Recipe: Chive & Cheddar Biscuits

It seems like, since our first date, we’ve been talking about taking a food-centric road trip through the South… and we finally made it! A month or so ago, we ate our way into Savannah, then through Charleston and finally, on to Asheville. Of course, we didn’t see and consume everything we wanted to, but it was a pretty good start. 

There are many things that drew us to the south - chief among them, a restaurant in Charleston led by one of our favorite chefs, Sean Brock - but we were surprised by how much we loved the Low Country of South Carolina. We immediately connected with the lush and swampy landscape, the culture, and yes, the food! Biscuits! Smoked pork! Cheese! Grits! Butter, butter and more butter! We wished we could take it all home with us. 

When we arrived back in The Berkshires, our belts a little tighter, spring was barely emerging. Not much was happening in the garden beds except our trusty chives, which had sprung up high as if to welcome us home. Yearning for a taste of our travels, we set to work putting together a reminiscent dish, but with locally-sourced ingredients: Chive and Cheddar Biscuits, with North Plain Farm bacon and eggs. It might be a while until we make it back to the low country, but until then, this hearty breakfast will keep up sated. 

Chive & Cheddar Biscuits

+ 2 ¼ cups cake flour
+ 2 teaspoon sugar
+ 1 tablespoon baking powder
+ ¾ teaspoon salt
+ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
+ 9 tablespoons salted butter, cut into small chunks and frozen for a few minutes
+ 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
+ ⅓ cup chopped chives
+ ¾ cup buttermilk
+ egg wash (1 egg, whisked together with 1 tsp water)

1. Preheat oven to 400 °F and cover a baking sheet with a layer of parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Working quickly and gently, use your fingertips or a pastry blender to work the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter is broken into pea-sized pieces. When it’s done, it will resemble a very coarse meal. Add the shredded cheese and chives and stir until combined.
3. Add the buttermilk and stir until clumps form. Knead the mixture gently until it just holds together.
4. Dump the dough on to a floured surface and pat into a rectangle, about ¾ inch thick. At this point, you can either cut the rectangle into smaller 3 inch-ish segments or cut 2-3 inch rounds with a biscuit cutter. Either way, transfer to the baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches in between biscuits.
5. Lightly brush egg wash on top of biscuits and put into oven. Bake for 15 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown on top. Serve immediately.

Note: This recipe originally appeared on RuralIntelligence.com on May 11, 2015. It's been back-dated here on our blog so that it falls, seasonally, in the right place.

Recipe: Buttermilk Biscuits

The inspirational and outrageously delicious biscuits at Pies 'n' Thighs would be impossible to match, but that hasn't stopped Silka from trying. After four attempts in as many weeks we think we've finally found a recipe that will, at the very least, keep us satisfied on days we can't make it to the Brooklyn gem. 

After so many batches of only-good-the-night-you-make-them-biscuits we've now soaked them in gravy, slathered them with crème fraîche and homemade jam and gone the traditional buttered route. But on this occasion - on which we finally got them right- we decided to go for the gold; Flying Pigs slab bacon and egg, Cato Corners cheese, and sauteed Windfall spinach piled high on a breakfast-for-dinner sandwich. And let us tell you, it was epic.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Adapted from Pinch My Salt

+ 1 1/4 cups cake flour

+ 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

+ 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

+ 1/2 tsp baking soda

+ 1/2 tsp salt

+ 1/4 cup butter, cut into small chunks, plus extra to melt and brush on top

+ 3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Cut butter into small chunks, place in a bowl and put in freezer. Measure out buttermilk and return to refrigerator. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and refrigerate. Let everything chill for 15 minutes.

2. In the meantime, sprinkle flour on a work surface and have extra flour nearby for your hands and biscuit cutter. Have biscuit cutter and an ungreased baking sheet handy.

3. Combine half of flour and all of butter in a food processor. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix back into bowl with remaining flour. (If you don't have a processor: Add butter to bowl with dry ingredients and cut into flour using a pastry blender, two knives or your fingertips, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.) Pour in buttermilk and stir lightly until dough comes together in a ball.

4. Turn dough out onto floured surface and pat into a disc, about 3/4 in thick. Dip cutter into flour and cut biscuits without twisting the cutter. Form the dough scraps into an extra biscuit-like shape instead of re-rolling the dough. Place cut biscuits together on the baking sheet so that the sides are touching. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with salt.

5. Place baking sheet in the middle oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until they are golden brown. Remove biscuits to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes.

6. Enjoy while still warm!

Makes 5 - 6 biscuits