Three Dips That Work, and One That Doesn't
Start with the one that does not. Honey butter seems obvious and it is a mistake. These biscuits already have honey in them, and a honey dip makes the whole tray taste like one thing.
Hot honey works everywhere else because it lands on something savory. Hot honey on fried chicken. On pizza. On a wedge of cheese. The sweet heat needs something to push against, and on this tray the dips are that something.
Whipped chive cream cheese. Beat 8 oz of room-temperature cream cheese with 2 tablespoons of milk until light, then fold in 2 tablespoons of chopped chives and a pinch of salt. Cool and tangy, and it is the one that makes the heat taste like flavor instead of just temperature. If you make one dip, make this one.
Pimento cheese. 8 oz sharp cheddar shredded, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, a 4 oz jar of diced pimentos drained well, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, black pepper. Stir and chill at least 30 minutes so it firms up. Sharp and savory, and it belongs next to a Southern biscuit. Store-bought is completely fine.
Hot honey mustard. Whisk 1/4 cup Dijon with 3 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. This is the one that goes with the biscuit rather than against it, and it is what people want if there is ham or fried chicken on the table.
And put out cold salted butter in a small dish. Some people do not want a dip, and butter on a warm biscuit was never a bad idea.
Building the Tray
Two dozen bites serves about 8 people as an appetizer, or 12 if there is other food.
Warm is better than hot. Straight from the oven they are too fragile to pick up cleanly, and the dips slide off. Give them 10 minutes.
Put the dips in small bowls with the bites around them, not in a separate row. People take a biscuit and look for somewhere to put it, and the geometry should answer that.
A small dish of extra hot honey for drizzling is worth adding. Some people want more heat, and it lets them opt in rather than making the whole tray hotter.
Doubling is easy. Two pouches, two sheet pans, same 8 to 9 minutes if you bake them on separate racks and rotate once. About 48 bites.
What else goes on the tray: sliced sharp cheddar, cured ham or prosciutto, cornichons, grapes, spiced pecans. Anything salty holds its own against the sweet heat.
What Are Tiny Biscuits Called?
Mostly people just call them mini biscuits or biscuit bites, but the South has better names for everything.
Cat head biscuits are the opposite of these: big, rough, and roughly the size of a cat's head, which is where the name comes from. They are drop biscuits too, just enormous ones. Same method, different scoop.
Angel biscuits are a different animal, made with yeast as well as baking powder, which gives them a lighter, more roll-like texture.
Beaten biscuits are an old Southern technique where the dough is literally beaten with a mallet, which was how bakers developed structure before commercial leavening existed. Nobody misses them.
These are drop biscuits, dropped from a spoon instead of rolled and cut. Small ones do not have a special name, which seems like an oversight.
Mix-Ins, If You Want Them
The bites are good plain and the dips do the work. But if you want them more substantial, the back of the bag suggests folding things into the dough, and it is right.
Bacon. 4 slices cooked crisp and crumbled, folded in at the end. The best one with hot honey by a distance.
Sharp cheddar. 1/2 cup shredded. Add 1 minute to the bake.
Scallions. 3 chopped, folded in. Fresh and sharp against the heat.
Jalapeño. 1 seeded and finely diced, for people who want the heat to stop being subtle.
Fresh herbs. 2 tablespoons chopped chives, thyme, or rosemary.
Add mix-ins after the water, folded in with a few final stirs, so you are not overmixing the dough to distribute them.
Make-Ahead and Freezing
This is a party recipe, so the timing matters.
The dips are better made ahead. All three improve after a few hours in the fridge, and pimento cheese genuinely needs at least 30 minutes to firm up. Up to 3 days.
Bake the bites the day of if you can. They are best within a few hours.
If you must bake ahead, cool completely, store airtight at room temperature overnight, and refresh at 350 degrees F for 4 to 5 minutes before serving. That brings back most of the crisp edge.
The unbaked dough freezes well, and this is the better make-ahead. Drop the tablespoon mounds onto a sheet pan, freeze solid, then bag. Bake from frozen at 425 degrees F for 10 to 11 minutes. Freshly baked bites with no morning-of work.
Do not mix the dough ahead and refrigerate it. The leavening starts the moment the water goes in, and a rested dough bakes flat.
What These Contain
These bites contain milk and soy.
Milk comes from the buttermilk, butter powder, and whey in the mix. Soy comes from soy flour and soy lecithin. Both are core ingredients, not trace amounts, so this mix cannot be made dairy-free or vegan.
The dips add more dairy. Cream cheese, cheddar, and butter. The hot honey mustard is the only dairy-free one of the three.
If you need dairy-free, our Biscuit & Scone Mix contains no milk and no soy and lets you add your own fat and liquid. It makes a rolled and cut biscuit, and you would add your own honey and chili flakes.
Eggs and tree nuts are not ingredients here, but Pamela's products are made on equipment that processes both.
Every Pamela's product is certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization, made in a certified gluten-free, peanut-free facility, and certified kosher.
Other Recipe Notes
Use cold water. The fat in the mix needs to stay solid until it hits the oven, which is what makes the tops craggy.
Do not scoop smaller than a tablespoon. Below that the bites lose the craggy top and start to seem like cookies.
For a party, serve with whipped chive cream cheese, pimento cheese, and hot honey mustard. Skip honey butter, which repeats the sweetness already in the biscuit.
To make ahead, freeze the unbaked mounds solid on a sheet pan, bag them, and bake from frozen at 425 degrees F for 10 to 11 minutes.
