Easy Cheddar Biscuits

I dub this week cheese week! I know I've been hitting you guys up with a lot of different sweet stuff lately, so just for a little bit of a change this week we're doing some good cheese dishes!

And I know it's easy to just go buy some biscuits in a can... just pop it open and put it on the cookie sheet. But I have to tell you, homemade biscuits are absolutely delicious. You can flavor them in so many different ways... cheese, chives, garlic... you name it!

And they're super easy too! Don't believe me?

Well let's get started, shall we?

I actually had to go out and purchase cream of tartar for this, because I didn't seem to have any in my cupboard. But everything else is pretty standard for a baking cupboard. Flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and butter.

This first thing we want to do is actually cut our half stick of butter into cubes...

Plop the cubes on a plate...

And stick that in the fridge!

Cold butter makes your biscuits flaky, and I know every Canadian ever just rejoiced about our choice of beer.

I like drinking good Canadian Beer during the Winter Olympics hosted by... Canada. Okay??

Now you're going to measure out one cup of flour, lightly fluffed (not packed).

And add 2 teaspoons of baking powder...

1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar...

1/4 teaspoon sugar...

And 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

I dump everything into a bowl and fluff it all together with a wire whisk, until it's nicely combined.

Then we're going to throw in our very cold butter. Make sure that butter is seriously cold, this will make for a nice flaky biscuit!

Now I'm not even going to lie. I don't have a pastry cutter. I haven't ever thought about purchasing one, it has never crossed my mind.

So I do what many people do... the two knives trick!

Just cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have something resembling a course crumb mixture.

Then throw in your 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese...

And slowly add in 1/3 of a cup of milk, stirring in between pours.

Soon you're going to get a nice dough going. Go ahead and stop once you do, you don't want to over mix biscuit dough!

Now go ahead and put your dough on a lightly floured surface...

And kneed it until it's smooth and combined. Really, about 10 kneeds should do it. If you overkneed your dough it's going to be a much tougher biscuit and no one really wants that.

Now from here I go a little unconventional. Just because I don't like biscuit scraps.

Go ahead and form your dough into about a 6 inch square.

Then cut into 9 squares.

This makes sure you use all of your dough, leaving behind none of the scraps a conventional cutter would leave.

Of course if you like the rounder biscuits you are more than welcome to go ahead and do that instead!

Now just spray your cookie sheet...

And place those biscuits on there, baking at 450 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes!

Just... don't be like me and forget you have them in the oven.

They're not burnt. But they're certainly not slightly brown either.

But I don't care what anyone says.

They are still delicious!!

Easy Cheddar Biscuits

1 cup flour

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut up

1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Mix flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, sugar and salt in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in Cheddar cheese. Add milk; stir until mixture forms soft dough.

Place on lightly floured surface; knead 8 to 10 times or until smooth. Pat out dough into 6-inch square. Cut into nine squares. Place on ungreased baking sheet.

BAKE 10 to 12 min. or until golden brown.

Serves 9.