Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits

I love biscuits.  I've yet to meet a biscuit that I didn't like.  I like biscuits SO much, that I was willing to spend twice as long as it normally takes to make them so that I could convert this recipe from grams to the  U.S. way of measuring ingredients. 

I have a plethora of baking recipes in which one needs a kitchen scale and a large collection of plastic containers.  Everything gets weighed so everything needs its own container.  I happen to have a container addiction so that's not a problem. The problem is that only a modicum of you lovely peoples owns a digital scale and I'd sort of like this blog to grow and become quasi famous, and if I start posting recipes where you need a scale and you don't have one, you'll cry and then tell me to suck rocks or something mean like that and then no one will be making my recipes and people will go without biscuits and the world will end and Zu-Zu will lose her petals and mass chaos will ensue.  


Because I don't want to be the reason that the world ends, let alone the reason that Zu-Zu loses her petals AGAIN (someone get that girl a chia pet- they're much easier to keep track of) I decided to convert the recipe despite the fact that I loathe recipe converting like I loathe those 3 or 4 crazy goat hairs that are growing out of my chin.  

When converting it's helpful to know that there are roughly 28.3495 grams in one ounce.  1 ounce is equivalent to 2 Tablespoons, 2 TB is 1/8 of a cup and so on and so forth.  You can see why converting my biscuit recipe could turn out to be a major pain in my toosh.  I'm now officially dreading the task of converting my Oreo Cheesecake recipe.  But more on that later.

Before went to culinary school I measured my ingredients by volume, not by weight.  Since learning to bake, by using the metric/weight system I can truly say I prefer it.  It takes a little extra time, but I feel there is MUCH less room for error and since baking is a science, and cooking is more like art, I feel strongly that purchasing an affordable digital kitchen scale is something you should do. Once you see how whacky some of the converted amounts are, you might agree and come begging me for the amounts in grams. :)

Hopefully you've been good girls and boys and Santa will bring you one.  Or maybe some digital scale company will see that I have massive amounts of love for digital scales near and far and will gift me one to give away to one lucky follower.  How cool would that be?

This is a very basic biscuit recipe.  Nothing fancy other than the brand of cheddar that I chose to use. You can use a little extra jalapeno if you have a hankering for some additional heat.  I enjoy making these to go with homemade chili on occasion.  Sometimes I'm not in the mood for the standard cornbread with my chili, and these biscuits are a nice departure from that.

Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits

Recipe Adapted from Le Cordon Bleu
Makes: 8-10 3" round biscuits


If you don't have any buttermilk, you can make a fairly decent substitution.  Just measure out your milk, minus 1 TB and replace that with white vinegar.  Let it sit for about 5-7 minutes to coagulate and Viola- "Buttermilk"!


INGREDIENTS:
 
1-3/4 cups + 2TB All Purpose Flour
1 TB + 2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 TB + 1/2 tsp. Granulated Sugar
1-3/4 tsp. Salt
1/3 cup + 1 TB + 2 tsp. Shortening/Lard
3 TB Whole Eggs, at room temperature. (beat two whole eggs well, then measure amount.  Use the rest for your egg-wash, just combine with a TB of water, and stir well- set aside.)
3/4 cup + 1 tsp. Buttermilk (Make sure the egg and buttermilk are at room temperature)
3/4 cup Shredded Cheddar.  I used Kerrygold Dublinger from Trader Joe's
2 tsp. Jalapeno- diced fine and seeded


DIRECTIONS:

**Preheat oven to 375 if you have a convection oven, or 400 if you do not.

1. Using a piece of plastic wrap, place your shortening/lard on the plastic wrap and fold excess plastic over the top of the shortening/lard.  Flatten to about 1/2" thickness with the palm of your hand.  Place in the freezer for 5-7 minutes. 
2. Remove seeds and finely dice the jalapeno, set aside. 
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
4. Remove shortening/lard from the freezer, and cut into very small squares using a bench knife or cookie cutter.  Work quickly.
5. Using fingers or a pastry blender, cut the shortening/lard pieces into the sifted dry ingredients until it is the size of small peas.  You want your mixture to look mealy.  See picture below.
6. Make a large well in the middle of the flour/shortening mix.
7. Add the eggs and buttermilk. 
8. Start combining the ingredients with a fork or your hands- be gentle and don't over mix.
9. Add the shredded cheddar cheese and jalapenos.
10. Add additional buttermilk if needed.
11. When the dough is combined, remove from bowl, and put on a well-floured surface.
12. Gently fold the dough over.  Pad the dough down and fold it again.
13. Repeat the padding down until the dough is combined.  Treat this dough as if you're working with arthritic fingers.
14. Gently roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1" in thickness.
15. Using a biscuit cutter, or empty soup can or a glass with the rim floured, punch out the biscuits careful to not twist the cutter when punching down or your biscuits will rise on one side only- like most of mine did because I misplaced my biscuit cutter and had to use a glass.
16. Place rounds onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
17. Brush egg wash on top of the biscuits, careful to not let any egg drip down the sides of the biscuit, or it won't rise properly.

**Bake in a 375 degree oven with convection on for 20-25 minutes.  Or 400 degrees if you don't have a convection oven. Check on them at 15 minutes. Rotate halfway through baking.

My Jalapeno didn't make it into these biscuits, so there is a noticeable lack of green specks in the dough.

The picture in the top row, middle is how your flour should look after cutting in the lard/shortening.

1- The cheddar I used. 2- how dough should look after lard is cut into the flour. 3- some of the ingredients. 4- dough after mixed by hand in the bowl. 5- dough rolled out into a rectangle. 6- biscuit rounds on parchment lined sheet tray and brushed with egg wash. 7- fresh out of the oven. 8- Their first real photo shoot. 9- close up so you can see the cheesy goodness.