Small Batch Cheddar Garlic Biscuits (Makes 4 Biscuits)

This small batch recipe for roasted garlic and cheddar biscuits is packed with flavor thanks to lots of roasted garlic, chives, and buttery, flaky layers created by a compound butter laminated into the dough.

They take just a few minutes to make and are even better when made with homemade stand mixer butter and buttermilk.

When I got really into making butter a couple months ago, it was basically inevitable that flavored butters would follow. Follow they did — mostly in the form of this roasted garlic and chive herb compound butter. Because I’ve never met anything I didn’t want to stuff with roasted garlic (see also my recipes for roasted garlic ciabatta and roasted garlic bagels, etc, etc). 

So what’s a person to do with lots and lots of homemade compound butter and fresh, homemade buttermilk? BISCUITS, BABY.

Biscuits are best eaten while still warm from the oven, so I always love a good small-batch biscuit recipe. This recipe will make 4 medium-sized garlic cheddar chive biscuits, or 9 small biscuits, depending on how you cut them.

Garlic cheddar biscuits are a great sub for garlic bread with spaghetti if you don't have time to make garlic bread or knots, but are also so delish with salted butter.

Use pastry flour for the most tender biscuits

Pastry Flour - I used King Arthur Baking's pastry flour blend which has a relatively high protein content for a pastry flour (10.3%). Your biscuits will be flakier and more tender with a pastry flour, but all-purpose flour will also work if that's all you've got.

Roasted Garlic Chive Compound Herb Butter - The full version of this compound butter recipe makes about 200 grams (7 ounces) butter. You only need 60 grams of compound butter for this recipe. Make the roasted garlic and chive herb compound butter in advance so that it has time to chill completely in the fridge. You always want to work with VERY COLD (but not frozen) butter when you’re making biscuits. 

Cheddar cheese - Finely shredded cheddar works best in this biscuit recipe, imo. Grate and chill it until ready to use so it's cold.

Baking powder - This plus the steam from the butter helps your biscuits rise in the oven.

Buttermilk - If you're using homemade buttermilk, it will be thinner and a bit sweeter than the cultured buttermilk you get in stores. I've made these with both homemade and cultured buttermilk and didn't notice too much of a difference between them! Keep chilled until ready to use.

How to get flaky biscuit layers

When it’s time to make biscuits, all you have to do is mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then work quickly to pinch and flatten the cold compound butter into it, and gently stir in the buttermilk. 

Then you shape your biscuits, brush them with an egg wash, top them with flaky salt, and bake them. It’s really just that easy. You can get them in the oven in less than 10 minutes if you’re organized about it (and about 15 minutes if you’re not).

The reason it's so important to keep the butter and buttermilk for biscuit dough as cold as possible (without freezing it) is to get nice, flaky biscuits. Cold butter turns into steam in the oven and pushes the layers of dough apart creating those flaky layers. If the butter is too warm, it will melt out of the biscuits in the oven.

To make these flaky biscuits you’re going to build those layers of butter in two ways.

The first way is a pastry technique called sabler (sab-lay), which involves pinching, smushing, and rubbing the flour into the dry ingredients. It's very easy, fun, and fast!

The second way borrows from a technique called lamination, which involves folding the dough to create horizontal layers of butter within the dough before you cut it.

Once the butter pieces are about the size of nickles and dimes, gently fold in the cold buttermilk just until everything is mostly combined. It’s okay — ideal, even! — if there are still lots of dry bits in the bowl. 

As long as there’s no buttermilk pooling in the bowl and it’s mostly been absorbed in, STOP MIXING. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, etc, etc. 

Then you do the second kind of butter lamination through a quick series of folds. The dough will be messy at first, but after the second fold it will start holding together just fine.

Here's how it works: Turn the whole damp mess of flour and butter out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Cut across it in a cross hatch pattern to cut through any remaining chunks of butter and help redistribute the moisture in the dough. Use your hands and a bench scraper to pat it into a long rectangle shape about ½” high.

Do a letter fold: Slide the bench scraper under the top third of the dough rectangle and fold it down. Then do the same with the bottom third of dough, folding it up over the top fold. This is called a “letter fold" because it's how you fold paper when you mail a letter.

Slide the bench scraper under the folded dough packet and rotate it 90 degrees. Repeat the letter fold again, finishing by rotating the dough packet 90 degrees.

This time, after you rotate it, the dough will be much more cohesive and smooth. It's time to cut the biscuits.

Pat the dough packet out into a 5-inch by 5-inch square shape about 1” tall. Trim the absolute least amount you can off all four sides to release the tension from where the dough was folded so the layers can rise evenly. Pat the excess dough down on top of the biscuit square.

Clean off the edge of your bench scraper so it’s nice and sharp. Then cut the square into four equal pieces. That’s it! Those are your biscuits!

Place on a sheet pan, brush the tops with egg wash, sprinkle with flaky sea salt, and they're ready to bake.

A few quick recipe notes

• This recipes uses a classic 1-2-3 biscuit ratio — 1 part butter, 2 parts buttermilk, 3 parts flour as the base recipe. I’ve adjusted it slightly to account for the fact that the compound butter also has garlic and herbs in it.
• To make just enough compound butter for this recipe you'll need: 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, 2 cloves roasted garlic, 2 tablespoons chopped chives. 1 teaspoon additional minced herbs like rosemary, thyme, or sage optional.
• Always cut and trim the biscuit dough by moving your knife or cutter in an up and down motion. If you slide it in a slicing motion along the counter you’ll close up all the outside layers and your biscuits will be flat. 
• Keep your biscuit ingredients as COLD as possible. If it’s particularly hot or humid in your kitchen, you can even chill the dry ingredients before (or after) you pinch in the butter. Once you add the buttermilk the clock is ticking — work quickly to laminate and shape the dough.
• DO NOT OVERMIX your biscuit dough. Once you add the buttermilk you just want to fold it gently together just until no liquid remains. The flour will continue hydrating and absorbing the buttermilk as you work through the lamination process. At first it might not seem like it will hold together, but by the time you do the final fold, the dough will hold together just fine.
• I use Maldon flaky sea salt to top my biscuits, but any flaky finishing salt is fine.
• Egg wash goes on top of the biscuits, not on the sides. Egg wash is like glue and will stick all your flaky layers together if you brush it on the sides!
• If you don't want your hands to smell like roasted garlic, you may want to wear kitchen gloves while pinching the butter into the flour.
• You can freeze your shaped biscuits on a sheet pan and then transfer them to an airtight container to store in the freezer. Egg wash prior to baking. And add a few minutes to the bake time to account for the colder starting temperature.

📖 Recipe