Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 stick butter
- 1 cup shredded cheddar (~4 oz)
- big handful fresh chives
- 1/2 tsp ground cayenne
- 2 cup buttermilk
- ~1/8 cup heavy cream
Directions
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Begin by preheating the oven to 400°F.
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If you have a block of cheddar (since shredding it yourself yields tastier results than buying a bag of pre-shredded cheese), shred about 4 oz to get roughly 1 cup of cheddar. Set this aside.
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In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cayenne, and diced chives. Then work the butter into the dry mix using a food processor and/ or even just squeezing with your fingers until you get coarse crumbs. You want the butter to be uneven but finely dispersed throughout, as this is what will give your biscuits a tender, flaky crumb later.
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Next, add the cheddar and pour in the buttermilk. Mix your dough just as much as is necessary and knead it lightly. The dough will be kind of unsightly and have a shaggy texture.
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Generously flour your working surface and roll the dough out to anywhere between 1/2 and 1 inch thick. Then, using roughly a 2 inch diameter cut out (I use a 1 cup measuring cup), press and cut out your biscuits.
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Set these on parchment paper lined baking sheets. Re-roll the leftover dough scraps as you need so you can cut out more biscuits, but try to keep working the dough to a minimum as over-handling will have a negative impact on the final texture of your biscuits. During all of this, I got about 22 biscuits.
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Finally, you want to ensure the biscuits get a nice golden top, so to help this along, lightly brush the tops with a bit of heavy cream. Then, transfer this to the oven for 20 minutes and give them a few minutes to cool before you dig in