Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits
For me, no dinner is complete without some form of bread. For Thanksgiving, I thought a pile of fresh biscuits would be perfect finger-food for sopping up gravy and getting that bready fix. Plus, biscuits are awesome, especially when loaded with cheddar and chives.
These biscuits had everything you could want in a biscuit. They were tender, flaky, buttery, nicely layered, and really tasty. The butter gives a nice richness, the buttermilk a bit of tang, and the cheddar/chive combo adds a delicious, sharper flavor. And did I mention biscuits are awesome? Another flavor I strongly considered adding into the biscuits (but laziness won, so forgive me): crumbled bacon! I throw it out there for any motivated would-be biscuit makers. 
I made these to go with my Thanksgiving dinner.
- 4 cups flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 stick butter
- 1 cup shredded cheddar (~4 oz)
- big handful fresh chives
- 1/2 tsp ground cayenne
- 2 cup buttermilk
- ~1/8 cup heavy cream
(yields 20-25 biscuits)
Begin by preheating the oven to 400°F.
If you have a block of cheddar (since shredding it yourself yields tastier results than buying a bag of pre-shredded cheese), shred about 4 oz to get roughly 1 cup of cheddar. Set this aside.
In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cayenne, and diced chives. Then work the butter into the dry mix using a food processor and/ or even just squeezing with your fingers until you get coarse crumbs. You want the butter to be uneven but finely dispersed throughout, as this is what will give your biscuits a tender, flaky crumb later.
Next, add the cheddar and pour in the buttermilk. Mix your dough just as much as is necessary and knead it lightly. The dough will be kind of unsightly and have a shaggy texture.
Generously flour your working surface and roll the dough out to anywhere between 1/2 and 1 inch thick. Then, using roughly a 2 inch diameter cut out (I use a 1 cup measuring cup), press and cut out your biscuits.
Set these on parchment paper lined baking sheets. Re-roll the leftover dough scraps as you need so you can cut out more biscuits, but try to keep working the dough to a minimum as over-handling will have a negative impact on the final texture of your biscuits. During all of this, I got about 22 biscuits.
Finally, you want to ensure the biscuits get a nice golden top, so to help this along, lightly brush the tops with a bit of heavy cream. Then, transfer this to the oven for 20 minutes and give them a few minutes to cool before you dig in.
Enjoy!
Related Posts
Other dishes you might enjoy:
Enjoy this recipe? Never miss another!
Enter your email address to subscribe to Mike's Table and have every new post sent right to your inbox (more details)