We Tried 8 Canned and Frozen Biscuits and These Were the Best

There's nothing quite like biting into a fresh biscuit, especially if you have the satisfaction of having made it yourself. But most of us can't manage whipping up from-scratch breakfasts every morning, no matter how satisfying the concept.

And besides, premade biscuits can be quite a boon outside of breakfast time — when you're topping pot pies and cobblers, for example, or when you simply need a bit of bread to go with your meal. That's why (provided you don't have your own store of frozen biscuits already) it's worth keeping some store-bought biscuits in stock.

But which brand of premade biscuits truly deserve your dollar? To find out, we tested six different kinds of canned biscuits and two brands of frozen biscuits, all of which are available online or in stores. Here are our picks.

Best Frozen and Canned Biscuits at a Glance

• Best Overall Canned Biscuit: Pillsbury Grands! With Flaky Layers
• Runner-up: Annie's Homegrown Flaky Organic Biscuits
• Best Crust: Mason Dixie's Scratch Made Biscuits
• Best Frozen Biscuit: Pillsbury's Grand Buttermilk Biscuits
• Best Organic: Immaculate Baking Co.'s Organic Biscuits
• Best Budget: Signature Select's Jumbo Butter Biscuits

What We Looked For When Ranking Biscuits

Taste: Predictably, taste is the main factor we consider in these tests. When testing each biscuit, we looked for flaky, soft layers and ample butter taste. We also considered how dry or moist each biscuit was and whether or not it had a noticeable outer crust.

Price: Biscuits are a breakfast staple; they shouldn't be expensive. You should also get enough biscuits in a package to satisfy the whole family. All the brands we tested save one cost under $4.50. Most cost less than $2. The majority of the brands we tested also sold their biscuits in quantities of eight, though one included a dozen in its standard packages.

Additional Features: Along with taste and price, we also considered sugar quantity and type. All of the brands we tested had five grams or fewer of sugar per serving. We also looked for organic and other specialty brands, as well as different value brands sold online and in stores.

How We Tested Each Biscuit

For this taste test, which I conducted with one of my housemates, each brand of biscuits was cooked according to its manufacturer's recommendations. Each was pulled toward the lower end of the recommended cooking time, which for most brands was around 16 minutes. The biscuits were then allowed to cool for approximately five minutes before they were tested. Since we wanted to see which biscuits had the best flavor inherently, we ate the biscuits plain.

Best Overall Canned Biscuit: Pillsbury's Grands! with Flaky Layers

Canned biscuit fans won't be surprised to find that Pillsbury's Grands! topped our tasters' lists. In addition to being affordable, Pillsbury's popular biscuits are sizable, flavorful and fluffy. They were the only brand we tested in which the entire batch was devoured. If you have devout biscuit fans in your family, you may want to get a few extra cans to make sure there's enough to go around.

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Runner-Up: Annie's Homegrown Flaky Organic Biscuits

Annie's biscuits are, unfortunately, twice the price of our top offering, but they were also among the best biscuits we tasted. While slightly less layered, their biscuits were just as soft and flaky as Pillsbury's. If organic ingredients are important to you and you don't mind the price bump, then Annie's is definitely a good choice.

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Best Crust: Mason Dixie's Scratch Made Biscuits

In addition to their generous size, these biscuits have an amazing outer crust that gives a bit of crunch before yielding to a soft inside that's almost like what you'd get from a local bakery. The one drawback with this brand is its price point. In addition to costing more than most of the brands we sampled, the package only contains six biscuits instead of the standard eight. But if taste and texture is of utmost importance to you, then Mason Dixie may be worth picking up.

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Best Frozen Biscuit: Pillsbury's Grands! Buttermilk Biscuits

In addition to netting our top accolade, Pillsbury also wins our pick for best frozen biscuit. Admittedly, the crust on Pillsbury's frozen biscuits doesn't quite measure up to Mason Dixie's but the price point and included quantity bumps it to the top of the category. In addition to tasting like slightly crisper versions of their canned cousins, Pillsbury's frozen biscuits are sold by the dozen. And unlike canned biscuits, you can always cook up a few of the biscuits and keep the rest in the freezer for later, making them an arguably better bargain if you don't have need for eight biscuits in a single sitting.

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Best Organic: Immaculate Baking Company's Organic Biscuits

Immaculate Baking Company's biscuits are slightly less buttery tasting than some of its competitors. But if you prefer your biscuits a bit more on the plain side, these are still delicious, flaky and moist in addition to being organic. If you're a fan of seasoning your biscuits, these would be a beautiful base for any spices, seasonings or toppings you have around.

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Best Budget Biscuit: Signature Select's Jumbo Butter Biscuits

Safeway's generic jumbo biscuits were strangely the only ones we tried with visible butter throughout the uncooked dough. And those little globules definitely did their part in the finished product, imparting both flavor and almost too much moisture. The biscuits were still a bit soft inside when we tested them. But for many biscuit lovers, a slightly doughy center is no sin. And at less than $2, you can certainly keep enough in stock to find out the perfect cooking time.

Buy it at Safeway

Related:

• 4 Common Biscuit Problems and How to Solve Them
• What's the Difference Between Scones and Biscuits?
• The Best Tools for Making Biscuits Just Like Grandma