Biscuits are the South’s staff of life (with corn breads a close second) and clever cooks stir in everything
from benne seeds to sweet potatoes to sharp Cheddar. Though cheese biscuits are usually baked full-size and served with meals, Southern hostesses sometimes make them bite-size, slip in slivers of Smithfield ham, and pass with cocktails. Tiny biscuits need less oven time perhaps only 10 minutes; the recipe here should yield about three dozen 1-inch biscuits.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sifted self-rising flour
- 1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground hot red pepper (cayenne)
- 1⁄3 cup firmly packed cold lard
- 1⁄2 cup coarsely shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (the sharpest you can find)
- 3⁄4 cup cold buttermilk
How to Make It
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, and cayenne together in large mixing bowl, then with pastry blender, cut in lard until texture of coarse meal. Add cheese and toss well. Make well in middle of dry ingredients, pour in buttermilk, then fork lightly to form soft but workable dough.
- Turn dough onto lightly floured surface, knead 3 or 4 times, then using lightly floured rolling pin, roll to 1⁄2-inch thickness. Cut into rounds using floured 21⁄2- to 23⁄4-inch biscuit cutter and space about 11⁄2 inches apart on large ungreased baking sheet. Gather scraps, reroll, and cut as before.
- Bake in lower third of oven 12 to 15 minutes until puffed and lightly browned.
- Serve at once no stinting on butter. Or, if you prefer, cool, split, and sandwich back together with slivers of Smithfield or country ham the thinner, the better.
