13 Unexpected Things You Can Make With Pre-Made Biscuit Dough

There's nothing like a warm, flaky, buttery biscuit. But they're not the easiest thing to make from scratch. Luckily, there's canned biscuit dough. Although pre-made biscuits aren't quite the same as the freshly made version, they're a very close second. But canned biscuit dough doesn't stop at biscuits. In fact, you can use canned biscuit dough to make a surprising range of meals, snacks, and desserts.

Canned biscuit dough can be swapped out for other doughs. For instance, it's similar to pie crust, although it's thicker. It can also be substituted for pizza dough since both are fairly neutral-tasting and good for holding toppings. That said, canned biscuit dough has a flakier texture than pizza dough and may also have a buttery flavor, depending on which brand you buy. These doughs often require different cooking times and temperatures, so be sure that you look up recipes specifically adapted for canned biscuit dough to avoid undercooked or burnt biscuit treats. Whether you're swapping it out for another kind of dough or just experimenting with a new taste and slightly different flavor profile, canned biscuit dough can make some pretty amazing dishes. And if you don't need an entire tube, you can freeze the leftover dough to use later. Future deliciousness and no food waste sounds pretty good to us. Here are 13 ways you can use canned biscuit dough that go far beyond biscuits.

Using canned biscuit dough to make pizza is a good way to keep things simple and interesting. For one thing, the slightly different dough texture and taste profile offer changes from the usual pizza dough. Another advantage is that canned biscuit dough tends to be easier to work with than store-bought pizza dough, which is sticky and often has to be kneaded (although there are exceptions like Pillsbury's pre-made pizza crust).

You can make canned biscuit dough pizzas in several ways. The easiest is to just leave the pre-made biscuits in the shape they have in the tube and add toppings. You can even upgrade them by first brushing on olive oil mixed with seasonings. If you're craving more traditional pizzas, flatten or roll out the canned biscuits so they look like round pizza crusts. Voila! You have the base for mini pizzas. Of course, you could combine all of the canned biscuit dough to make a single, large pizza if that's more your thing. Like pizza dough, canned biscuit dough is neutral tasting enough to go with just about any sauce or topping, so you can get creative. Stick with a classic cheese pizza, or give your pizza a tangy twist with goat cheese. Or how about making your pizza with one of the many underrated toppings, like mortadella or figs? Or both!

If you're looking for a delicious, stand-out appetizer or just want a hearty, flavorful snack to enjoy on your own (we get it), biscuit cups may be just the thing. These bite-sized treats are easy to make. Just flatten your canned biscuit dough and shape it to fit into the cups in your handy muffin tin, making sure the dough touches the bottom of the tin and goes up the sides with as much hollow space in the middle as possible. Essentially, you're making cup-shaped dough. Next, add your filling of choice and bake. Based on which filing you choose, biscuit cups can take longer or shorter to prepare, so it's a good idea to check out similar recipes to find the perfect bake time.

As for fillings, it's entirely up to you. You could stick with a single ingredient, like cheese, or bring in several others. For instance, pre-cooked chicken, chopped veggies, and seasonings make for a tasty bite, and heck, why not put that cheese in there, too? Or, go sweet. Fill your biscuit cups with ingredients like apples sprinkled with cinnamon. Or bake only the biscuit cups and then fill them with cool ingredients like pastry cream and strawberries. The choice is yours.

The dessert that's so beloved it's even become a slang way to say someone is sweet, cinnamon rolls are yet another recipe you can make with canned biscuit dough, swapping it in for the homemade dough that's typically used. Canned biscuit dough cinnamon rolls have some serious advantages. For one, they take less time to make than traditional cinnamon rolls because there's no waiting for yeast to rise. Another big advantage, and maybe the one you've been imagining ever since you started reading about this idea, is that the combination of flaky biscuits and cinnamon, sugar, and that sweet, creamy glaze is a downright delicious spin on an already amazing dessert.

There are several approaches when it comes to making cinnamon rolls with biscuit dough. Some recipes will give you detailed instructions about rolling out and then cutting the dough into strips and then adding the filling. Others will take an easier approach, instructing you to roll out all of the dough, pour the cinnamon and sugar on top of it, and roll it up into a log, which you'll slice into individual rolls.  Whichever recipe you go with, get ready to enjoy one of the most heavenly desserts out there, thanks in large part to canned biscuit dough.

To be fair, if you're from the South, this iconic comfort food won't be a surprising canned biscuit dough recipe. But if you haven't heard, chicken and dumplings are a great recipe to include canned biscuit dough. Chicken and dumplings consist of cooked chicken, chopped veggies, and tender dough surrounded by a creamy gravy. Like any traditional recipe, there are many variations of chicken and dumplings, but you could say that making them is similar to making chicken soup, with ingredients simmering in chicken broth. The dumplings are made of rolled balls of uncooked dough that are cooked with the rest of the mixture.

Some cooks will make the biscuit dough and gravy from scratch, but if you're tempted to try your hand at this recipe and want to keep it simple, you can use canned biscuit dough instead. And to make things even easier, some easy chicken and dumplings recipes also suggest using canned soup and chicken broth to help make the gravy.

Fritters are similar to doughnuts, and there's often some overlap between the two. But fried food aficionados will tell you there are a few subtle differences. Generally speaking, fritters consist of some kind of dough that's covered in batter (often flour, egg, and sometimes milk) and then fried in oil. The dough is often mixed with an ingredient — for instance, apples — but you can make plain fritters as well. 

Like the other dishes on our list, you can make fritters using canned biscuit dough. Also like many of the other suggestions on our list, fritters have room for some creativity. You can mix an ingredient into the biscuit dough and then batter and fry it, or if you prefer, you can keep things simple and just use the dough plain and then add ingredients after frying. For instance, you'll find several canned biscuit dough fritter recipes that involve either adding sugar into the batter or sprinkling it onto the fritter after it's finished frying. If you prefer savory tastes, there are countless things you can use in your fritter, from vegetables to cheese to spices and seasonings.

For many of us, nothing beats a ham and cheese sandwich as a go-to lunch. But if you're getting tired of the same old sandwich, canned biscuit dough offers a great way to upgrade it into a ham and cheese stuffed biscuit. The typical way to make a stuffed biscuit is to slice a canned biscuit into a top and bottom part. Then place your filling between the two sections and use your fingers to close the edges so that the ingredients are totally enclosed. Now you have a stuffed biscuit, ready to be baked in the oven. 

You can fill your stuffed biscuit with a slice of ham and your favorite cheese, or experiment with different cheeses and cold cuts. You can add things like seasonings and chopped onions as well. You may be wondering whether you could even change up the ingredients entirely. The answer is a resounding "yes." The world of stuffed biscuits feels like one of endless possibilities. For instance, why not stuff your canned biscuit dough with spicy slow cooker beef chili? Or you can go sweet and stuff it with blueberries or apples.

Whether they're an appetizer, a kid's dinner, or a nostalgic treat, pigs in a blanket are one food where you can't go wrong. These hot dogs wrapped in canned biscuit dough aren't just tasty; they're also really easy to make. Just roll canned biscuit dough around each hot dog, leaving the ends exposed. You can get creative and make strips of dough wrap around the hot dog in a spiral shape, for instance. Or you might choose to cover the hot dog entirely in dough. Once you've put dough around the hot dogs, pop them into the oven, and soon you'll be enjoying some piping hot pigs in a blanket.

You can also change things up a bit. One simple variation uses mini cocktail wieners — perfect for bite-sized appetizers. Or replace the mini hot dogs with mini sausages. Another way to upgrade your pigs in a blanket involves adding seasonings to your biscuit dough or a slice of cheese with the hot dog. Whichever option you choose, you're in for a treat packed with texture and flavor. You can store your leftover pigs in a blanket for up to three days in the refrigerator ... assuming there are any leftovers.

For many people, chicken pot pie is classic comfort food. As its name suggests, it's traditionally made with pie crust, but you can make it with canned biscuit dough instead. That said, unlike many of the other dishes on our list, chicken pot pie made with canned biscuit dough is a little bit different than the recipe would be with the pie crust it's replacing. For many cooks, that's actually part of the appeal. Making chicken pot pie with homemade pie crust is more time-consuming than the usual canned biscuit dough alternative. 

The canned biscuit dough makes this dish more like a chicken pot pie casserole. The ingredients that would normally be the filling of the pie, including fresh or canned vegetables, sauce, and, of course, chicken, are cooked and then placed in a casserole dish. The canned biscuits are then laid on top, and everything is baked together. The end result is a tray of delicious, flaky biscuits with the chicken pot pie filling below.

Also known as monkey bread, bubble bread, or tear and share bread, pull-aparts are bread-based dishes that, as that latter name suggests, can be pulled apart piece by piece by anyone who wants some. Typical pull-apart shapes include loaf, bundt, or even a square or rectangle. Many different kinds of dough can be used for pull-aparts, and canned biscuit dough is an especially good choice since the biscuits' flaky texture makes them easy to, well, pull apart from the whole. You can either mold the canned biscuit dough into a particular shape you want or cut biscuits into smaller bites to make a pull-apart meal that has more clearly delineated portions.

Thanks to canned biscuit dough's fairly neutral taste profile, you can make savory or sweet pull-apart dishes. One popular choice is monkey bread, which, in addition to being a name for all pull-apart dishes, is also a pull-apart dish in its own right. It consists of a typically bundt-shaped pull-apart covered in butter and flavored with cinnamon and sugar. Another pull-apart favorite is biscuit dough seasoned with garlic and herbs.

There are two kinds of mornings: the ones where you have to hurry out the door and the ones where you get to take your time. Stuffed breakfast biscuits are perfect for either one. To make them, start by cooking up your favorite breakfast foods like scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage. Consider adding mushrooms, onions, green peppers, or other favorite veggies to your eggs as they cook. When they're ready, open up a can of biscuit dough, split the biscuits in half, and flatten each half slightly. Then add the breakfast foods — don't forget the cheese — on one half. Place the other flattened biscuit half on top, and close up the edges. Then bake your creation in the oven. 

Although they're pretty easy to make, stuffed breakfast biscuits may seem like more of a meal for one of those leisurely mornings, not one where you have to get up and go. But the beauty of this biscuit dough dish is that you can make a batch when you have time and then freeze the leftovers so that you'll only have to reheat them on mornings when you're in a hurry. And if they're not too stuffed, you might even be able to bring one of your breakfast biscuits with you to eat on the way to school or work.

If you're a fellow fan of both cheeseburgers and biscuits, one way to use canned biscuit dough is in place of your usual hamburger bun. While using a baguette gives your hamburger a fun, French twist, canned biscuit dough — with its buttery, flaky taste and texture — makes for a surprising (and delicious) contrast with the beef and cheese in your burger. And of course, keep your usual toppings for even more surprising flavor contrasts. One of our favorites is pickles. 

If you want to get even more creative, you can go the stuffed biscuit route and make stuffed cheeseburger biscuits. Like the stuffed breakfast biscuits, this can be just a biscuit filled with cooked ground beef and cheese. You can add even more flavor with sauces, spices, and chopped veggies.  Whichever version you choose, the richness and flavors of your biscuit burger might actually make you wonder if you need a side of fries.

If you have some canned biscuit dough lying around and are looking for an easy, irresistible snack (or an entirely indulgent dinner), why not make garlic knots? Most of us think of garlic knots as being made with pizza dough, but keep in mind that pizza dough and biscuit dough are similar. Canned biscuit dough is a great go-to option for garlic knots. For a bit of inspiration, check out our expert guide to cooking with garlic. But we digress. 

The most common way to make canned biscuit dough garlic knots involves cutting the biscuit dough into strips, rolling them into a thick rope shape, and then tying each one in a knot. Then, you'll brush the knots with a mixture of melted butter, garlic powder, parmesan, salt, and any other seasonings you like, and put them into the oven. When they're finished, you know what to do!

It's hard not to love doughnuts, but these tasty breakfast treats can be complicated to make from scratch since they typically involve working with dough. Canned biscuit dough takes away that tricky step, not to mention it's a big timesaver. Making doughnuts with canned biscuit dough is surprisingly easy. Essentially, you'll take out a pre-shaped canned biscuit, punch a hole in the center, and then fry it in oil. Then add any toppings you want, such as cinnamon sugar or glaze. Remember to save the dough you punched out to make doughnut holes.

Canned biscuit dough is also great for making jelly doughnuts and other kinds of stuffed doughnuts. Start by keeping the biscuits whole and frying them in oil. Then, when they're done and they've cooled, insert your jelly or whatever filling you'd like using a bag with a piping nozzle attached. You can use this same method with canned biscuit dough doughnut holes as well. The result? Delicious!