In one of my PC Black Label Holiday Hors d ‘Oeuvres Hands-on Cooking Classes we made these biscuits. I had two teams make their own batch, they were both delicious, so I knew the recipe was going to be a keeper. I did modify the recipe (oh come now, when was the last time you saw me use a recipe as presented) slightly by adding bacon and chilies to it. In class we served it with the PC Black Label Caramelized Onion spread. At home – because I forgot to buy the Caramelized Onion spread, I served it with the Cabernet Fig spread – yes, equally delicious. Of course you just know I’m going to make my own caramelized onion spread – a few experiments away, yes I’ll share the recipe.
I also didn’t have buttermilk – I get really annoyed by the fact they come in the large containers when all I need is 1 cup. So I make my own with a combo of milk/cream and white vinegar (recipe below). It works fine. If you don’t like bacon (it’s okay, I forgive you), it would be equally delicious with some fresh herbs – rosemary, thyme and/or basil – about 1 tablespoon of each, chopped. The combination of sharpness and heat with the sweetness of the spread is undeniably addictive. So try these, so easy, so delicious. Here’s the recipe, as always – enjoy!
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt (note, the original recipe called for 1 tsp but with the addition of the bacon and the saltiness of the blue cheese, I reduced it to half)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 finely chopped Thai Chili or Habanero or 1/2 tsp Cayenne (yes, also my deviation from the recipe)
couple of grinds of black pepper (to taste)
1/2 cup cubed unsalted cold butter
6 slices of diced bacon – fried almost crisp, drained on paper towel
1 cup crumbled blue cheese (about 4 oz or 125g) – your preference of type, Rosenborg works well
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
Pre-heat the oven to 450f
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper
Combine the flour, baking powder, chili of choice, sugar, salt, baking soda and pepper – whisk. Add in the butter and mix until you get to the small pea stage
Add the crumbled blue cheese and cooked bacon to the mixture – stir to coat, break up any large pieces of blue cheese (if you are using herbs, add them in at this stage)
Add the buttermilk and stir to combine – ensure you stir from the bottom to incorporate all the dry mix – do not over mix, your biscuits will be hard and crumbly
Using 2 tablespoons, one to scoop the other to help drop, drop onto the paper – I got about 45 biscuits (2″ round drop) from this quantity – of course you can make them bigger, but they look much nicer when they are small and you feel less guilty scoffing down 4 small biscuits as opposed to 4 large biscuits (remember portion control)
Bake for 12 minutes – I rotated the pan at 8 minutes when I saw the edges of one side browning faster than the other – then baked for another 4 minutes – mine were done at 12 minutes
The original recipe says 12 – 15 minutes – but 450f is a hot oven, so as always, check at or before the minimum time – know your oven! They were done in 12 minutes in the cooking school as well.
For the buttermilk, no secret here – I used 3/4 cup 35% cream, 1/4 cup 1% milk (we drink 1% at home) and 1 tablespoon white vinegar. Add the vinegar to the cream/milk mix, let it stand for 5 minutes – that’s it, really! If you don’t have cream you can use any type of milk but the higher the fat content the better. Regardless, the ratio is 1 cup milk to 1 tablespoon vinegar.
