Goat Cheese and Black Pepper Biscuits

Do I even need to expound on the title?  These are inspired by our recent trip to Providence, and its Italian neighborhood of Federal Hill.  Chris introduced me to the wonderful world of pepper biscuits (his favorite) and slightly sweet wine biscuits (my new favorite), and I’ve been itching to recreate them since we’ve been back.  Sadly, I had no yeast on hand, so decided on a less authentic version, more Southern-inspired.  This recipe makes about 8 biscuits and is easily doubled – I made a small batch because of my small amount of goat cheese, but I may need to make an extra trip to the store this week to make them again.

Goat Cheese and Black Pepper Biscuits

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4-1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (depending on how much of a kick you want)

2 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into small chunks

2-3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled (mine was coated in fresh herbs, so I think they will have to be an addition even to plain goat cheese)

6 Tbsp buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400°.  Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, and cut in the butter using a pastry blender or two knives, or your hands if you’re like me and don’t want to dirty more dishes than necessary.  If you use your hands, throw the bowl in the freezer for a minute after mixing so the butter can re-set.  Mix in the goat cheese and buttermilk.  You can, at this point, roll the dough out and cut it, or just form your own less-perfect biscuits by hand.  Again – less dirty counters!

Bake at 400° for 6 minutes, turn the pan and bake about 8 minutes more, to your desired shade of gold (see the picture below for my desired shade).  These are best warm, in my opinion, but held up surprisingly well for a picnic the next day.  Store any remaining biscuits (ha!) in the fridge.