Biscuits are such an American southern classic. I grew up eating homemade biscuits for every meal (not everyday mind you, but I could have 😉). My southern roots and love for bread are certainly my reasons for making so many of them over the years. In fact, I hardly ever used the same recipe. For me, biscuits are such a simple, versatile bread with changing ingredients depending on what’s available in my kitchen. Thus the origin of my sourdough biscuits.
These biscuits here are NO exception! As it turns out, sourdough starter discard creates an incredibly tender, moist, light, and tangy biscuit. Add some cheese (whatever you have on hand), a little chives or other dried herb, and voilà! You produce a great bake like these incredibly good, traditional, southern American Cheese & Chives Sourdough Biscuits!
Why Did I Choose Biscuits & These Ingredients?
Biscuits and soda bread are about the simplest homemade breads you can bake. They really are just a simple mix of dry and wet ingredients followed by a quick oven bake.
I have, in fact, made biscuits on multiple occasions without measuring any ingredients (judging texture alone). Then, simply dropped spoonfuls onto a small pan and baked in my toaster oven for about 12 minutes.
You can add any ingredients you like as well making them savory or sweet. Given this and the common addition of buttermilk, sour cream, or Greek yogurt in biscuits, adding sourdough seemed to be a given.
I love a quick bread to eat with a simple meal like a salad, soup, or roasted veggies with rice (or other grain). Why not add a sausage patty or some eggs for breakfast… or any meal or snack of the day! You can make a small batch quickly. If you have sourdough on hand and need to use it, biscuits are a quick and easy bread for that. I like a little flare in my dishes, so cheese and chives make something so simple seem a bit elegant.
Let’s Take a Closer Look at These Cheese & Chive Sourdough Biscuits
Since I’m accustomed to creating scratch biscuits focusing on texture alone, this recipe was really no different. I did, however, measure ingredients and play around with quantities until I found the “right” texture and flavor (according to Scott, that is). See my recipe below, but first let’s look at the ingredients and the texture of this yummy bread dough.
Ingredients
Since this recipe comes together very quickly, we need to preheat the oven first to 450˚F/232˚C. High heat is best for biscuits because we generally want a hard, crispy outer crust with a very soft, light, and flaky internal crumb. High heat with small dough balls will create this typical texture expected out and inside the roll.
Mix Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking powder. Save the chives and cheese to add AFTER we cut in the butter or we’ll end up crushing or mashing them.
Butter time and HOW to Get That FLAKY Texture!
In making biscuits or pie crust, the goal is usually to end up with a flaky or layered texture. In order to reach this texture, the trick is to use very cold fat, whether it’s butter or shortening. Ensure your fat (butter or shortening) has been in the fridge and cold just prior to using it. Careful NOT to use your hands much in manipulating the dough because the heat from your hands will heat the fat defeating the purpose.
When making pie crust, be sure your water (or whatever liquid you’re using) is ice cold when adding it to the dough. I always add ice cubes to my measuring cup of water and let them sit in the water while I begin making the dough.
The cold fat, once heated, leaves space between the flour. That, in addition to high heat causing the dough to cook quickly with the fat quickly drying out (or melting into the flour), is what provides those beautiful layers. There is food science to explain this, too. 😊 More on this when I post on making pie crust.
Effective Ways of Cutting In Butter
Pastry Cutter is My Preferred Method
When cutting cold butter into the dry ingredients, my preferred method is to use a pastry cutter. It cuts the butter quickly. efficiently, and effectively. I have found that it always leaves dry ingredients at the perfect grainy/pea-sized texture without warming up the fat in the process.
The Massage Method also Works
You can use this method of massaging the butter between your fingers with the flour. However, I’m personally not a fan. As previously mentioned, the heat from your fingers will heat up the butter causing it to lose its “cold” temperature. Now, if you can do this quickly, you’ll probably be fine and may not notice a difference, but I generally choose not to use this one.
A Good Ol’ Standard Fork Gets the Job Done
While not my favorite method, if I didn’t have a pastry cutter, I would totally rely on the fork. It has the tines needed to cut through the butter like a pastry cutter and does a good job integrating the two together.
Final Look at the Fat and Flour Integration
Regardless of the “cutting in” method, your dry-ingredient mixture should resemble grainy/course sand or tiny peas. You’ll likely have very small chunks of butter which is perfect for that layered texture we want in our baked biscuit.
Cheese & Chives
Now that our flour mixture is well combined with the fat, we can add the cheese and chives. Adding them in after cutting in the butter allows for texture, flavor, and visual appeal as they remain in their chopped or shredded form without being further broken down.
The small cheese chunks provide a nice, melty goo, while the chives add a pretty green color and earthy yet mild onion flavoring. Use any cheese and herb combination you have (or enjoy) such as Feta cheese with Italian seasoning or small chunks of Mozzarella with basil.
And don’t forget the garlic powder! I love adding garlic powder to my cheesy biscuits. Mix it all up before adding the wet ingredients.
Stirring in Wet Ingredient(s): The Main Ingredient in Sourdough Biscuits
Once everything is mixed well, just pour in the sourdough discard and stir well until you reach the small soft dough stage. If you find your dough is dry, just add a tablespoon of milk, mix, and add more, if needed. You can tell if your dough is too dry if bits of flour are left at the bottom of the bowl once the dough as come together.
1 cup of sourdough is really the only liquid needed I didn’t need additional liquid. No flour left behind.
Time for a Little Kneading and Shaping (though NOT necessary)
For this recipe, I wanted to present a traditionally tall, uniformed-shaped biscuit, but usually, I just use a spoon and drop chunks of dough onto a cookie sheet (AKA drop biscuits). You could totally do that with this recipe, but if you want pretty biscuits, then you’ll want to lightly knead the dough into a smooth ball and flatten it out. Careful not to manipulate the dough too much or the heat from your hands will… well, you know by now… melt the fat and prevent the flake. 😊
You could also use cookie cutters, or a small round drinking glass (that’s what my mom and grandma uses/used), or anything else you have that is somewhat sharp and round.
Final Step!
Place the biscuits ~ 1 inch apart on an ungreased or lined cookie sheet. Continue to reshape the dough as needed to use up all the dough. This recipe will produce 12-13 biscuits.
Baking Time!
Oven is screaming hot and ready to quickly bake these guys! Place them in the oven and set the timer for 12 minutes. Check after 12 minutes, and if they haven’t turned golden brown on top, add another 2-4 minutes. My biscuits were ready (in my opinion) at 14 minutes in my oven.
Cheese & Chive Sourdough Biscuits are DONE!
You could certainly rub some butter on the tops as soon as they exit the oven and just before you serve them. Ideally, serve them hot with butter.
Final Cheese & Chive Sourdough Biscuit Look
Let’s take a closer look and check out the inside too!
I tore the above biscuit instead of using a knife, so you could see some of the flakiness. There are nice air holes created by the butter melting into the flour. You can see specks of cheese and chives.
Throw on some scrambled eggs, a fried egg, &/or a sausage patty and you have a tasty, filling breakfast. Add a slice or two of ham and more cheese on a couple of these guys and you have a hearty lunch… biscuit sliders, anyone?!
Final Thoughts…
Baker’s Perspective
This really is a simple, easy to make, quick bread. This is one of those recipes that you can whip up quickly, at the last minute while you finish prepping dinner. You don’t need to knead (ha!), shape, and cut the dough. Just use your hands or a spoon and scoop out balls of dough to place on a cookie sheet. That will make your job much easier.
In fact, you don’t need the cheese or chives. Simply make the basic dough and BAM! You have a hearty meal side. If you don’t have butter, use shortening instead. Overall, this is a simple, tasty, quick bread to make for any meal.
Taster’s Perspective
Of all the sourdough recipes I have created and made, this one is Scott’s favorite. Granted, you must know he’s not a big sweets eater, so anything rich and savory will be his preferred choice every time.
These biscuits are salty from the salted butter and cheese. The chives provide a bit of freshness (from an herb perspective, since they are dried). The sourdough discard added tang like if you were to add buttermilk or sour cream. Since the butter was cold and I limited using my hands (or at least tried), the biscuits were flaky. Little kneading as well allowed for a taller biscuit.
No Sourdough? No Problem!
If this recipe looks interesting to you and you don’t have sourdough, no worries! Follow the directions for the recipe and sub the sourdough discard with milk of your preference. If you find the dough too wet, add flour as you go. I would start with 1/2 cup of milk and add more as you stir it in to limit the need to add flour.
If you would like a visual of making these biscuits, see my short video entitled “Cheese & Chive Sourdough Biscuits: How to Use YOUR Sourdough Discard OR Just Use MILK“.
Cheese & Chive Sourdough Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ¼ cup (½ stick) butter refrigerator cold
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese or any preferred cheese (Colby Jack, Gorgonzola, Feta, Mozzerella, etc.)
- 1 tbsp dried chives (optional) or any dried herb appropriate for the selected cheese
- 1 cup potato sourdough starter or any sourdough starter, 100% hydrated = 50/50- flour/liquid
- milk, if needed Amount depends on the hydration level of your starter. Use enough for the dough to just be moistened.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450˚F / 232˚C.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking powder.
- Add in cubed cold butter. Use your hands, a pastry cutter, or 1-2 forks and cut in or massage butter into the flour mixture blending until mixture is the consistency of course crumbs (grainy or pea sized).
- Add cheese and chives and mix well.
- Stir in sourdough starter and mix until soft dough forms adding milk, if too dry. The dough should be just moistened only. If flour remains, add milk.
- Knead lightly on a floured surface until dough is smooth. Careful not to overwork the dough or butter will melt from the heat of your hands and not be flaky AND/OR the dough will be too dense.
- Pat or roll out dough to ½-inch thickness and cut with 2½ -inch biscuit cutter (or anything round like a drinking glass or cookie cutter). Place ~1-inch apart on an ungreased or lined baking sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.
- Recipe makes ~12 biscuits. Serve hot.
Video
Notes
Interested in other sourdough recipes? Check these out!
New Zealand Potato Sourdough Starter & Bread
Blueberries & Cream Sourdough Muffins
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