this post may contain affiliate links
Homemade cheddar biscuits are beautifully tall, golden, stacked with fluffy layers and cheddar cheese. The recipe I made was Sally’s Baking Blog and with a few tweaks they were perfect. They don’t quite remind me of Red Lobster’s famous cheddar bay biscuits, but they are dang good and paired perfectly with my light sausage gravy.
The dry ingredients are just all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, garlic powder and salt. The main ingredient is the butter. She uses unsalted butter, but I think everything is better with Kerrygold salted butter. If you’ve ever worked with Kerrygold butter you know it gets soft quickly. For this reason, dice it before you are ready to blend and place in the freezer for 10 minutes. This ensures you get flaky layers. How? If the butter is cold, it won’t blend into the dough, rather there will be crumbs of dough throughout. That butter, when heated, releases steam which creates air pockets in the biscuits. Air pockets = layers. Any time you want flaky layers, use cold butter.
The easiest and most efficient way to cut the butter into the dry ingredients is pulsing a food processor. If you don’t have one use a pastry cutter or two forks. The reason the food processor is so great is it cuts the butter in a matter of seconds, ensuring the butter stays cold all the way to the oven. Move as quickly as you can if using a pastry cutter or forks.
The wet ingredients are just buttermilk and honey. Her recipe calls for only 2 teaspoons of honey, but it needs to be more like 3 teaspoons. If you didn’t know 3 teaspoons is equivalent to a tablespoon. So that’s what my version calls for. You also need cheddar cheese for these cheddar biscuits. It’s best to grate the cheese yourself that way the cheese is not covered in anti-clumping additives. It will melt better, and it also tastes better. My go-to brand is Cracker Barrel extra sharp cheddar cheese.
It’s super simple to bring this dough together with just a wooden spoon. If using a food processor, add the flour and butter mixture to a large mixing bowl, add the cheese and combine before adding the wet ingredients. It will be extremely crumbly and you’re going to think it’s not wet enough. It is. The dough really comes together with your hands. Be sure to flour them because the dough does get stickier as it comes together. Remember not to overwork the dough and move quickly so that butter stays cold. Form the dough together with your hands and once it can keep its shape, form a 3/4-inch-tall rectangle. Fold one side into the middle and then the other side in on top. You’re folding the dough as if it were a piece of paper you’re folding to fit into an envelope. Flatten back out to a 3/4 inch rectangle and do that folding process three more times.
I used an enamel skillet to bake my biscuits in, but you can use a cast iron skillet or just a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place the biscuits close to one another because that helps them rise better. Brush on more buttermilk and bake off. Top with a garlic butter parsley sauce and flaky salt and you’re ready to eat.
Cheddar Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 c flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 tbsp kerrygold salted butter diced and super cold
- 1 c buttermilk
- 2 tbsp buttermilk
- 1 1/2 c grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 tbsp honey
Topping
- 3 tbsp kerrygold salted butter melted
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried or fresh parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees
- Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, garlic powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl or food processor.
- Add one stick of super cold diced butter and pulse until you have coarse crumbs. If you don't have a food processor, use a pastry cutter or two forks to cut the butter in.
- If you used a food processor, add the mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Pour in 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 tablespoon of honey.
- Fold everything together with a wooden spoon or spatula until it starts to come together. It's going to be very crumbly.
- Pour dough out on a floured surface, flour your hands and press the dough together until it can hold its shape.
- Flatten to 3/4 inch thick then fold each side into the middle like you're folding a piece of paper to fit into an envelope. Once folded in press back out to 3/4 inch thick and repeat this folding process three more times for a total of 4 folds into the center.
- Flatten out to 3/4-inch rectangle and cut into 8 even squares. Being sure to cut straight down and lifting right back up as to not disturb the layers. You don't want to "saw" back and forth or twist. Just straight down and right back up.
- Place biscuits close together in a cast iron, enamel pan, or a parchment lined cookie sheet. This helps them rise better.
- Brush on the 2 tablespoons of buttermilk on top and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top.
- While the biscuits bake, make the topping. Melt butter on medium heat and add garlic powder and parsley. Stir and set aside.
- Brush butter sauce on the biscuits right when they come out of the oven. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and serve warm.