Cheddar-Jalapeno Biscuits

I needed a side to go with a big ol' bowl of Crab and Corn Chowder, and also wanted something a little spicy. So I jazzed things up a bit and created these Cheddar-Jalapeno Biscuits. They are sooo good. They're light and fluffy, but the cheddar cheese gets nice and toasty, giving them a pleasant crunch.

Like all biscuits, they start with a bowl of flour. The flour gets blended with baking powder and salt.

Next is some cold butter. It's important for flaky biscuits that the butter be cold, like right-out-of-the-fridge cold.

Cut the butter into the flour. You could use a fork or a pair of knives, or use a pastry cutter, like I've got. You could also give the flour and butter a few whirrs in a food processor. Or you could use a grating tool and grate the stick of butter right into the bowl of flour.

Once the butter is in small pieces and the flour mixture resembles coarse crumbs, you can add your flavors to the biscuits.

I used a small can of diced jalapenos (you could use fresh if you had them), lots and lots of freshly ground black pepper, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Mix the cheese, pepper, and jalapenos into the flour mixture. Then use your spoon to make a well in the center of the mixture.

Pour your buttermilk in, and stir just enough to make sure everything is nice and moist.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly-floured surface.

Pat (or roll) your dough about an inch thick.

Dip a biscuit cutter (or, if you don't have a biscuit cutter, a drinking glass) in flour and then press it into the dough. Do not twist when you cut! Twisting will prevent your biscuits from rising to their full potential.

Place the biscuits on a greased cookie sheet. If you like biscuits with crisp outsides, make sure you keep your biscuits at least an inch apart from one another. If you like softer biscuits, put them right up next to each other.

I used a smaller, 2" biscuit cutter, rather than the larger 3" one. That's why it looks like I've got so many biscuits.

Brush the tops of the biscuits with more buttermilk. If you don't have any more buttermilk, melted butter, milk, or a beaten egg will do the job too.

Grind a little more pepper over the tops of the biscuits.

Pop the biscuits in the oven for 15-20 minutes (add another 5 minutes if your biscuits are spaced close together or are larger.)













Serve these biscuits with Chunky Minnesotan Chili, Crab and Corn Chowder, or Tortilla Soup. Fill them with ham, turkey, or even BBQ beans. You and your family will love them!

Recipe: Cheddar-Jalapeno Biscuits

2 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
4 tablespoons cold butter
1 small can (4 oz.) chopped jalapenos
lots of freshly ground black pepper
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. buttermilk

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.

Add butter; using knives or pastry cutter, cut butter into flour. Continue cutting until the flour mixture appears crumbly.

Add jalapenos, black pepper, and cheese. Mix well.

Use a spoon to dig a well into the middle of the dry ingredients. Add buttermilk. Stir to combine.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat to about a 1" thickness. Cut the dough into biscuits. Place on a greased cookie sheet. For biscuits that are crisp all the way around, leave about 1" between each biscuit. For fluffier, softer biscuits, leave the edges of the biscuits touching.

Brush the tops of the biscuits with more buttermilk. Grind more black pepper over the tops.

Bake at 425F for 15-20 minutes if biscuits are evenly spaced; add about 5 minutes more if biscuits are touching.

Old-Fashioned Biscuits And Gravy

Mr. Kim Chee loves biscuits and gravy. When we go out to breakfast at ToKen BBQ, he likes to order their biscuits and gravy. They bring out these humongous biscuits and a whole soup bowl full of sausage and milk gravy. Mmmm. They're sure not good for you, but they are good to eat! And they're pretty easy to make at home.

I started out with a pound of sausage.

Get it going in a pan. I like to use a pan that isn't nonstick--the little bits that stick to the bottom of the pan are flavor.

Keep poking at your meat to break it into small pieces. When it's all nice and browned, you'll need to add some flour.

And you'll also have to add in some oil and butter. Yes, I know--it's already bad enough for you. But sausage today is pretty lean, and you don't get enough drippings to make a good gravy. So to make the fat-to-flour ratio even, you'll have to add in fat. Deal with it.

When you've got everything stirred together, you can add in your milk.

The best milk gravies are made with whole milk. But we don't drink whole milk, and I hate buying it because then we have to figure out what to do with the rest. So I used 2 cups of 2 percent milk and a half cup of half-and-half.

Give your gravy a hefty dose of salt and pepper. If you taste your gravy later and think something is missing, you probably just need to add more salt and pepper.

I also added a little dried sage.

Decrease your heat a bit and give your gravy some good stirs. Let it come to a heavy simmer so it can thicken up for you.

Oh my goodness. How good does that look?















For my biscuits, I just used my Flaky Biscuits recipe. I made them before starting the sausage and had them on standby while the gravy made itself. You could use any biscuit recipe you like (even canned biscuits, although don't tell me if you do!) I like some flavor variety so I made some scrambled eggs and hash browns, too. These biscuits make a rich dinner treat, and both the gravy and biscuits reheat wonderfully for breakfast the next day. Make these for your family--you won't regret it!

Recipe: Old-Fashioned Biscuits and Gravy

1 lb. breakfast sausage

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 c. flour

2 c. milk
1/2 c. half and half

salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon dried sage


In a large saucepan (preferably not a nonstick pan), brown sausage over medium-high heat. Constantly break up the meat so it's in small pieces.

Once the sausage has browned, add butter, oil, and flour. Stir until butter is melted and everything is combined.

Add milk and half and half. Give everything a good stir.

Season with salt, pepper, and sage. Reduce heat to medium. Allow gravy mixture to come back up to a high simmer to thicken.

Spoon thickened gravy over split biscuits and enjoy!

Flaky Biscuits

These biscuits will want to make you poke that tubby white doughboy out of your kitchen for good! Making biscuits is easy-peasy and you'll know every ingredient in them (what are those hard white bits in the refrigerated biscuit dough, anyway?) And they're even better the next day--stick a chunk of Pineapple and Brown Sugar Glazed Ham in between them, or smother them in gravy and serve them alongside some Homestyle Hash Browns. Or just go simple with some cold butter and jam.

Get out a big bowl and fill it with flour. You could use self-rising flour, or, if you're like me with a small kitchen that's already full, use a mixture of flour, baking powder, and salt. Add baking soda as well. Both the baking powder and baking soda will help your biscuits rise.

Whisk your dry ingredients together well. If you like to sift, you could certainly sift them instead. 


You just want to make sure you get all the lumps of baking powder out. Have you ever bitten into a lump of baking powder? That stuff will dry your mouth out, let me tell you.

Add both butter and shortening to your dry ingredients. The shortening will give you flaky biscuits, while the butter will give them a nice flavor.

Look! I found my pastry blender! No idea where it was, but I'm just glad to have it back. 

If you don't have a pastry blender (also called a pastry cutter or dough cutter), use forks, knives, or your fingers. The whole point is to cut the fats into little pieces and coat them with flour. The little pieces of fat will melt during baking, creating the flaky layers we all enjoy.

When your flour and butter are melded together, it's time to bind them with a liquid. I used plain milk, but you could use buttermilk if you had any on hand.

Gently stir the milk into the flour. You don't want to mix too much--that results in a tough biscuit. You just want the milk to moisten the flour.

Now turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently fold the dough over onto itself about a half-dozen times--another effort to getting nice, flaky layers in your biscuit.

Gently pat the dough into a circle or oval, about 1 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter (or a glass, or a cookie cutter, or a tin can with both ends removed), cut straight down into the dough.


Here's where you'll be tempted to twist the cutter. Fight temptation. Twisting the cutter while cutting your dough will keep your biscuits from rising to their full potential. Just cut straight down, and then pull the cutter straight up.

Now your biscuits go on a lightly greased cookie sheet. I like to place my biscuits so they're just barely touching. That way, when they bake, the touching parts stay soft and fluffy. If you like crisper biscuits, space them farther apart. 

I like to brush my biscuits with something before they go in the oven. Doing this keeps the biscuit tops a bit softer as well. You could use milk or buttermilk, half-and-half or cream, or melted butter. I used half-and-half, and then I sprinkled my biscuit tops with some salt.

Now they're all dressed up and ready to go!














 Hot out the oven biscuits go with any meal. I spread mine with butter and raspberry-blueberry jam from Guldan Family Farm, but they'd be perfect with the foods you like best. Turkey, ham, gravy, eggs, sausage, or butter and jam--whatever you choose, these biscuits will hold their own.

Recipe: Flaky Biscuits

2 c. self-rising flour (or 2 c. all-purpose flour, plus 4 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt)
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 tbsp. butter, chilled
2 tbsp. shortening, chilled
1 c. milk


Preheat oven to 450F.

Whisk flour with baking soda (or flour, baking powder, and salt if not using self-rising flour) until well mixed, to avoid lumps.

Add butter and shortening; cut fat into flour until the pieces are small and pea-sized.

Add milk; gently stir until dough is moist.

Turn dough onto floured baking surface; gently knead dough half a dozen times. Gently shape into a 1-inch-thick round.

Use a floured biscuit cutter to cut shapes out of the dough (do not twist cutter!)

Place biscuits close together on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Brush with cream, half-and-half, or melted butter, and sprinkle with salt if desired.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.