Drop Biscuits with Wild Garlic and Cheddar

These biscuits are made with freshly picked wild garlic commonly referred to where I’m from as wild onions.  Like almost every yard in my neighborhood, we have plenty of these wild Alliums in our early Spring landscape. This recipe is a great way to use turn the weeds into something delicious. The biscuits would be perfect dinner biscuits, ideal with Sunday brunch,  or great with ham and eggs for breakfast.

For information on finding and identifying wild garlic read Yard Onions: Front Yard Foraging .

Chives could be used in place of the wild garlic but the flavor will not be as strong. So, if you substitute with chives, add 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder to the dry ingredients.

This recipe makes 9 large biscuits or 12 small biscuits.

Ingredients

• 1 & 1/2 cups self rising flour + 1 tablespoons
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) salted butter
• 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter (2 tablespoons reserved to brush on top of the biscuits)
• 3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup whole buttermilk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped wild garlic a.k.a. yard onions

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Sift 1 & 1/2 cups self rising flour and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
• Thinly slice 4 tablespoon salted butter and 4 tablespoons unsalted butter. Drop the slices of butter into the flour and toss to coat. With your hand, squeeze each slice of butter in the bowl to work them into the flour. My method for doing this is the same as with my rolled biscuits. I pinch the butter pieces and flour in between my thumb and fingers and apply pressure as I roll my thumb forward flattening the butter slices. This creates light layers in the biscuit. You could use a pastry fork, but I like to feel every delicious layer. When the butter is worked into the flour and no large pieces are left, you can clean the dough off of your hands and proceed.
• With a large spoon, mix 3/4 cup grated cheddar, 1/2 cup whole buttermilk, 1/4 cup sour cream and 2 tablespoons finely chopped yard onions. Mix until all ingredients are combined then sprinkle the extra 1 tablespoon of flour on top of the finished dough (this helps make the dough more manageable).
• To form the drop biscuits I suggest using a small ice cream scoop with a swing lever. This will keep your hands clean and  help assure your biscuits are all the same size. If they are uniformly shaped they will all bake to perfection at the same time. My ice cream scoop turns this dough into 9 perfect mounds.
  

  
• Bake for 17-19 minutes. Brush with melted butter after 10  minutes and then again when you remove the biscuits from the oven.