Cream Biscuits with Cheddar and Herbs

You must make these.

As I was driving home from work one day, I got a sudden craving for some sort of warm, flaky biscuit: light and fluffy with a sharp cheddar cheese (of course) and some sort of earthy herb.  I was going to pair it with this amazing vegetarian vegetable stew recipe that I had been dying to try.  Thankfully, since recently making the gluttonous birthday cake, I had leftover cream in my fridge…and, amazingly enough, all of the other ingredients, too.  Bonus!

These biscuits are amazing, especially right out of the oven.  The texture is soft and slightly chewy, and that outer golden crust seals the deal with a slight amount of crispiness. The cheese?  Oh, man.  I wish you could have smelled the kitchen while these were baking….that buttery aroma of the cheese melting in the oven was almost too much.  I really liked the addition of thyme.  I know that thyme and cheddar pair well together, so I just added it for simplicity’s sake.  I bet if you played around with different types of fresh herbs, you could come up with some pretty delicious concoctions.

Needless to say, as soon as I pulled them out of the oven, I immediately ate the small, deformed one from the back row :).  Although it was still piping hot, it was like heaven.

Cream Biscuits with Cheddar and Herbs

Servings: 8 biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons minced fresh herbs, your choice ***I chose thyme because I had it on hand and it pairs nicely with cheddar

2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese (roughly a 1/2 cup), cut into 1/4-inch pieces

Instructions

1.  Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, fresh herbs, and cheddar in a medium bowl.

3.  Add 1 and 1/4 cups of the cream and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough forms, about 30 seconds.

4.  Transfer the dough to the countertop, leaving all dry, floury bits behind in the bowl.

5.  In one tablespoon increments, add up to 1/4 cup cream to the dry bits in the bowl, mixing with a wooden spoon after each addition, until moistened.

6.  Add these moistened bits to the rest of the dough and knead by hand just until smooth, about 30 seconds.

7.  Pat the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle.

8. Punch out the dough rounds with a biscuit cutter.  Push together the remaining pieces of dough, pat into a 3/4-inch thick round, and punch out several more dough rounds.  Discard the remaining scraps. (Or, do what I do:  I make the odd, deformed one in the back row with the extra dough so I can eat one right away, of course.)

9.  Place the biscuits on the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 18 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Adapted from:  The Best New Recipes.