Make Ahead Spicy Cheddar Biscuits

Spicy Cheddar Biscuits

I love the tradition of Sunday Dinner.  In the South, this is the large meal most typically served in the early afternoon after Sunday morning church services.  Sunday dinner ties us to generations past, to a slower time before the advent of MCL Cafeteria and Zaxby's Chicken.  When I was a girl, we would eat Sunday Dinner on holidays and special occasions at MeeMaw Esther's house on St. Petersburg Beach.  I associate her with ham, green beans, corn, fruit salad, rolls and cherry pie, all from scratch.  Whether this is true memory or a figment of my fertile imagination, the feelings evoked by the image of my family around her table are real.  We held hands while Daddy asked God's blessings on the food and the hands that prepared it. I remember being very grateful, but this was probably due to the fact that my breakfast had certainly worn off somewhere in the middle of the preacher preaching and at least an hour and a half or so elapsing before we were praying over the feast.

Sunday Dinner is a comfort, both the food that is served and the ritual of preparing it.  Sometimes I struggle to plan a menu that will be on the table before anyone passes out of low blood sugar.  This past Saturday night presented one of those planning challenges.  I intended to serve roast beef cooked with baby carrots; garlic mashed red potatoes and gravy; fresh green beans, squash casserole, and yeast rolls.  Preparations were moving right along...roast seasoned and marinated.  Squash cooked with purple onion and mixed up into a classic casserole topped with buttery Ritz cracker crumbs, ready to bake.  Green beans cooked.  It was a little after 10PM when I realized that I didn't have time to make the yeast rolls before bed.  CRISIS!  Sunday Dinner is the one meal at which I try serve some sort of from-scratch bread.  What to do?  What to do?

Given the menu, I thought that a cheese biscuit similar to the ones served at Red Lobster might fit the bill.  I googled for copy cat recipes and found several with good ratings, but that were made with Bisquick.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, I don't *do* Bisquick.  I will spare you my rant on trans fat.  You're welcome.

I also wanted a biscuit that could be prepared ahead and baked right before serving.  Flash freezing suited the bill, just as long as the recipe was adaptable.  After a cursory search on Epicurious, Bon Appetit and All Recipes, I modified a recipe from my Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook ©1999.  The original recipe is entitled Hot Cheese Drop Biscuits (pg. 64).  I'm sure it's fine as written (except for the trans fat previously discussed), but I enjoy changing things up a bit.  I can't help it.

My Spicy Cheddar Biscuits use butter rather than shortening.  I use a mixture of all purpose and whole wheat flour, more baking powder and a different proportion of cheese and buttermilk.  Best of all, you mix everything in a food processor and freeze them so that you may pop one (or all 18) in the oven as you need them. 

ingredients

Spicy Cheddar Biscuits
1 cup unbleached AP flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 TB. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
4 TB (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup plus 1 TB buttermilk

Note:  If you use 2 cups AP flour, you'll only need 1 cup buttermilk.  If your family likes things less spicy, reduce the amount of cayenne to 1/4 tsp.




Method

dry ingredients

Measure dry ingredients and put in food processor fitted with a metal blade.

cold butter works best

Cut butter into pats; then cut in half again lengthwise.










Add cheese and butter to dry ingredients. Place lid on processor and process in short bursts, 6 to 8 times.  Check mixture.

When the butter and cheese have been cut in properly, the mixture will resemble course meal.

Add in the buttermilk.  

process just until dough clings together

Close lid on food processor and process in short bursts just until the dough clings together and forms a rough ball.  Do NOT over process or dough will be tough.







Using a TB sized cookie dough scoop, drop heaping scoops of dough into a muffin tin.  Don't try to make the dough balls perfectly round; they will look better a little craggy.

         

dough balls ready for a flash freeze

Once the dough has been distributed among the muffin tin compartments, place tin in the freezer.  (Yes, I  know this freezer needs to be defrosted.  I don't defrost until I can no longer fit food in the freezer.  Go ahead, judge.  I won't lose one moment's sleep over it).

frozen balls of biscuit dough

After the dough has frozen solid (a few hours or overnight if you've embarked on this project at 10:30 PM like I did), remove it from the freezer.  Using a butter knife or other sturdy, non-sharp tool that may be used as a lever, pry/pop/dislodge the biscuit dough balls from the muffin tin.  Put them in a gallon sized freezer Ziploc labeled for content and with baking directions. Label the bag.  Please.  You won't remember what this is or how to bake it a month from now.  Cookie dough and drop biscuits look uncannily similar when frozen. 

Return the Ziploc baggie full of delightful cheesy biscuits to your freezer to use later.

To bake, remove the desired number of biscuits from the freezer.  Place them about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Let them thaw 5 minutes or so while the oven preheats to 425.  Bake for 9 to 12 minutes, until golden brown. Reminder:  All ovens bake differently.  Adjust bake time and temperature accordingly. 

If you'd like to bake the biscuits immediately after preparing the dough, bake at 425 for 7 to 9 minutes, or until biscuits are dry set and golden brown.

My son said these biscuits tasted like Tabasco Cheezits.  Winning!  :-)   I think they would be wonderful with Chicken Velvet or Loaded Baked Potato Soup. Omit the cayenne to serve with chili.  Enjoy, and let me know how they work out for you.

Blessings,
Wyndy

Spicy Cheddar Biscuits

Sourcing

China: Johnson Bros Old Britain Castles

Food processor: Cuisinart

Cookie dough scoop: Pampered Chef

Muffin tin: Doughmakers