Oh how I love Saturday morning breakfasts! After a week full of healthy smoothies, nothing beats the smell of freshly brewed coffee, eggs frying and bacon sizzling. Calories don’t count on the weekends, right? So, with that in mind, I decided to whip up a batch of tender, little biscuits for our breakfast this morning.
Biscuits are so much fun to make (the dough is soft and just beautiful to work with) and they are so versatile too. You can have them for breakfast or with dinner, and, of course, they’re a match made in heaven with fried chicken! Biscuits also lend themselves to being prettied up with all kinds of ingredients. Throw in some cheese, fresh herbs or sundried tomatoes, for example. Or, make them a little sweeter and use them to make strawberry shortcakes!
The biscuits I made this morning have aged Gouda and chives. Such a lovely combo. Especially when served with slowly scrambled eggs and roast ham!
Enjoy and have a great weekend!
PS: Some important tips:
-Make sure the butter is really cold! I cut mine in cubes and stick it in the freezer while I prepare the rest of the ingredients and heat up the oven.
-Combine the ingredients well, but do NOT overmix! Otherwise, your biscuits will come out tough and not flaky as they’re supposed to.
-Place the biscuits close together on the baking sheet. This helps them cook more evenly.
Aged Gouda & Chives Biscuits
Make approximately 10 biscuits
- 260g all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 120g cold butter, cubed
- 240ml buttermilk
- 100g grated aged Gouda
- 3 tbsps chopped chives
Preheat the oven to 220C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Put half of this mixture in a food processor fitted with a pastry blade and add in the butter. Pulse a few times and return to the bowl with the other half of the dry ingredients. Quickly knead while in the bowl, breaking up any remaining lumps of butter. Make a well in the center and add in the buttermilk, cheese and chives. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything comes together and then empty everything onto a well-floured surface. Roll out with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 1/2 an inch, fold the dough onto itself and roll again. Do this 3 or 4 more times (folding and rolling). Make sure you end up with a piece of dough that’s about 1 inch thick. Cut out biscuits of about 2 1/2 inches (using a well floured cookie cutter or rim of a glass) and place next to each other on the baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, reduce the heat to 200C and bake for an additional 18-20 minutes. You may need to cover the biscuits with foil half way through if they are browning to quickly. Serve with plenty of good butter!