Monday, November 21, 2011

Baking: Cheddar Bay Biscuits

I am obsessed with the Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster.  No, I’m not exactly a fan of the place, but I’ll go and sit through a meal there just so I can eat those biscuits!  Am I alone here?

Sadly, living in NYC, I have yet to set foot in a Red Lobster because 1) it’s in Times Square and 2) I’m sure it’s an even bigger rip-off than it is back in the ‘burbs of Jersey.  Yet I desperately crave these biscuits.  No other option but to make something similar myself mmm...

My completed Cheddar Bay Biscuits!  Read on for the recipe

After scouring the web for a good recipe, I settled on the one below from allrecipes.com (which is an awesome site btw as they have a recipe for anything you could ever want to make and includes reviews and tips).  I made some Piggy KK adjustments as I went along and, if I do say so myself, made some AWSOME biscuits.  And with Thanksgiving coming up, I thought I’d be nice and share the recipe…

Part 1: Making the biscuit mix
Adapted from allrecipes.com 

You can use Bisquick here instead if you like, but I happened to have the ingredients handy to whip up the mix.  It’s actually pretty easy and for the first time ever I baked something completely from scratch.  This means you can too!

Ingredients (makes 4 cups of mix):
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tablespoons baking powder
4 teaspoons white sugar
2/3 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening (you can also use butter or combo of both)*


Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt).  Then cut in the shortening with a fork or pastry blender** until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 

*I’ve made these biscuits using all shortening and found that the end product wasn’t flakey enough.  Now I use half shortening and half unsalted butter. 
**It’s surprising how much easier it is to mix the dry and wet ingredients together with a pastry blender.  While it’s not necessary, if you are debating getting one I say go for it - makes the mixing easy peasy!!  I got mine for under $6 here at Amazon.

Mix all the dry ingredients then cut in the shortening/butter

When the mixture looks like coarse crumbles its ready!


Part 2: Cheddar bay the biscuit mix!
Adapted from allrecipes.com

The basis of this recipe is from allrecipes.com, but I made a couple adjustments and incorporated some reviewer suggestions into the version below.  Hopefully you enjoy the tweaked recipe as much as I enjoy the finished product!

Ingredients (makes 20 biscuits)
Dough:
4 cups baking mix (made in Part 1)
1 cup (approx 6 oz) of cheddar cheese, shredded
1 1/3 cups water or milk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon dried parsley
dash of Old Bay seasoning

Butter mixture:
½ cup melted butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon dried parsley
¼ teaspoon Old Bay
dash of salt


Shredding the cheese...a "fun" job i designate to the bf lol

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In the mixing bowl with the biscuit mix from Part 1, combine the biscuit mix and all the ingredients under “Dough”. 


Mix all the "Dough" ingredients

Mix until the dough is firm (you can mix with a spoon or a pastry blender). 

When the consistency is like a firm dough its done!

Use a small scoop *** to size dough and place on a lined baking sheet. Bake in your preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

***I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup.  This grabbed just the right amount of dough and helped to shape the biscuits into their circular shape!






Combine the melted butter, garlic powder, salt, onion powder, old bay, and parsley. Brush over baked biscuits 2 minutes before the biscuits are done (to get that golden color as it finishes baking) and again immediately upon removal from oven. 

Brush on the melted butter and seasoning for some added color and flavor

Now enjoy!  These biscuits taste best while hot so def sneak a taste when they come out of the oven.



If you are saving a couple to enjoy over the next few days (which may not go as planned because these puppies seem to fly off my counter), a couple seconds in the microwave or toaster oven will do wonders! 

Give this recipe a go and let me know how it goes!

Thanks for reading – Piggy KK

No comments:

Post a Comment