Lynne’s Cheese Biscuits

This is another recipe from The Krehbiel Family Cookbook compiled by the four daughters of Jerri’s oldest brother. Most of the recipes are ones found in their mother’s cookbooks or on recipe cards. However, a few contributions were brought home by the girls after they were in college or working after graduation. Lynne, as the oldest daughter, brought recipes home to the family while her two younger sisters were still in grade school.

This is Lynne’s version of the cheese biscuits she enjoyed as a young woman at a Red Lobster Restaurant. If you also like those tender biscuits, I think that you’ll understand why this recipe made it into the cookbook.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
2 T shortening
3 T cold butter
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
About 1 cup milk
About 2 T melted butter
Garlic powder or garlic salt to sprinkle on top of biscuits

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 450º and warm the milk to room temperature. Grate the cheese and grease a baking sheet.

Blend the salt, baking powder, cayenne pepper and mustard into the flour. Cut the shortening and butter into the flour mixture with a fork or pastry blender until it looks like coarse corn meal. Gently mix the cheese into the flour mixture. Stir in about three-quarters cup of milk. Continue stirring in milk by teaspoonfuls until you have a batter stiff enough to drop.

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of batter onto a greased cookie sheet. Brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle them lightly with garlic powder. Bake at 450º for thirteen to sixteen minutes until lightly browned.

NOTES: Lynne’s recipe calls for using butter-flavored shortening, but growing up in Wisconsin, I prefer using a combination of real butter and shortening. If you use unsalted butter, add an extra eighth teaspoon of salt to the flour. This recipe makes a dozen biscuits.

If you are extremely sensitive to hot pepper, use only an eighth teaspoon of cayenne. You probably won’t even know that it is in these delicious tidbits.