• 3 cups White Lily Self-Rising flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup real bacon bits or 10 strips crispy bacon, chopped
  • 1 heaping cup of grated cheddar cheese
  • Freshly grated black pepper for top of biscuits
  • A little extra flour for rolling

Allow me to introduce you to your soon-to-be-favorite bacon cheddar biscuits! How can I be so sure? My family went crazy after I made these this morning! I love, love, love making biscuits and these were super easy to make. Waiting for my family to try one of my new recipes is sort of like Christmas morning. I sometimes ask each of my guys to take their first bite separately so that I can watch each of their reactions! :)

With a few tricks you too can have these ready in just minutes. I’m also sharing my tips on how to make the perfect flaky and light biscuits with you! Why? Because I love you guys!

Tips on making perfect biscuits:

  • Be sure to purchase really good flour — here in the south we like to use White Lily Self-Rising flour for biscuits
  • If you do not have self rising flour, add 1 1/4 teaspoon of aluminum-free aluminum baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt to one cup of flour
  • I like to use my food processor to cut in my butter and I always use very cold butter. You can also place mixture in a large bowl and cut your butter in using a pastry cutter or two forks.
  • To make cubes, cut your sticks of butter in half the long way. Then cut those two sticks in half again, then in cubes trying not touch the butter when cutting and adding it to food processor.
  • Wait!!! Please do not just turn your food processor on! Instead lovingly pulse, pausing in between each pulse. Why, Elise? Because in the end you want different sizes of butter — some pea size pieces, others larger and everything in between
  • Stirring in dried fruit, fresh fruit, or in this case bacon and cheddar, to your dry mixture before pouring in wet ingredients allows you to coat each piece with a little flour. It is this coating that will help your fruit or bacon suspend in your biscuits. This same technique can be applied to making cookies, cakes, bars, etc.
  • When adding wet ingredients do not over mix
  • Place a little flour (we call this bench flour) onto your counter or board. This will stop the mixture from sticking to your counter when slightly kneading and cutting your biscuits out
  • Only knead the mixture until you can form a ball –we want light and fluffy biscuits! Overkneading or overworking your flour will make your biscuits dense and heavy
  • Place a little flour on the side to coat your biscuit cutter in. This helps your biscuits to release from the cutter with ease.
  • Cut your biscuits out by pushing your biscuit cutter directly down and never, ever turning. Turning your biscuit cutter will prevent your biscuits from rising properly, and we definitely don’t want that!
  • Lift your biscuit cutter straight up instead
  • Help your biscuits brown by brushing a little beaten egg over the top
  • I love adding a grind of black pepper over my savory biscuits!
  • To make sweeter biscuits to serve with jam simply add 1/4 cup granulated sugar to your dry mixture and omit bacon and cheddar.

Now you’re ready to make these wonderful fluffy and very flavorful biscuits!

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

In a food processor or a bowl, place flour, salt and cardamon. Pulse a couple of times. Butter pieces should be various sizes from pea size to some larger pieces and everything in between.

Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add pieces of bacon and grated cheddar. Toss with a fork, coating each piece in flour. Measure buttermilk and add one egg. Beat until the buttermilk is a pretty yellow. Now add to your buttermilk mixture to your dry ingredients and stir with a fork just to combine.

Add a little extra flour onto your counter and spoon out biscuit mixture. Sticky dough makes the best biscuits, but you will have to add a little extra flour to knead just until a ball forms.  Be careful not to over knead your biscuit dough. We are making light and flaky biscuits. Once a dough ball has formed, roll out your dough to about 1-inch thickness.

Place your biscuit cutter in a little flour that has been placed on the side. Press your biscuit cutter directly down and do not turn. Turning your biscuit cutter will prevent the biscuit from rising correctly. Lift your cutter straight up! Place your b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l biscuits onto a greased baking stone or sheet about an inch or two apart. In a small bowl beat last egg. Brush each biscuit with a little egg wash. Grind fresh black pepper over top of each biscuit.  Bake your biscuits for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack.

The minute these beauties came out of our oven, all four of us were devouring them. They are simply THAT good!

From our hearts to yours,

Elise and family