There's nothing better to drive out that creeping fall chill in your bones than a flaky, buttery toasty warm biscuit, ideally dunked into hot soup. Except maybe a flaky, buttery cheesy biscuit, with a little spice to warm you. These have all the carby-and-buttery-goodness of buttermilk biscuits, with extra little puddles of gooey cheese and pops of chili heat. The leftover biscuits, should you have any, are a great base for some breakfast eggs.
These will go with any soup you like; I ate mine with super garlicky cream of tomato soup, I'll post that recipe here soon! A biscuit or two makes a bowl of soup into a proper meal.
spicy cheese biscuits:
adapted from Fine Cooking
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus a little for rolling the dough
1 tbs sugar
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cold butter
3/4 cup cold buttermilk (or milk soured with a squeeze of lemon juice)
2 cups grated cheese (I used half sharp cheddar & half montery jack with jalepenos)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbs jalapeno slices, roughly chopped
Preheat the oven to 500° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
Chop the butter into pea sized cubes. Toss them into the flour mixture and use your fingers to separate them and coat them in flour. Don't smash or handle the butter too much, it should stay in little lumps. Add buttermilk and stir until the milk is absorbed and the dough comes together in a lump.
Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and lightly dust with a little more flour. Press or roll the dough into a rectangle about 3/5 " thick. Sprinkle 1/2 cheese, cayenne and jalapeno down the centre of the rectangle and fold the sides over to cover cheese, in the same way you would fold a letter into thirds. Roll dough out again and repeat with remaining cheese. Roll out again into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick and cut into squares, I made 8 pretty large biscuits, this could make 12 smaller ones.
Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden, rotating the baking pan halfway through.
