Jalepeno Cheddar Biscuits

These are not going to be the spiciest of jalepeno cheddar biscuits. If you'd like them to pack more kick, increase the amount of jalepeno and leave a little bit of the white veins on the jalepenos (where the spice comes from). You can also add a dash of tabasco, though be gentle, they are biscuits, after all, and you are not parboiling the peppers, so there will be a freshness of the raw pepper that may remain post-baking. Most people find this enjoyable.

If buttermilk isn't available, clabbered milk can be used instead. To make clabbered milk, mix 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and let stand 10 minutes. Buttermilk is still preferable, though. When you stir the melted butter into cold buttermilk, the butter will clump and curdle and in general look gross. This is by design, and is actually a secret to a light and fluffy biscuit. You can use either an ice cream scoop or a 1/4 cup measure to drop the biscuits onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. These are drop biscuits, so they are meant to look a little messy.

We've served these with chili, lobster, fried chicken, and gumbo. Basically, a good picnic and summer food.

Ingredients

The curdled milk is good, though it looks wrong.

2  cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)

2  teaspoons baking powder

1/2  teaspoon baking soda

1  teaspoon sugar

3/4  teaspoon table salt

1/2  cup shredded cheddar cheese (2 ounces)

1/4  cup diced jalepenos (5 or so peppers)

1  cup buttermilk (cold)

8  tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly (about 5 minutes), plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, cheese, and jalepenos in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps (see photo below).
2. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Using greased 1/4-cup dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (biscuits should measure about 2 1/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high). Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes.
3. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving. If serving the next day, you can revive the biscuits with ten minutes in a 300 degree oven, making sure to store in a sealed container.