Cheddar Biscuits

These cheesy biscuits call for frozen butter, which is grated through the large holes of a box grater to cut down on prep time. This trick creates flaky biscuits in a breeze—no pastry cutter required! Serve them with our Cranberry ‘Spread.’

What to buy:
Stay away from your typical blocks of part-skim yellow cheddar or (oh, the horror!) preshredded cheddar. Go for an aged farmhouse cheddar like Fiscalini’s Extra Mature Bandage Wrapped Cheddar.

Special equipment: This set of Ateco round cutters is a useful thing to have in your kitchen. We used the 2-inch one to make these biscuits.

Game plan: Keep a few sticks of butter in the freezer for whenever the biscuit urge hits.

This recipe was featured as part of our Thanksgiving, Southern-Style menu.

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, frozen
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 cup finely grated aged farmhouse cheddar cheese, plus more for topping the biscuits
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. 1Heat the oven to 400°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Grate frozen butter through the large holes of a box grater and toss grated butter with dry ingredients until butter is coated with flour. Rub butter and flour between your fingers until evenly mixed.
2. 2Add buttermilk and grated cheddar cheese. Stir briefly until it forms a shaggy mass. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead very lightly until ingredients are evenly mixed.
3. 3Roll out to about a 1/2- to 3/4-inch thickness and use a 2-inch biscuit cutter to cut rounds. Place on baking sheets. Reroll what’s left of the dough. You should have about 40 biscuits. Discard any remaining bits of dough.
4. 4Brush the tops of the biscuits with heavy cream. Place a pinch of grated cheddar on top of each biscuit. Bake until golden brown, rotating once, about 20 minutes.

Note: We found that dipping your biscuit cutter in a small dish of flour as you cut really helps prevent the dough from sticking to it.