Vermont · Bread
Cheddar and Chive Biscuits
- Easy
- 35 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, fresh herbs arguing happily on top, trailing gentle sweetness.
Ingredients
- 375g flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 170g cold butter, cubed
- 200g sharp cheddar, grated
- 3 tbsp chives, snipped
- 300ml cold buttermilk
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Letter-folding doughRubbing fat into flour
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Whisk the dry ingredients, then cut in the cold butter until the pieces are pea-sized.
- Toss through the cheddar and chives.
- Add the buttermilk and stir just until it comes together: the dough should look shaggy.
- Pat to 3cm thick on a floured board, fold in thirds twice for layers, then cut straight down with a floured cutter.
- Bake at 220C for 15-18 min until risen and golden. 18 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Rubbing fat into flour 47 recipes
- The fat is cold when it starts and still firm when the rubbing stops, and the bowl has not warmed under the hands.
- Stopped early, while it still looks like coarse crumbs with pieces of fat visible in it, not worked on to a smooth even sand, which means the pieces have gone.
- Nothing is greasy or glossy and nothing has smeared into a paste against the side of the bowl.
- Liquid added last and only enough to bring it together: pressed, it just holds, with no wet patch and nothing sticking to the hand.
- Rested cold before it is rolled or shaped, so the gluten relaxes and the fat firms again after being handled.
Where it goes wrong The fat was too warm, or it was rubbed until the mixture looked uniform. Once the fat has melted into the flour there are no solid pieces left to steam apart in the oven, so the bake is sandy or tough instead of flaky, and nothing done later puts those layers back.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre)
- Also Right
- Grüner Veltliner
- From the Taps
- Berliner weisse
- Zero-Proof
- Cucumber-lime water
Green plates want green wines: vinaigrette’s acid meets its match, and the difficult vegetables surrender to Grüner.
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