What is the secret to biscuits?

Use Cold Butter for Biscuits When the biscuit bakes, the butter will melt, releasing steam and creating pockets of air. This makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside. We default to our Land O Lakes® Salted Butter when baking biscuits.

What ingredient makes biscuits hard?

To use a food processor, pulse together dry ingredients, then add chilled diced butter and pulse just until the largest pieces are pea-sized. Add just 3/4 cup half and half and pulse only until combined. Why are my biscuits hard? Overworking the dough can release gluten strands and cause biscuits to be tough.

What makes biscuits rubbery?

Over-handling the dough can additionally over-develop the gluten protein in the flour , yielding a tough and chewy bite. As a general rule, handle the mixed dough as little as you can in order to roll, layer, or shape it.

Is buttermilk or heavy cream better for biscuits?

Buttermilk also adds a subtle tang. Cream biscuits are made with heavy cream . Cream biscuits are beloved because they're incredibly easy-to-make. But, since cream is much milder than buttermilk, they won't be quite as flavorful (unless you incorporate more spices and seasonings).

Should you chill biscuits before baking?

Nearly all biscuit and cookie doughs benefit from being chilled before they are rolled out or shaped . This helps to solidify the butter, meaning the biscuits hold their shape better during cooking. It also stops them from being too greasy.

What is the simple secret to taller biscuits?

The biggest tip for creating tall and flaky biscuits is to put the biscuits in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking them . Once they are on the baking sheet, just pop the whole thing in the freezer.

What temperature do you bake biscuits at?

A hot oven helps biscuits bake—and rise—quickly. We recommend 475˚F for 15 minutes.

How do you make biscuits rise higher?

Conclusion: More baking powder makes the biscuit rise more (imagine that!). About 1 tablespoon of baking powder per 2 cups of flour seems to be about the right amount, but even halving or doubling this amount should not ruin your biscuits.

What ethnicity is Joanna from Chip and Joanna?

Personal life. Gaines was born Joanna Stevens on April 19, 1978, in Wichita, Kansas to Korean immigrant, Nan Stevens; and American of Lebanese–German heritage , Jerry Stevens. Her parents met in Seoul, South Korea in 1969 when Jerry was stationed there with the United States Army.

What does Joanna call Chip?

Joanna, 44, revealed in an Instagram Reel just how much she and her husband love to call each other " babe ." In the nearly 30 second clip posted on Valentine's Day, the couple trade the pet name back and forth about 14 times in a video montage of several scenes from their show Fixer Upper: Welcome Home and Fixer Upper: ...

Does Joanna Gaines eat healthy?

“Typically with sweets, I go all out,” she says. “If you're gonna make the cake, just make the cake.” The key, of course, is moderation. Gaines does stress that most of her family's food includes things like the nutritious vegetables and fruits that grow in their own garden —like this beautiful broccoli!

Ridiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits (2024)

Total Time: 30 minutes

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These tall, flaky, Ridiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits are melt-in-your-mouth-delicious. They'll have you quite smitten, at the first bite!

Growing up in the Midwest, I was never a biscuit aficionado. There was a good reason; the only biscuits I ever tasted were the kind that popped out of a tube. You know, the ones found in the dairy section of every local grocery store. They were nothing like these tall, flaky, Ridiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits that will melt in your mouth and have you smitten with the first bite!

All that changed when Scott and Imoved to North Carolina in the early 80's. At first, we laughed when we discovered that, in the South, there were entire restaurants devoted just to biscuits!How crazy is that, we thought. But the laugh was on us, because when we tasted our first southern biscuits (at a fast food chain, of all places!), we loved them. We had to (literally) eat our words. The biscuits were tall, flaky, super light and incredibly delicious.

My mom was a big bread maker so I was familiar with yeast baking, but not biscuit making. I tried the "biscuit thing" a couple times over the years, but the results were not stellar (at all). I began to think that perhaps you needed a bit of southern lineage to a be a good little biscuit maker.

Easier, quicker and just as delicious!

But a few years ago, I discovered an amazing technique created by the smart folks over at Cooks Illustrated.They figured out a way to simplify biscuit making that blew me away the first time I tried it.

The traditional biscuit technique calls for combining flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt, then “cutting” in cold butter with a knife, a pastry cutter or between your fingers. The liquid is then added and everything is gently combined. If done correctly, the tiny pieces of butter are evenly distributed throughout the flour mixture, giving classic buttermilk biscuits their lightness, flakiness and layers of peelable, buttery deliciousness. This might not seem like a difficult task, but it was one I just couldn't seem to master.

The Cook’s Illustrated technique is totally different… and ridiculously easy! The first time I tried it, I squealed a little when I opened the oven door to check my biscuits. Tall, golden, beautiful biscuits greeted my eyes and I've had the same results every time since. These days, I'm feeling like a bona fide southern girl, finally a legitimate biscuit maker!

What's the technique? So easy! Just place a cup of buttermilk (one of the secrets of delicious biscuits) in the freezer for a few minutes while you melt butter in the microwave. Let the melted butter cool while stirring together the dry ingredients. The melted butter is then combined with the super cold buttermilk. This is where the magic begins!

When the warm butter hits the cold liquid, small, buttery globules form.When this buttermilk mixture is added to the dry flour mixture and it’s all stirred together, you’ll notice tiny pieces of pale yellow butter dotting the simple dough. Yup, it will look just as if you spent the time to cut them in!

I shared this technique several years ago in this post called Ridiculously Easy Buttermilk Biscuits.

Since then I've gotten many emails and comments from happy readers who have become expert biscuit makers too. Here are a few I received just in the past couple weeks:

Ridiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits, brand new clothes for an old classic!

For these Ridiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits, I decided to adapt the original recipe to include cheddar cheese and finely sliced chives. Oh my! Another delicious biscuit, perfect for serving with soups, salads and/or just about any main entree. It's just as easy as the original recipe, the cheese and chives are simply added with the dry ingredients. Just like in the original recipe the final step is a brush of butter just as the fragrant biscuits emerge from the oven.

Pick up some cheddar cheese and a bunch of fresh chives next time you're grocery shopping. If you're like me, you might want to run to the store right now! It will take less than 15 minutes to throw these amazing Ridiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits together. Your kitchen will smell incredible, and you too might find yourself squealing a bit when you open the oven door!

Cafe Tips for making theseRidiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits

You can use packaged shredded cheese or shred your own. Either way, make sure it's finely shredded. The biscuits will come out prettier that way.
If purchasing fresh chives at the grocery store, you may find them in nice big bunches in the produce section. Most of the time however, they'll be sold with other herbs in little plastic packages. One package should be fine. If it's not quite ¼ cup, as the recipe calls for, you'll still have delicious results.
Don’t have any buttermilk? It's easy to make your own. Place 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or vinegar in a measuring cup. Fill with milk to measure 1 cup and stir well. Allow mixture to sit for 5-10 minutes or until slightly thickened. The mixture may curdle a bit, that’s okay! Use in recipes in lieu of buttermilk.
Biscuits can be cut with aluminum cans, overturned glasses, and even Mason jar rings, but using these types of cutters (with rounded edges) can compress the sides of the dough and lead to misshapen biscuits. For tall, beautiful biscuits, use a sharp rimmed cutter. I really like the ones that have a little handle to hold on to (see picture below).
You can make theseRidiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits any size you want. Miniature ones are really nice for a dinner party, but if you're making breakfast or lunch sandwiches, larger biscuits are nice. I love these sturdy but reasonably priced biscuit cutters that come in a set of four, allowing you to choose any size you want.

Don’t skip chilling the buttermilk (step 2). It's one of the secrets to good success in this recipe. If the buttermilk is not really cold, the little butter globules won’t form.
If you add the melted butter to the cold buttermilk and you don't see the little butter globules, your buttermilk may not have been cold enough. You can remedy this by placing the mixture in the freezer for another 5-10minutes, then stir again and you should see the magic globules.
I made the original Ridiculously Easy Buttermilk Biscuits several years ago while visiting my daughter in London. I learned the all-purpose flour (Plain flour) in Britain is a bit different and it seemed that I needed more, probably closer to 2 ¼ cups.
These Ridiculously Easy Cheddar Chive Biscuits freeze well. If freezing for later use, underbake them by a few minutes, then cool completely. Then place the biscuits on a sheet pan or a plate. Freeze till frozen, then transfer biscuits to a ziplock bag or air-tight storage container.
If I’m feeling a bit pinched for time or just plain lazy, I’ll just pat the dough into a 6-inch circle and use a bench scraper to cut the dough into wedges. I either put these wedges on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or in a 9-inch cake pan lined with parchment.