If you’re counting calories, you may want to become temporarily innumerate. Believe me, it’ll be worth it.
These cheddar buttermilk biscuits are comfort food at its best. Flaky, soft, salty, rich, and absolutely the kind of thing where you’ll finish one and immediately reach for another.
Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Circular cutter, approx 3" in diameter
- Basting or pastry brush
- Baking sheet
- Silicone baking mat (silpat) or parchment paper
- Oven
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup All-purpose flour
- 2 cups Shredded cheddar cheese, extra old
- 1 cup Buttermilk Plus additional ½ – ¾ cups for brushing
- ½ cup Unsalted butter Cold, cubed
- 2 ½ tsp Baking powder
- 2 tsp Sugar
- ½ tsp Salt
- ¼ cup Chives (Optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt).
- Cut in butter. Keep on cutting until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Stir in 1 cup of the cheese. If you're adding chives to the recipe, now would be the time to stir them in, too.
- Gently stir in buttermilk to form a soft dough.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly-floured work surface.
- Gently knead the dough 10 times. Don't overwork it! We don't want the butter to be totally incorporated.
- Pat the dough into a rough circle approximately ½- to ¾-inch thick.
- Flour the round cutter and cut out 12-16 biscuits. Once you run out of dough, press the scraps together and cut some more out, until you can't do any more.
- Place the biscuits on a silpat- or parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Liberally (very liberally) brush the biscuits with buttermilk.
- Top with a generous amount of flaky salt and the rest of the cheese.
- Bake 14-16 minutes until the cheese on top has bubbled and the biscuits are golden.
Notes
Look at the fluffiness and the biscuit-ness of these. Look at them. That crispy bottom, those buttery layers, those golden tops.
These are great with or without the chives. There’s a split decision in our house about whether or not chives belong in these biscuits. I’m partial to adding them, but this recipe doesn’t need them to be delicious. Also, I find it really hard to get good-quality chives in Ottawa grocery stores in the off season.
This recipe is based on a recipe for cheddar buttermilk biscuits from Canadian Living which I made extra indulgent in both ingredients and process. That recipe calls for both baking powder and 1/2 tsp of baking soda. I have pretty consistently forgotten the baking soda and the recipe comes out just fine – so much so that I omitted it from the recipe. However, experiment a little! Add the 1/2 tsp of baking soda back in and see if you prefer that.
Another personal preference is how you form the biscuits. I grew up with a similar cheddar-chive biscuit recipe and we didn’t cut out these beautiful little rounds. They were made with a wetter dough, scooped onto the baking sheet, and allowed to spread just a little. This gave them a more rustic look. I’m personally charmed by the perfectly round biscuits but as with all things, try some variations and see what you like best!
We’re doing a bunch of cooking and baking right now thanks to isolating at home. I don’t think generally we try this many recipes outside of the holidays.
One of our inspirations for cooking a bunch is Joshua Weissman’s YouTube channel, which is full of good ideas.
I’ve been recording and tinkering with recipes in my Maker Planner. If you’re interested in getting a tool to help organize your ideas and your life, and support the site in the process, check it out!
Until next time, folks, paddle your own canoe.
Trevor
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