Back in the summer, while on my very rambling book tour, I had the good fortune to stay with my friends Kaela and Tai for a couple days while in the Hudson Valley. Kaela writes the blog Local Kitchen and does magical, marvelous things with food (though if you check in on her site with any regularity, you’ll know that already).
My final morning at their house was something of a rush and so there wasn’t much time for breakfast. After rummaging around her freezer for a moment, Kaela asked if I’d like to take a couple toasted cheddar and chard scones on the road with me. Never one to turn down a baked good that includes leafy greens, I said yes. Once they were warm, I tucked the scones into my bag, said my good-byes and hopped into the car.
I didn’t take a bite until a few miles into the drive, but once I did, I was amazed at how good they were. They were pleasantly crumbly, sharp from the cheese and made virtuous by the chard. I polished them off and made a promise to myself that I would track down the recipe and make them once I got home. That was in July.
It’s now October and I only just got around to making a batch over the weekend. Digging around on Local Kitchen, I found Kaela’s Cheddar Scallion Scones. The scones she gave me seemed like they’d been a riff on that recipe and so I used it as my starting place. The magic of this recipe is that it replaces the butter in a standard batch of scones with the cheese. You whisk the dry goods together, add the cheese and greens and bind the whole thing with milk or buttermilk.
Kaela’s original recipe called these scones and has you pat the dough into two rounds that you then score into eight pieces per round (as you do for most traditional scones). However, *someone* in my household is anti-scone. So instead, I scooped the dough out in 1/2 cup portions, dropped them onto lined baking sheets and called them biscuits. Suddenly they were an acceptable accompaniment to the chicken soup we had planned for dinner.
My biscuits turned out much like I remembered Kaela’s scones to be, though the mustard greens did give them a pleasant spicy edge that wasn’t present with the chard. I plan on adding these to my regular quick bread rotation, as they were easy, relatively healthy (whole grains! greens! dairy!) and I often find myself with a bunch of greens wilting away in the crisper drawer.
For Kaela’s original recipe, click here. My adapted version can be found after the jump.
Drop Biscuits with Cheddar and Mustard Greens
Ingredients
- 3 cups whole grain flour I used a combination of white whole wheat and whole wheat pastry
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese about 6 ounces
- 2 cups cooked leafy greens well-chopped
- 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups milk or buttermilk
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add the grated cheese and combine with a fork.
- Stir in the cooked greens.
- Add 1 cup of milk and stir. Continue adding milk and mixing (switching to a hand at this juncture is good) until the dough just comes together and all the flour is incorporated.
- Using a large spoon, cookie scoop or a 1/2 cup measuring cup, portion the dough into a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet.
- Bake drop biscuits at 400 degrees F for 18-20 minutes, until they are golden brown on top and the visible cheese bubbles slightly.
- Remove pans from the oven. Serve hot.
- These biscuits freeze well, either prior to baking or after.
This is so timely! I just put up some greens from the farm share (chopped, blanched, and froze) and come the winter, when I’m no longer getting weekly boxes, I know what I’ll do with them.
Thanks!
I love this! Definitely whipping up a batch tonight to go with some butternut squash soup, though I may switch out the cheddar for gruyere… that would probably be fine, right? I also love that you don’t automatically say to use any sort of machine or food processor; sometimes it’s nice to get a little arm workout 🙂
Wonderful recipe. I have a biscuit recipe that I use to top my pot pies that uses cheddar to replace some of the butter. Mine aren’t nearly so virtuous though. I like the idea of adding greens and using whole wheat and no butter at all.
Yay! I brought some of these scones to Julia this summer as well, and she has also joined the greens-in-baked-goods bandwagon. And you’re right, I adapted ever-popular cheddar scallion recipe, my go-to because it is so easy. Now when people ask for the recipe I can just point them here! 🙂
To Liz: gruyere is a little drier than cheddar, so you may find that you need to add a bit extra milk or buttermilk, or even melted butter, to get the dough to the right consistency. Otherwise, it should be fine: I’ve made the scones with all sorts of random cheeses.
Is there any need to adjust the leavening based on whether one uses regular or buttermilk?
Wow… those look so good!!! I love all kinds of greens and so do my kids, but my boyfriend is a bit less enthusiastic. I bet he’d love these though!
Yay! I’ve got a bunch of mustard greens still dodging the frost bullet in the garden and was looking for new ideas for how to use them. Thanks for sharing this!
Awesome, I just cooked up the greens from my CSA and this would be a perfect recipe for them.
Can’t wait to make these! Sounds like another great way to eat your greens 🙂
Also, I’m in the Hudson Valley, so thanks so much for introducing me to Local Kitchen!
Oh my goodness, yes! I’ve got a bunch of blanched greens in the freezer – these should be a great use for them! Thank you!
Biscuits full of greens and cheese sound like the ideal take-it-with-you snack. These remind me of the spinach and feta scones I used to get from a local coffeeshop in grad school. So good!
I’m always looking for a new way to sneak chard on to my husband’s plate. It grows in my garden year-round so there is constant availability. Pizza was a previous favorite way but these biscuits sound like another winner.
Yum! I’m definitely saving this recipe– I purchased a quart of buttermilk for a recipe and of course ended up using only about a cup of it. Plus I have a whole mess of (only slightly) wilted CSA greens in the fridge, so this recipe looks like it was tailor-made for my leftovers! These biscuits will be just the thing on a cold gray day like today….
Just pulled a batch from the freezer and ate it warmed in the oven, so good…thank you!
I’m so glad you like ’em!