Description
A simple cheese biscuit recipe with shredded gruyere - perfect for breakfast or brunch!
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour (measured correctly by scooping and leveling)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 cup shredded gruyere cheese
- 1 cup milk
Instructions
- Heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and fresh cracked pepper together in a large bowl.
- Add cold cubed butter and cut it into the flour mixture, using either your hands or a pastry cutter, until the mixture is coarse and resembles cornmeal. (If you're unfamiliar with this process, you basically just quickly rub the butter into the flour with your hands until the mixture is coarse and the butter has been broken up into small pieces).
- Stir shredded gruyere into the flour mixture.
- Add milk to flour mixture and stir until combined. The dough should be shaggy and piece-y; we want to keep lots of butter pieces in there so the biscuits will bake up and be nice and flaky.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface. If the dough is too sticky, gently fold a Tablespoon or two of flour into it until it's easier to work with. I like to gently fold my dough over on itself several times, so I have lots of butter layers working for maximum flakiness.
- Pat dough to about ½" thickness and cut biscuit rounds with a 2" biscuit cutter.
- Place biscuit rounds on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees F for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Serve immediately.
Notes
Add a little extra flour if you need to. If your biscuit dough is too wet to easily flatten for cutting, fold in extra flour a Tablespoon at a time until it's workable. Dough should be moist but not sticky.
A note about baking powder. Make sure you use an aluminum-free baking powder here for best results! Baking powder with added aluminum can give biscuits a slightly tinny or metallic taste. If you're sensitive to the flavor of baking powder even when it's aluminum-free, you can reduce the baking powder here by 25% (just know that the biscuits won't be quite as tall!). You can also counteract the metallic taste with a bit of acid - substitute buttermilk for the milk here or add a Tablespoon of lemon juice to regular milk to mellow your baking powder.
Additions and Substitutions. Use sharp cheddar cheese, asiago, or parmesan in place of the gruyere here if you like (or use a mix of several cheeses!) These biscuits are great with some fresh or dried herbs mixed into the dough - add a generous handful of fresh chives, rosemary, or thyme or a teaspoon or two of dried herbs (see this post for guidance on choosing herbs for biscuits!) Use cold coconut oil in place of butter here, and swap coconut milk or buttermilk for the milk here if you prefer (follow the directions in our vegan biscuit recipe for help here!)
No biscuit cutter? Turn a drinking glass upside-down and use it to cut biscuit rounds, or pat the dough into a square shape and cut it into even squares (I like to cut it into thirds from top-to-bottom and then left-to-right to form nine even biscuit squares). You can also add a splash of extra milk and bake these as drop biscuits (they're also fantastic dropped into soup for a chicken-and-dumplings riff!)
Work quickly and keep your ingredients cold for best results! Lots of small, cold pieces of butter are the key to flakey biscuits - make sure your butter and milk are very cold to prevent the butter from melting too much. Handle the dough as little as possible, and don't let it sit out - you don't want the butter to melt before you pop the biscuits in the oven!
Storing leftovers. Store leftover biscuits in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Refresh biscuits by placing them on a sheet pan and baking at 350 degrees F for 5-6 minutes or until they're warmed through!