Parmesan & Cheddar Biscuits
Parmesan & Cheddar Biscuits might just be the best cheese biscuits you’ve ever tasted! Intensely cheesy and buttery, but so light and melting. Great as an indulgent nibble or wow your guests by serving with drinks.
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These cheesy biscuits as so good that you’ll probably find men, women, small children and large dogs all falling at your feet in grateful thanks.
I originally started making them when I worked in an office. We’d take in goodies to share at Christmas and on our birthdays. I’d often make a box of these and they invariably went in a flash.
So many people asked for the recipe that I ended up typing it up to hand out! But I’ve no idea where the original recipe came from.
I now make Parmesan & Cheddar Biscuits every Christmas.
They’re great to serve to guests to accompany drinks or take along to parties. They’re nice as a gift in little cellophane bags too.
You don’t have to just save them for Christmas though. They make a stunning treat at any time of year.
QUICK & SIMPLE
The really great news is that Parmesan & Cheddar Biscuits are so simple and quick to make.
So easy in fact that I often make a batch while waiting for a tray of my mince pies to bake.
With a food processor, the dough (equal amounts of flour, grated cheese and butter plus salt) is made in seconds.
Then you simply turn it out and shape the dough into a log and chill for 30 minutes.
SLICE & BAKE
When you’re ready to make the biscuits, all you do is dip a knife into hot water and slice off thin rounds from the log.
That’s right. No rolling, cutting out, re-rolling and cutting again.
Put the slices on a baking tray, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with a little extra Parmesan.
You can sprinkle with flavourings like black pepper or smoked paprika as well if you like. Or maybe a few seeds such as sesame or poppy.
Pop in a preheated oven and the Parmesan & Cheddar Biscuits will take just ten minutes to cook.
COOL & EAT
When done, the biscuits should be carefully transferred to cooling racks.
I say carefully as they’re very light and delicate at this point. But they will firm up after a few minutes. They’re so delicious though that I defy anyone not to scoff a couple right away!
These biscuits are so moreish, you’ll find that they disappear pretty fast. So I tend to make a double batch of dough, forming two logs and freezing one of them.
All you need to do then is defrost in the fridge overnight and you can make a pile of delicious cheesy biscuits in next to no time.
You’ll also be able to offer them to guests when they’re at their best: still a little warm and delicate, not long out of the oven.
If you prefer, you can freeze the cooked biscuits. Either defrost and serve at room temperature, warm them very quickly in a low oven or the microwave.
However you eat them, as part of a buffet menu, to accompany a cheeseboard or as nibbles with drinks, I think you and your guests are going to be wowed by these wonderful Parmesan & Cheddar Biscuits.
Parmesan and Cheddar Biscuits
These might just be the best cheese biscuits you’ve ever tasted! Intensely cheesy and buttery, but so light and melting.
Ingredients
- 100 g plain flour
- 100 g butter, cold in chunks
- pinch salt
- 50 g Cheddar cheese finely grated
- 50 g Parmesan cheese finely grated
- 1 egg beaten
- pinch smoked paprika optional
- pinch freshly ground black pepper optional
Instructions
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Put the flour, butter, salt, the Cheddar cheese and all but 1 tbsp of the Parmesan into a food processor.
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Whizz together to form a dough: don't be tempted to add water as it's not needed.
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Tip the dough onto a floured worktop, briefly knead until smooth then roll into a log shape approx 4cm in diameter.
Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or until required.
You can also freeze at this point.
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While the dough is chilling, preheat oven to 180C/160 Fan/Gas 4 and lightly grease a baking tray (you may need 2 trays).
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When ready to bake, have ready a mug of hot water to dip your knife in now and then: this will make cutting the dough smoother.
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Slice thin biscuits from the log and place them on the baking trays.
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Brush with beaten egg, top with the reserved 1 tbsp Parmesan and any optional toppings such as smoked paprika or black pepper.
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Bake for 10 minutes until the biscuits are golden.
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Very carefully (they will be fragile) transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to firm up and cool slightly.
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If not eating straight away, leave to cool completely before storing in airtight containers or freezing.
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A great recipe thankyou its so easy to remember the ratios and can experiment in many ways . My favourite has been the last batch using smoked cheese with a 5th been parmesan, trio of olive+coconut oil and butter. Wholemeal and white flour mixed. The standard recipe is perfection aswell i use whats in the fridge and pantry and love smokey flavour.
Thank you for your great feedback, Ronnie! Lovely to hear you’ve been experimenting with the recipe and enjoying it.
This seems to be the exact recipe I’ve been looking for. I hope to have a wonderful baking experience with it. I just wanted to know about it’s shelf life and is brushing with egg absolutely necessary and if so please suggest a substitute.
Hi Nidhi, thanks for your interest in my recipe! The biscuits should be fine in an airtight container for 2 – 3 days.
If you want to keep them longer, as I say in the post, you could freeze the cooked biscuits or freeze the dough either as a cylinder or the cut out pieces prior to cooking.
The beaten egg on top just helps the cheese stick and gives a little glaze. You could replace it with milk or just leave off.
Hope this helps!
I’m sorry but this is a terrible recipe. The first batch I cut thinly and they disappeared to nothing. Completely broke up to crumbs. The second batch I cut thicker and they did exactly the same. Lovely flavour, had I been able to actually eat them.
Hi Tracy, sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work for you. But I do have to say that, at the time of writing, all the other comments are very positive and give the recipe 5 stars. Of course I’ve also made them many times myself. So I’m afraid I can only assume that you’ve made an error somewhere in the ingredients or the method. If they broke into crumbs then perhaps the dough logs were either not rolled firmly enough or not chilled sufficiently. Again though, sorry you didn’t have a good experience.
These biscuits are utterly delicious! I started baking them about 10 years ago from this recipe:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/parmesan_biscuits_54963
I handle the dough as you do by making them into logs and slicing.
I serve (lots of) them with a chunky tomato and vegetable soup or onion soup – if they’re not all gobbled up once they’ve cooled enough!
Ah, that’s interesting, thank you! As I say in the post, I’ve been making them for many years too but don’t know where I got the original recipe. Sounds like some version of that you’ve linked to but an easier technique.
As you say, utterly delicious!
These were absolutely delicious! I can do nothing but recommend. Next time, I think I’ll play around with rosemary and/or thyme for half the batch. Only difficulty I encountered was binding it all together as I had to do it by hand. That said, it certainly won’t put me off from making them again.
Glad you enjoyed them Susan. A bit of herbiness sounds good!
Absolutely delicious and so simple to make. Lovely thanks.
Thank you, Janice! So glad you enjoyed these biscuits.
Hard to believe something so easy can be so good, isn’t it?