Jalapeño-Cheddar Biscuits

These are like those trash Safeway cheese buns (you know the ones, I know you do), but updated for your adult life. It’s one of the few recipes where I’m going to actively encourage you to get orange cheddar specifically – trust me, those little pops of colour are worth it. White cheddar won’t mess up the taste at all, but I will say, I like the contrast of the orange with the biscuit dough (white cheddar would just blend in). These are just terribly terribly easy – every time I make them I assume I’ve missed a paragraph in the directions, but nope, they just actually come together lickety-split. I even tried out a separate batch with GF pastry flour and they were absolutely not garbage at all, which is true miracle when it comes to pastry sans gluten. I despise the selling line of “an easy weeknight dinner”, but screw it, these are a goddamn weeknight delight with a side of fried eggs and maybe some of Leanne’s beans and definitely a good dash of salsa.

Jalapeño-Cheddar Biscuits

Biscuits taken directly from Annie Marshall (Everyday Annie)

Makes 9 biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly + more for dusting
2 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp kosher salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and chilled + more for melting and brushing
3 oz (very roughly 1 cup) orange cheddar cheese, grated
2 jalapeño peppers, finely minced (deseeded if you want the heat to be super mild)
¾ cup whole milk, chilled

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; whisk to blend. Stir in the cubes of chilled butter and toss to coat them in the flour mixture. Use a pastry cutter (or 2 knives if you’re desperate) to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter resembles a coarse mixture of small peas. Stir in the cheddar and jalapeños, tossing gently to combine. Pour the milk over, stirring gently with a fork until a soft, sticky dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface. Using extremely gentle hand movements, tenderly knead the dough until it is just comes together and is no longer sticky. Shape the dough into a 7x7-inch square slab. Cut the dough into thirds lengthwise and widthwise to yield 9 biscuits. Transfer the biscuits to a lined baking sheet and brush the tops with some melted butter.

Bake for ~18 minutes, rotating the baking sheet from front-to-back halfway through cooking, until the tops are golden and the bottoms are crispy. If your oven runs hot, maybe start peeking in on them at around the 14-15 minute mark. Transfer the baked biscuits to a wire rack and let cool slightly. Definitely serve these with enormous portions of fried eggs, salsa, avocado, and beans. Have a friend do it if the hangover that necessitates this has become blinding.