Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

With layers of flakiness and a soft and tender crumb, these Cheddar Cheese Biscuits are full of delicious butter and cheese flavors. Best served warm with a good slather of fine butter.

Course Biscuits

Cuisine Canadian

Keyword biscuits, cheddar cheese biscuits, cheese biscuits

Servings 12

My Island Bistro Kitchen My Island Bistro Kitchen

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (10 oz/282g – See Note 1 below)
4 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp fine sea salt
¼ tsp (slightly rounded) baking soda
1 tbsp granulated sugar
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into ½“ cubes (See Note 2 below)
3 oz (84g) shredded aged cheddar cheese
1 cup minus 1 tbsp cold milk
2 - 2½ tbsp cooled melted butter for brushing tops of biscuits (optional)

Instructions

Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Assemble and measure out ingredients.
In large bowl, sift or sieve together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Whisk in the sugar.
Use a wire pastry cutter to cut the cubed butter into the dry ingredients until mixture resembles the size of peas. Quickly run fingers through the mixture several times, scooping up the bigger bits of the butter and rubbing them into flat, paper-thin slivers between the thumb and forefinger. It is not necessary to do this with every piece of butter – just quickly pick several at random. Ensure butter slivers are coated with the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
Using a fork, stir in the shredded cheddar cheese.
Pour milk, all at once, into well in center of dry ingredients. Using a Danish dough whisk or fork, mix ingredients just enough that the liquid is absorbed into the dry ingredients, no liquid remains visible in the bowl, and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and can be roughly brought together. Dough will be soft and sticky and some floury spots may remain at this point. Transfer dough onto lightly floured work surface, gently working it just until a shaggy dough mass forms. Do not knead or overmix the dough.
Using a light touch, pat dough into a rectangle, about ¾” thick. From one long side of the dough rectangle, fold one third of the dough into the center and then fold the other third from the opposite side on top of the two-thirds of dough, just as if folding a letter. Press the dough down into another rectangle, again, about ¾“ thick and folding the dough into thirds like a letter. Repeat the folding exercise once or twice more, finally shaping the dough into a tidy rectangle about ¾“ - 1” in thickness.
Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into 12-14 equal-sized squares (See Note 3 below). Place biscuits, about 1” or so apart, on prepared baking sheet and place in freezer for about 20 minutes (or in refrigerator for 30-35 minutes) to chill.
While biscuits are chilling, position oven rack in the middle-to-upper third of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
Remove biscuits from refrigerator or freezer and lightly brush tops of biscuits with melted butter. Bake for apx. 14-16 minutes, or until biscuits are lightly browned on top, rotating the baking sheet partway through the baking. Remove biscuits from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 3-4 minutes then transfer to wire rack. If desired, brush biscuits one more time with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven.

Recipe Notes

Yield: Apx. 12-14 biscuits (depending on thickness of dough from which biscuits are cut and the size of each cut biscuit)

Note 1: While different sources may list 1 cup of all-purpose flour as weighing slightly more or less than the weight measures I list for this recipe, the weights I have given in this recipe are based on 1 cup of all-purpose flour (properly filled and leveled), the contents of which weigh 5 ounces on my digital scales. Therefore, if 10 ounces (or 282 grams) of all-purpose flour is used, it will be the correct amount for this particular biscuit recipe.

Note 2: Biscuits may be made with salted butter in which case, reduce amount of salt called for in recipe to a scant ½ teaspoon. These biscuits can be made with either all butter or all shortening or a blend of ¼ cup of each, though the texture and flavor will differ.

Note 3: In lieu of using the fold-over dough, or letter-folding/stacking method, traditional kneading of the dough method may be used. Knead dough 8-10 times. Do not over-knead. Pat dough to approximately ¾“ – 1” thickness. Using a 2” floured round, sharp-edged, cutter, cut out biscuits, re-flouring cutter before cutting out each biscuit. Push the cutter straight down and up and out of the dough without twisting the cutter in the process. Gather dough scraps and pat dough to ¾“ - 1” thickness, from which to cut remaining biscuits, being careful to work the dough no more than absolutely necessary to bring it together. Transfer biscuits to prepared baking sheet, spacing biscuits about 1” or so apart. Place the baking sheet of biscuits in the freezer for about 20 minutes (or in refrigerator for 30-35 minutes) to chill to ensure the butter/shortening is cold before baking biscuits.