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Cheese Biscuits are perfectly buttery and fluffy, with gooey ribbons of cheddar cheese in every bite. I can’t get over how easy they are to make, too. No cutting or rolling makes them my favorite kind of biscuit!
Biscuits have been my jam (ha!) for as long as I can remember. Give me a basket of hot, fluffy biscuits with a pat of butter and I’m happy. After perfecting my easy drop biscuits, I knew I needed to make a cheesy version. This cheese biscuits recipe is the result of playing with the recipe to get just the right amount of cheesy goodness into every bite.
Cheese Biscuits
My family goes just a little bit wild over homemade biscuits. They’ll easily devour an entire batch of these cheesy biscuits before the pot of soup is empty.
I used to try to save a few biscuits to serve with breakfast the next day, but now I just accept that we’re going to eat the entire batch in one sitting. (Or I plan ahead and double the recipe if I want enough to last through breakfast too!)
These cheese biscuits smell amazing as they bake and they taste even better: buttery and cheesy with the perfect fluffy crumb. Just mix, drop, bake, and enjoy.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Flour – I always use all purpose flour for biscuits, but I’m not brand loyal.
Baking Powder – This leavening agent is key for creating tall, fluffy biscuits.
Sugar and Salt – Sugar cuts through some of the bitterness of the baking powder without making the biscuits taste sweet. I use kosher salt to bring all the flavors together.
Milk – Using whole milk gives you moist, rich biscuits. You can swap the milk for a lower fat option, if that’s what you have on hand. I’ve even used water in a pinch, though the results won’t be quite as rich and flavorful as the original and the biscuits aren’t going to brown as nicely.
Butter – You’ll need COLD grated butter for the dough, and some more melted butter to brush on top of the baked biscuits. I use salted butter in everything, unless noted otherwise.
Cheese – Freshly grated cheddar is my choice in this recipe for cheese biscuits. But, other melty cheeses will also work, like Monterey jack and pepper jack.
Notes on Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Box grater
- Fork
- Medium cookie scoop. This medium scoop gives you a dozen even biscuits, batch after batch. And, I love how the spring release makes it effortless to drop the dough onto the baking sheet. Once you’ve baked with a proper scoop, going back to spoons feels like a step backwards.
- Parchment paper
- Baking sheet. These are my all-time favorite. They’re hefty without being heavy, a dozen biscuits fit on one with room to spread, and the price is right. I’ve had some of mine for 20 years, and they’re still going strong!
- Pastry brush
- Small microwave-safe bowl
How to Make Cheese Biscuits
Preparing the Oven: I preheat my oven to 425°F. While it’s heating up, you’ll line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combining the Dry Ingredients: Measure all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. We need to break up any big clumps of flour or baking powder with a fork.
Cutting in the Butter: We’ll add the COLD grated butter to the bowl and use a fork to mix it with the dry ingredients. You want the mixture to look coarse and lumpy, like small pebbles.
Mixing in the Milk: I stir in just enough milk so that the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Folding in the Cheese: Add your shredded cheese to the bowl. I use the same fork to gently mix the cheese into the biscuit dough.
Baking Cheese Biscuits: I swear by my cookie scoop to portion the dough out onto the lined baking sheet. Even biscuits, every time! I pop the sheet into the oven and they finish in about 12 minutes.
Brushing with Butter: While the biscuits are still warm, brush the tops with melted butter. This softens the tops, and also makes them extra rich with buttery goodness.
Expert Tip
Handling the dough as little as possible is the key to pillowy, tender biscuits. The more you work the dough, the more you’ll activate the proteins in the flour. I know from experience that kneading the dough aggressively results in discs that resemble hockey pucks more than biscuits. So, learn from my long ago mistake!
You want to mix the dough just until it holds together. It will look dry and a bit tacky but trust the process. You’ll reap your reward when you open the oven to see beautiful, steaming golden brown biscuits with the perfect soft crumb.
Use COLD Butter – Keeping the butter cold keeps it solid inside the dough. As the biscuits bake, the butter releases steam that expands the dough and creates airy pockets in your biscuits. I often put my butter in the freezer for a few minutes before making the biscuit dough to ensure it stays as cold as possible.
Don’t Add Too Much Milk – Be stingy when you’re adding milk to the mixing bowl. I always add it in super gradually and stop as soon as the dough is tacky enough to hold together. Too much liquid will weigh down your biscuits making them dense and heavy.
Grate Your Own Cheese – Store bought shredded cheese is coated with anti-caking agents that keep it from melting smoothly. So, this is definitely a recipe that benefits from using freshly shredded cheddar from a block.
Serving Suggestions
Try cracking one of these biscuits open straight out of the oven and spreading it with jalapeño honey butter. It’s sweet and a little hot against all that cheddar, and it’s so good! On a cold night, the cheesy biscuits are perfection next to a pot of creamy vegetable soup for an easy dinner.
On a weekend morning, there aren’t many things that top a generous ladle of sausage gravy over a split cheesy biscuit. In case you can’t tell, there’s hardly a way I wouldn’t happily make, serve, and eat these biscuits!
Storage & Reheating
How to Store: In the unlikely event you don’t eat all the biscuits right away, store them at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. For longer storage, double wrap the cheese biscuits in foil and you can keep them in the freezer for up to 30 days.
How to Reheat: Leftover biscuits taste best warm, so I reheat mine in the microwave for 10-20 seconds, depending on the microwave. Wrap the biscuit in a damp paper towel first to keep it moist. Frozen biscuits can be reheated straight from the freezer. Loosely tent the biscuits in foil and place them in a 300°F oven for a few minutes until thawed and warmed through.
More Biscuit Recipes
- Light and Fluffy Biscuits
- Ham and Cheese Biscuits
- Strawberries and Cream Biscuits
- Cheesy Bacon Green Chile Biscuits
- Tender Fluffy Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuits
You are welcome to omit the sugar in the recipe. I find it helps balance the bitterness of the baking powder without making the biscuits actually taste “sweet”.
If your cheese biscuit dough is too crumbly to hold together, it needs a bit more milk. Add a tiny splash at a time until the dough comes together.
I don’t recommend it! Using an electric mixer increases the likelihood that you will over mix your dough and end up with dense biscuits. I find that a simple fork works just fine for mixing the dough.
The most common culprit is overworked dough. I’d also check the expiration date on your baking powder. It can lose potency over time and lack the strength needed to give the biscuits some rise.
Cheese Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ⅓ cup COLD butter grated
- 1 cup whole milk plus more ONLY as needed
- 1 cup freshly shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Grate the butter and dump it into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Use a fork to mix in the cold butter pieces until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with little pea size or smaller lumps throughout.
- Gradually stir in milk – do not dump all the milk in at once! Add just enough milk until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. It should still look somewhat dry and be a bit sticky. Add the shredded cheese and stir or press lightly with your hands to combine.
- Scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. (The medium scoop in this set is perfect for this.) Bake for 12-14 minutes in the preheated oven, until the biscuits are golden brown. Remove from the oven and immediately brush with melted butter.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
