One of our most popular biscuits at the restaurant is studded with crisp bacon and cheddar cheese. It’s used for a biscuit sandwich that’s an elevated version of the classic bacon, egg, and cheese, so you get bacon and cheese in two forms. As these biscuits bake, the cheddar melts throughout each layer, creating pockets of gooey cheese that alternate with bits of bacon, a heavenly combination.
Bacon Cheddar Biscuits
Cook’s Note: You can easily substitute cooked chicken or turkey sausage for the bacon.
Ingredients
- 2-1/2 cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour, plus extra for folding and cutting
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons dried chives
- 1-1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold
- 1 cup finely diced crisp cooked bacon
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 cup full-fat buttermilk, cold
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Place the flour, baking powder, dried chives, pepper, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
- Using the slicing side of a box grater, slice the butter into the flour mixture. Toss the sheets of butter in the flour. Add the bacon and cheddar and toss gently to combine. Then lightly work the butter pieces between your fingers or use a pastry cutter to break them up and coat them with flour. Stop when the dough resembles coarse sand and there are still some small visible pieces of butter.
- Add the buttermilk and stir gently with a spatula until a dough forms into a ball and no dry bits of flour are visible. The dough will be shaggy and sticky.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and lightly dust with flour. With floured hands, pat the dough into a ½-inch-thick 11 × 6-inch rectangle. Fold the ends of the rectangle toward the center, one end on top of the other, to create a trifold. Dust the top lightly with flour, press out to the same size rectangle again, and repeat the folding. Repeat this process a third time. After the third folding, pat the dough to a ½-inch thickness and cut out the biscuits using a floured 2½-inch biscuit cutter. Be careful to press straight down and do not twist the cutter.
- Place the biscuit rounds 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Gather the scraps, reshape them, and pat the dough out to a ½-inch thickness. Cut out as above. Discard any remaining scraps.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the pan once halfway through, until the tops are golden brown. Serve immediately.
Notes
Reprinted with permission from Still We Rise by Erika Council, copyright © 2023. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Photographs by Andrew Thomas Lee.