Cheese Biscuits

Biscuits are beloved by nearly everybody. You can find them at roadside diners, served alongside comfort food entrees at homey restaurants or as the base of breakfast sandwiches in hip urban cafes. These cheese biscuits, made using the easy “drop” method, are quick, full of flavor and can be used as a side dish or as the start of a sandwich.

The secret to a great biscuit’s tender texture and many flaky layers is to handle the dough carefully and use the right ingredients. And then there’s the flavor. These cheese biscuits are packed with rich sharp cheddar flavor, garlic and some chili flakes. If you like copycat Red Lobster cheddar biscuits, you’ll love these.

Ingredients for Cheese Biscuits

• Flour: All-purpose flour works perfectly in this recipe. However, as tenderness is prized in biscuits, you could choose to use a type of flour with a lower protein content. Consider White Lily flour, which is beloved in the South or the pastry flour from Bob’s Red Mill.
• Baking powder: The leavening power of baking powder is crucial to achieving light and airy biscuits. Make sure to choose an aluminum-free brand for the best biscuit flavor.
• Sugar: A hint of granulated sugar rounds out the taste of these biscuits, but you can leave it out if you prefer.
• Salt: Using the perfect amount of salt in a baked good will bring out all of its delicious qualities without making it taste “salty.” You might want to add extra if you use coarse or Kosher salt, as you get less salt in every teaspoon.
• Cream of tartar: Cream of tartar brings a tang to baked goods. Sometimes, cream of tartar is required in a recipe for leavening—it’s acidic, and when combined with baking soda, it makes dough rise. Here, since the leavening is achieved with baking powder, the cream of tartar is more for flavor.
• Butter: Use the best butter you can get, and make it unsalted! In simple baked goods, using quality ingredients really shines through.
• Sharp cheddar cheese: Pre-shredded cheeses usually contain additives that prevent sticking and inhibit mold, so try to find a block of cheddar cheese, and grate it yourself.
• Garlic: Freshly minced garlic will add a great zing to these biscuits, and if you don’t like mincing, you can grate the garlic on a microplane. No cloves in sight? You can go for granulated garlic or garlic powder, instead.
• Crushed pepper flakes: Pepper flakes bring clean heat to the equation. The amount isn’t enough to make the biscuits spicy, but just enough to add a bit of a zing.
• Milk: This recipe calls for 2% milk, but whole milk would also be great.

Directions

Step 1: Mix the dry ingredients

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Preheat the oven to 450°F. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cream of tartar. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Editor’s Tip: If you don’t have (or don’t want to use) a pastry blender, you can use a food processor to mix the dry ingredients, scatter in cubes of cold butter and briefly pulse.

Step 2: Add the cheese and milk

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Stir in the cheddar, garlic and pepper flakes. Add the milk and stir just until moistened.

Editor’s Tip: A good biscuit tip is not to overmix the dough. When you add the milk, stir until it all just comes together. No kneading necessary.

Step 3: Drop and bake

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Drop dough by heaping 1/4 cupfuls, 2 inches apart on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.

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Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

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Editor’s tip: Not all ovens are created equal. If yours has hot spots, rotate the pan halfway through the cooking time. You could also cook these at 425° to reduce the risk of singeing the biscuit bottoms.

Recipe Variations

• Try a different cheese: Almost any cheese you can shred will work in these biscuits. Some good cheeses are pepper jack, high-quality Parmesan, Gruyere, Gouda, Emmenthaler and Manchego. If you want more toasted cheese flavor, sprinkle some additional shreds atop the biscuits around four minutes before the end of the cooking time.
• Make it cultured: For a richer flavor, substitute cultured buttermilk for the 2% milk. If you do, leave out the cream of tartar so that the dough doesn’t get too tangy.
• Turn up the heat: If you like it spicy, add more red pepper flake to the recipe or experiment by adding chipotle powder, cayenne or smoked paprika. You can also add a dash of hot sauce to the milk.
• Add alliums: In addition to (or instead of) fresh garlic, try chopped chives, minced red onion, slivers of scallion or even strips of r.
• Try some herbs: Minced fresh herbs are awesome in biscuits. Some that go particularly well with cheese include dill, sage, parsley and thyme.

How to Store Cheese Biscuits

When stored, biscuits will lose their crispy edges, but they’ll stay good for two to three days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Can you freeze cheese biscuits?

You can freeze biscuits before or after baking them. In fact, I love keeping a batch of raw, ready-made biscuits in my freezer for special occasions.

• Freeze unbaked biscuits: Drop the biscuit dough onto a cookie sheet and pop the sheet into the freezer. When frozen, transfer the biscuits to a freezer-safe plastic bag. To cook biscuits directly from the freezer, follow the usual instructions, but expect them to take three to five minutes longer than the recipe calls for.
• Freeze baked biscuits: To freeze already baked biscuits, allow them to cool, wrap each one individually, and then store them in a freezer-safe bag for up to three months. To reheat, transfer the frozen biscuits to a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in a 350° oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Lay a sheet of foil over the top to prevent over-browning. The biscuits are ready when they’re soft and warm through the center.

Cheese Biscuit Tips

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How do you prevent dry biscuits?

To prevent dry biscuits, don’t overmix the dough. Getting pea-sized chunks of butter in the dry ingredients will create flaky layers. Secondly, keep an eye on the biscuits while they’re baking. Adjust the oven temperature if they look like they’re cooking too quickly, and start checking them for doneness a couple of minutes early.

What goes with cheese biscuits?

So many things go with cheese biscuits. They make wonderful side dishes for southern meals such as fried chicken, Brunswick stew and okra and butter bean stew. Pair them with vegetable sides such as bacon collard greens or some country green beans, and just about any barbecue recipe. They also make really great breakfast sandwiches. Think: cheese and sausage, spinach and egg or just slathered with some sausage gravy.