Copycat Cheddar Bay Biscuits — The Recipe My Five-Year-Old Already Has Memorized

Thanksgiving wrapped Thursday. Brayden is one hundred and thirteen weeks old. The Saturday-after-Thanksgiving had a small visitor — Tracy Patton brought her niece Cora (her brother’s daughter, five years old, visiting Tracy for the long weekend) up to Tulsa for a small playdate at our apartment. Cora has been at our apartment twice before. She has been watching me cook on those visits and has been quietly cataloging recipes.

The copycat cheddar bay biscuits are the famous-restaurant-chain’s drop-biscuit — a buttermilk-biscuit dough enriched with shredded cheddar and Old Bay seasoning, dropped onto a sheet pan in irregular rounds, baked at four-twenty-five for fifteen minutes, brushed with a melted-butter-and-parsley-and-garlic mixture immediately out of the oven. The biscuits are the small-comfort-food-craving that the chain has built its brand around and that the copycat-recipe approximates.

Cora had announced when she walked in Saturday morning that she had memorized the biscuit recipe from watching me make it during her last visit in September. She recited the ingredients-in-order to me at the kitchen counter without hesitation. She had remembered the proportions correctly. She was five years old and she had committed a real recipe to memory by observation. I had not realized she had been watching that carefully.

Saturday afternoon we made the biscuits together. Cora measured. I supervised. Brayden watched from the high chair. The biscuits came out exactly as they had come out the dozen times I had made them before.

Copycat Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 14 minutes | Total Time: 24 minutes | Servings: 12 biscuits

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup whole milk or buttermilk
• Garlic Butter Topping:
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Preheat your oven to 450°F (232°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and cayenne pepper until combined.
3. Cut in butter. Add the cold cubed butter to the flour mixture. Use your fingertips or a pastry cutter to work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbles with pea-sized pieces remaining. Do not overwork — cold butter is the key to flaky biscuits.
4. Add cheese and milk. Stir in the shredded cheddar. Pour in the milk and stir gently with a fork just until the dough comes together. It will be shaggy and slightly sticky; that’s correct. Do not overmix.
5. Drop and bake. Drop heaping spoonfuls of dough (about 3 tablespoons each) onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Make the garlic butter topping. While the biscuits bake, stir together the melted butter, garlic powder, parsley, and salt in a small bowl.
7. Brush and serve. As soon as the biscuits come out of the oven, brush them generously with the garlic butter topping. Serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 195 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 20g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 280mg