If ever you've felt you had a shortage of cheese in your diet, I have the solution: Light, fluffy biscuits with TONS of gooey cheese pockets, and a slight spicy kick.
While I'd love to chalk these biscuits up to creative genius, in all honesty they were the product of a biscuit craving and an effort to clean out the cheese drawer. (Everyone has a drawer in their fridge dedicated to storing cheese, right??) For years I've made these biscuits from Gourmet. I loved them for being quick, easy, and slightly on the cheesy side. One night last winter, I was halfway through making them when I realized I had no jalapeno. Unwilling to give up on my biscuit mission, I reached for the pepper jack. It ended up being...um...a lot of pepper jack because I really didn't want to leave a tiny block of miscellaneous cheese with no prospects in my fridge. Before I knew it, I had added twice as much cheese as the original recipe had called for. I briefly thought to myself, "Mandy, you might have overdone it this time..", but then I baked them...and something amazing happened.
They came out SO cheesy. See all those pockets of cheese? The stretchy, melted cheese strings? I'll admit I snapped this picture as the biscuit was on its way to my mouth, then I entered into warm, spicy, cheesy bliss. Let's look at the underside though, because that's where things get even better...
It's crispy cheese! YUM.
Here's how to make them:
Start by mixing the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add in your chilled, chopped butter bits (make sure the butter is chilled! This is key to a successful biscuit), and smush the butter around, incorporating with the flour mixture and breaking into pea-sized pieces. I use my hands for this part, but if you're fancy enough to own a pastry cutter, that will work too! Once the butter is in little, flour-covered pieces, add in the cheeses, sour cream, and milk. Stir until combined, being careful not to over-mix. Again, I like to use my hands toward the end of this so I can get all the bits on the sides of the bowl. You want your dough to be slightly dry, but moist enough to hold together. If your dough is drier or stickier than you'd like, add more milk/flour.
I like to free-form biscuits with my hands because it's so much quicker than rolling out the dough. I use about 1/2 cup of dough per biscuit to make a total of 6 biscuits. These end up being BIG. If you like smaller biscuits, just make 'em smaller, but don't forget to adjust the baking time!
Bake at 375° for 24-27 minutes, until they're golden all over and the cheese is melted. Let them cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet, and serve warm.
We love to eat these with all varieties of cold-weather meals - chilis, stews, soups, braises, and roasts. They're a cinch to whip up, and the leftovers make a mean breakfast sandwich the next morning!
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