Buttery, tender biscuits need no introduction, but I think Funfetti confetti biscuits do. Confetti biscuits are the bedazzled version of your average ho-hum quick bread. They’re the extra bit of whimsy that biscuits never asked for. They’re the weirdo sibling you always make fun of but secretly admire for their bold self expression. We could all use a little bit of loosening up some days. Start by unleashing your love for rainbow sprinkles with a batch of confetti biscuits.
Originally, I wanted to make Funfetti biscuits. They would be shaped like biscuits—flaky, tall, and browned—but exhibit the flavors and colors of Funfetti cake mix. I intended to pervert a box of Funfetti cake mix and cut it into colorful, flaky biscuits. The problem is, boxed cake mix refuses to be messed with. It’s so well designed, you can add almost any (or hardly any) liquid to the powdered mix and still get a passable fluffy layer of cake.
Despite this knowledge, I still tried. I cut in chunks of cold butter. I tried different amounts of liquid. The dough always looked promising going into the oven, and always came out like a homogeneous layer of cake.
My partner ate a handful of my messed up not-biscuit and basically told me that even if I didn’t get the Funfetti boxed mix to make biscuits, it’s still cake. I think he meant it as encouragement, but it got me thinking—I didn’t actually want to biscuit my Funfetti mix, I wanted to Funfetti my biscuits. Not only does that actually taste better, but it’s a whole lot easier too.
Just to clarify, now that I’m not using the trademarked Funfetti boxed mix, I have to call them confetti biscuits. But you can call them whatever you want in the privacy of your own home. To confetti your biscuits, just mix rainbow colored sprinkles into your biscuit dough. Use about one tablespoon of sprinkles per cup of flour your recipe calls for. This is an encouragingly easy trick, but you must remember to mix them in at the end. Mix them in after the liquid goes in, just in your last few stirs. The colorful ink is water-soluble, so if you add them in earlier, you’ll get streaky colors, or worse: gray biscuits.
You can confetti any biscuit recipe you like. Need a pick-me-up but also feeling lazy? Keep things easy with confetti drop biscuits. Making strawberry shortcakes for your nephew's unicorn party? Classic buttermilk biscuits are good, but confetti ones are even better.
I tried both drop biscuits and flaky biscuits and successfully confetti-ed them both. Drop biscuits are a bit easier because you can simply add the sprinkles, mix two or three times, and start scooping. With flaky biscuits you have to take extra care not to overmix the dough after adding the sprinkles or you’ll lose the buttery flakes.
Here’s a recipe for quick confetti drop biscuits. The sprinkles are already a little sweet, but I pushed these biscuits closer to their Funfetti cake origins with an added teaspoon of vanilla extract and a dusting of sugar after lightly egg washing the tops.
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar (+ more for sprinkling later)
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons canola oil
⅓ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rainbow sprinkles
Egg wash
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper.
2. Mix the first four dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. In a measuring cup, combine the oil, milk, and vanilla extract.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix a few times. Add the rainbow sprinkles and mix the dough a few more times until just combined. The mixture should be lumpy, but without any powdery areas.
4. Scoop the dough onto the parchment paper in five or six biscuit blobs, leaving an inch or so of space in between each biscuit. Lightly egg wash the tops and sprinkle with extra granulated sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until fully risen and lightly browned on top. The biscuits will have visible sprinkles on top, but the real confetti effect is when you crack them open and you can behold the colorful spots within.
