Introduction
Easy Scratch
Cheddar Biscuits
with Four Ingredients
General Beginner's Video
I first began making scratch biscuits after watching this video. I adapted my own tehniques and added cheddar to my main recipe. You can experiment too, and I'll tell you how to always get beautful half-dome biscuits like mine.
TIME Start to Finish
40 mins
DIFFICULTY
New Beginner to Intermediate
Ingredients
Ingredients

The quality of your biscuits is very much related to the quality of your ingredients. I always get the best I can find. Self-Rising Flour is premixed All-Purpose Flour, baking powder, and salt. To each 1 cup of All-Purpose Flour add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

  1. Self-Rising Flour*, 2 1/4 Cups
  2. One Stick of Cold Butter, 4 oz (salted or unsalted as you prefer)
  3. Cheddar Cheese, 1 1/4 Cups(mild or sharp as you prefer)
  4. Whole Buttermilk or Milk, 1 to 1 1/4 Cups (I prefer buttermilk over milk, and reduced fat versions are not particularly good in my opinion)

Tbsp - tablespoons, tsp - teaspoons, ml - milliliters or cc, fl oz - fluid ounces, oz - ounces

  1. 1 Cup = 8 fl oz = 16 Tbsp = 237 ml
  2. 1/2 Cup = 4 fl oz = 8 Tbsp = 118 ml
  3. 1/4 Cup = 2 fl oz = 4 Tbsp = 59 ml
  4. 1 Tbsp = 3 tsp = 15 ml
  5. 1 tsp = 5 ml
Step One Measuring Flour
Step 1. Measure Flour
  1. Add 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour to your bowl
  2. Be careful to get the measuring cup completely full but also not to pack the flour down while using the metal knife to scrape the flour level (it is easy to get too much or not enough, so be as precise as you can)
  3. If you are trying to make double batches, I have had better luck using two bowls instead of one larger bowl because of the way you will need to mix in the buttermilk/milk later
  1. 1 Cup = 8 fl oz = 16 Tbsp = 237 ml
  2. 1/2 Cup = 4 fl oz = 8 Tbsp = 118 ml
  3. 1/4 Cup = 2 fl oz = 4 Tbsp = 59 ml
Step Two Adding Butter
Step 2. Adding Butter
  1. The butter should be left in the refrigerator so it will be cold before you start cutting it (otherwise it ends up being a greasey mess on your fingers)
  2. Slice the stick of butter in half, then slice off thinner slivers as shown
  3. Cut each sliver in half lengthwise, then slice of small sections, and carefully dumping the two pieces into the flour
  4. One sliver at a time, stir all the pieces into the flour so they won't be stuck together in the mix
Step Three Working In Butter
Step 3. Working In Butter
  1. After you get all the pieces of butter from all the slivers in the flour, stir flour with the wooden spoon until everything is evenly mixed
  2. Use the pastry cutter to further incorporate the pieces into the flour
  3. You will know you are finished when you don't see any recognizable pieces as the pastry cutter works them into the flour
Step Four Working In Cheddar
Step 4. Working In The Chedder Cheese
  1. Once the butter is thoroughly mixed in the flour you can add 1 1/4 cheddar cheese
  2. Use the pastry cutter to mix this into the flour until it is evenly distributed
  3. You may wish to explore other optional flavoring ingredients (bacon bits, seasonings, diced lobster, etc) which should be added inow and mixed in with an even consistency
Step Five Working In Buttermilk
Step 5. Adding Buttermilk
  1. Add buttermilk or milk slowly using 1/4 cups at a time
  2. Mix the flour with the buttermilk using the wooden spoon
  3. Slowly the mixture will become more and more doughy
  4. You will probably use four additions of the 1/4 cup buttermilk, but you probably won't use all of the fifth 1/4 cup
  5. You will know that the mixture is right and ready when there is no visible powdery flour
Step Six Scooping The Dough
Step 6. Scooping The Dough
  1. Fill the ice cream scoop with dough
  2. Use the flat knife to pack it into the scoop so that there are will be empty voids in the biscuit
  3. Use the knife to "slice" off the excess dough in the scoop
  4. Properly filled, the biscuit dough in the scoop will be flat
Step Seven Placing The Dough
Step 7. Placing The Dough
  1. Use the lever on the scoop to carefully place the perfectly domed biscuit on the parchment paper covering the cookie sheet
  2. Place biscuits in the corners first the one in the center where the diagonal lines fromm the corners intersect
  3. 14 biscuits and sometimes a smaller piece for number 15 is the typical number of biscuits
  4. If you add other things like bacon, etc, you can expect to use perhaps all 5 of the 1/4 buttermilk and get a full batch of 15 biscuits
Step Eight Bakong The Biscuits
Step 8. Baking the Biscuits
  1. Set your oven for 450 degrees
  2. When you get better and more efficient, you can start the oven when you begin adding butter at the beginning
  3. The top rack seems to work better for baking the biscuits
  4. At 1900 feet elevation and in my oven, it takes about 18 minutes, but your time may vary between 17 and 19 minutes (you'll need to see what works for you by watching the biscuits closely)
  5. If you find that your biscuits are doughy in the middle, then they may need to bake a little longer (and be on the upper rack)
  6. Biscuits are absolutely the best eaten shortly out of the oven
  7. Reheating leftover biscuits is best done in a toaster or air fryer oven and mine takes about five minutes, though you'll have to watch that they don't burn
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