Cheddar Garlic and Rosemary Biscuits

November 16, 2020

There’s nothing like the smell of homemade biscuits. Just breathing it in feels like you’re being hugged (at least it does for me). And when you add Cabot cheddar, garden-fresh rosemary, and piquant garlic to the mix, you’ve got a very aromatic and flavorful biscuit, indeed. I used Cabot’s 1 Year Naturally Aged Cheddar both inside and on top of the biscuits; using an aged cheddar like this adds a much deeper, richer, and more savory flavor to them than a younger un-aged cheddar. Plus, when you enjoy Cabot cheese you know you’re also supporting the 800 families that make up Cabot’s dairy co-op, and their passion for making and sharing natural, award-winning cheese here in the US. Cabot is also a certified B-Corp, and were the first dairy co-op to do so. I love that with Cabot I not only get to enjoy delicious cheese, but also know that I’m supporting a small business that’s rooted in sustainable practices.

The base of this biscuit is a traditional buttermilk, butter, and flour pastry dough. It’s important to keep all the non-dry ingredients cold, because the butter needs to stay firm and chilled until it bakes, otherwise the flaky layers of the biscuit won’t form correctly. When all the ingredients are incorporated into the dough, I like to roll it out into a rough rectangle, then fold it up in thirds (like a letter) to create even more flaky layers. Then I roll out this folded up dough and cut the little biscuit shapes out of it, I recommend using a 2.5-inch round cookie cutter for this.

Biscuits being made

Once it’s all baked up, the grated Cabot cheddar bits give you salty little flavor bursts between the flaky and buttery layers of buttermilk-based dough, and combined with the herbal rosemary and umami garlic, it makes for a deeply flavorful biscuit that I know will be a new holiday staple for you, as it is in our house. Oh! And to find some delicious cabot cheese near you, you can use this nifty ‘where to buy’ locator on Cabot’s site. Enjoy it, my friends!

Cheddar Garlic and Rosemary Biscuits

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword biscuit

Servings 12 people

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter cold and hard
4 ounces Cabot 1 Year Naturally Aged Cheddar Cheese grated
6 cloves garlic very finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup plus 2 to 4 tablespoons buttermilk plus an extra tablespoon for brushing

Instructions

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Grate the butter in the large hole-setting of a grater above the bowl, stopping to stir and coat the butter bits in the flour mixture every 10 seconds. Pinch the mixture together with your fingertips until crumbly, like damp sand. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the grated Cabbot cheddar cheese, and add the remaining Cabot cheddar, garlic, and rosemary to the flour mixture and stir gently to evenly distribute throughout.
Add 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the buttermilk, breaking the additions into 4 increments, stirring gently for 10 seconds after each addition with a fork. If needed, add 2 additional tablespoons of buttermilk to help dough come together (the amount of buttermilk depends on how humid or dry your cooking environment is). The dough should *just* hold together when you squeeze it in your hand.
Gently roll the dough into a rough rectangle that's 1-inch thick, then fold the rectangle up like a letter (see process photos below). Pat down on the folded dough, rotate it so that it's lengthwise facing away from you (this will make it easier to roll out) and roll it until it's 3/4 inch thick. Use a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter to cut the biscuits. Pat any remaining dough into rough rectangle shape, then roll out until it's 3/4 inch thick and cut it with the biscuit cutter again to get as many biscuits out of the remaining dough as you can. You should end up with 12 to 14 biscuits.
Flip the biscuits over (the bottom is usually flatter and more attractive) and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spaced about 1/2-inch apart. Cover them and place them in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly brush the top of each biscuit with buttermilk and sprinkle with a small pinch of the remaining grated Cabot cheddar cheese. Place in the oven and bake until the tops of the biscuits are golden brown, about 17 to 20 minutes.