Greek yogurt and added 2T of milk- turned out great! I patted the dough out to 3/4 inch and cut the rectangle into 8 biscuits. I’ll make these again and again- thank you!
Yasir says
I wasn’t expecting much, but pleasantly surprised that the biscuits tasted good! I used whole wheat flour and it worked out just fine.
Rita says
Love, love, love these biscuits!!!! I prepared exactly your recipe and found the drop method worked best and got the best end result! Thank you so much!
Coach says
Hi, what is the flour “adjustment” for using Greek yogurt? If less or more flour, how much?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Coach,
Welcome to the blog.
The main difference between Greek and regular yogurt will be the thickness due to the extra filtering of the Greek version which will concentrate more protein and will have a bit less fluid. So Greek is thicker and less moist. But there is some variability by brand.
So when using Greek yogurt, a bit less flour would be the general rule. If it gets too dry, you will have little rocks. You can add a bit more yogurt or a touch of milk if needed.
Dan
Denise Gooch says
All due respect, all people have different tastes. The biscuits tasted like baked flour with no taste and we're hard to swallow.
I followed the recipe. Is there anything that can be added to give them some flavor?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Denise,
Welcome to the blog.
A touch more salt will enhanse flavor usually. Garlic is a favorite at our house (about 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder). Other things that will add fat along with taste are cheese and butter.
Dan
Molly says
Sorry, but these are terrible! Too sour, chewy, dry... Not like regular biscuits and a really bad substitute. Thank you for offering a healthier option but next time I'll skip the trouble with making biscuits if the usual version isn't a smart choice.
Quinn says
Hello, could we substitute oat flour instead of white flour? or will they not come out with the flaky biscuit texture?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Quinn,
Welcome to the blog.
I have never used oat flour for anything so no idea. But this is not "flaky" biscuit anyway.
Dan
Laura says
Oat flour doesn't have any gluten, so it will impact the crumb and texture significantly. A gluten free flour blend will get better results if you need them to be gluten free.
Claudia says
Mine were extremely bland. Will make again but this time will add a bit of garlic salt ( instead of salt ) or a few tablespoons of monk fruit to make them sweet
JJ says
Hi there I did two batches side by side as I am not a big yogurt or Greek yogurt fan and I can taste it in just about any recipe... one was to a T recipe batch 2 I used one cup of cottage cheese(blended)and a quarter cup of applesauce. both were good but I much prefer batch to as it didn't have the Tang of yogurt I'm just throwing it out there for an option still fat free cuz used fat free cottage cheese it just has a mellower taste 🤣🤣🤣
Mary says
How can this Zero Fat Biscuit recipe have 1 gram of fat (saturated no less) as shown on the nutrition label when none of the ingredients have any fat?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Mary,
Good eye. There was a software update a few months ago and the database also changed. It is Europen so rounding rules are not set like the USA. By manual calculations, there is 0.44 grams of fat with 0.35 being saturated per biscuit (that is zero by USFDA rules since less than 0.5grams are rounded down). Most of that is from flour which can vary some by brand but a bit by the yogurt and a touch in the baking powder. I have no idea why it would kick one down and the other up. I'm contacting the developer for his attention. I have manually fixed it to USA rules.
When I originally did calculations manually years ago, this was about 0.2gms. Different database I guess.
Dan
linda ehikhamen says
Hi, I just tried this recipe tonight, I was craving shortbread with my strawberries. I only had 6% Balkan yogurt, but they turned out AMAZING!!
Craig says
Good Recipe!
I tried this and just cooked them a little longer. I like the outside crispy anyway. The biscuits are great! I dreaded soup without my regular kick-ass baking powder biscuits. Because she is watching her fat, I went looking for a low-fat recipe. I tried one and they were excellent.
Sue says
I tried this and thought the flavor was good. However, the insides was still a little raw. It was kinda wet and sticky while it was golden brown outside. Is there a way to fix this?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Sue,
Welcome to the blog.
The internal texture is softer but should not be raw.
Why is it happening?
1. Oven runs a bit hot.
2. Variability in ingredients
3. Too thick
First, what will not work. Do not just increase temperature or cook longer if the outside is done. By the time you get the center done, the outside is overcooked.
Solutions (probably both will help a lot)
1) Lower oven temperature by 25 degrees and cook longer.
2) Make a thinner biscuit.
Final note. I suspect your oven is running too hot. Get an oven thermometer (about $10) and check it. It will save a lot of ruined food down the road.
Dan
Moriah Hatfield says
I tried these biscuits and for some reason they tasted really good but were a little dense. What could I have done wrong?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Moriah,
Welcome to the blog and sorry for the delay getting back to you.
They are not flaky but are a bit fluffy. If you want, a tablespoon of milk or water will make a lighter dough.
Dan
Susan says
PS. I used Greek non-fat yogurt which radically reduces the carbs!
Kat says
Hi,
Can I use plain whole milk yogurt?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Kat,
Welcome to the blog.
Sure, obviously the nutrition would be different and not low fat.
Dan
Susan says
These biscuits are amazing!! I didn't think biscuits could possibly be good without fat but they are fabulous and so quick and easy to make. Thanks!