Jalapeno-Cheddar Biscuits

I love the combination of Jalapeno and Cheddar. When I lived in New Orleans, every once in a while, I'd pick up a sort of Jalapeno-Cheddar Bubble-Loaf, all nice and soft and squishy with tons of cheesy-spicy goodness. Then, when I moved to New York, I had the pleasure of enjoying many loaves of Jalapeno-Cheddar Bread baked by my sister and one of my nephews. That one makes for awesome grilled-cheese sandwiches, toads in a hole, etc. I haven't gotten around to baking it yet myself, but I'm thinking it's about time.

Every now and again, I'll get a craving for something jalapeno-cheddar but don't want to wait around long enough to deal with a yeast recipe. That's when a muffin, scone, or biscuit recipe comes in handy. This time around, it was biscuits - super quick biscuits since I make them in the food processor. You can use fresh jalapeno if you like, but I used canned. I debated using fresh but realized that I would have ended up grilling them so they didn't go in raw, and since the whole point was a "quick" recipe ...

INGREDIENTS :

2 c flour

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 t sugar

1 stick butter, divided (5T / 3T)

1 c shredded cheddar

3 T canned diced jalapeno

1/2 c +/- milk 

1. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar to your food processor and pulse to combine.
2. Chop the 5T butter into small pieces, add to the food processor and pulse two or three times just to get started.
3. Add the shredded cheddar and jalapeno (drained), and pulse until a pebbly texture forms - I used fresh shredded cheddar. If using pre-shredded, add a bit more because the fresh is softer/finer and takes up less space by volume in a measuring cup.
4. While pulsing off and on, drizzle the milk through the feed tube until the dough starts to pull together into a ball.
5. Turn out onto work surface and pat to about 1" thick.
6. Spray baking sheet, or line with parchment or a Silpat, and either drop or cut dough into shapes and transfer to prepared baking sheet.
7. Bake at 400 for 18-20", until golden
8. Melt the remaining 3T butter together with 1t of the liquid from the jalapenos and brush over the biscuits and soon as they come out of the oven.

Middle - light and fluffy

Bottom - golden brown

 

I got a little heavy-handed with the milk this time and the dough ended up very soft, so it wasn't in the mood to be shaped nicely. I was afraid they would turn out very dense, but not at all, so if you also get a little heavy-handed with the milk, don't panic and feel you need to add more flour - just make your biscuits free-form.

With this batch, I made 7 large biscuits. I'm thinking these would be really good with some chicken, veggies and gravy poured over the top like chicken and dumplings. Dang, wish I hadn't polished off the chicken in a chicken salad.

I stowed the extra diced jalapenos in a little zip-lock bag in the freezer for future use - sometimes I'll add them to a mac and cheese, toss into a frittata, blend into a cheese sauce to pour over baked potatoes ...