Tabasco-Cheddar Biscuits
Robin Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 9:56AM 
TA: I love your lumpy biscuits.
Me: Oh...thanks.
TA: I love your lumpy biscuits with the morsels of flavor curd inside them.
Me: Wow. Right.
And so the conversation went as we enjoyed these delicious, spicy biscuits with the Chicken, Bacon and Sweet Corn Soup.
I remember as a child that my mother almost never used premade mixes for anything. She made everything from scratch. Everything.
I, however, am kind of lazy.
On occasion I will use a premade mix for certain things. My only requirements are that it contain only ingredients that I would use - no crazy food colorings, preservatives and whatnot. As such, I've always enjoyed using the Jiffy baking line. It's an old fashioned company that's been around for, well, pretty much ever. I use their cornbread baking mix (because I've never found a cornbread recipe that was better for the amount of work required) and their standard baking mix for things like dumplings, biscuits, and the occasional pancake.
One of my favorite Christmas gifts of all time was when I was 8 or 9 years old. My mother made a huge package of a few baking pans, some cupcake liners, and dozens of boxes of Jiffy baking mixes. There were cake mixes, muffin mixes, frostings - you name the simple, refined carbohydrate, it was in that box.
It was the best gift ever.
It was also one of the things that I love so much about my mother. Get your kid an E-Z Bake oven? F-that, my mom says. Teach her how to use the real oven!
Anyway, that was what originally piqued my interest in cooking and baking - it was that gift that started it all. It was that gift that put me on the journey to begging my mom to let me try roasting a whole leg of lamb with rosemary when I was 12 years old - just to see if I could do it. (I could, and I did.) It was what prompted me to start trying to make things like braided Challahs at 14 (worked) and homemade pasta at 15 (not so much).
It's amazing what a few boxes of flour and the motivation of an amazing mother can do.
All that being said, I still use the Jiffy baking mix at least once per month for something. This time it was for biscuits. These biscuits were inspired by this recipe at Vegetarian Times.
Tabasco-Cheddar Biscuits
Yields 9 biscuits
1 cup Jiffy All-Purpose Baking Mix
2 oz sharp cheddar cheese, diced into small cubes
1/3 cup skim milk
2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
extra Tabasco, if desired
Preheat oven to 450 F. In a mixing bowl stir the baking mix and cheddar together. Add the milk and stir until just combined. Sprinkle the two teaspoons of Tabasco over the dough, stir until the dough is streaked throughout with the Tabasco, but not integrated completely. Drop 9 equal sized dollops of dough onto a parchment paper or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and the biscuits give only slightly to the touch. If desired, sprinkle some extra Tabasco over the tops of the freshly baked biscuits for more spice.
Nutritional Estimate
This is a nutritional estimate, regard it as such.
1 biscuit = 1 serving
93 calories
10g carbohydrates
5g fat
3g protein
biscuit, cheese, jiffy, savory, spicy, vegetarian in food, recipes Email Article Permalink Print Article
Reader Comments (7)
that WAS the best present ever! great post and great pic....i shall be making this TONIGHT!
Oh, how I wish Scott liked spicy food. These look delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jasmine: I hope you like them! They're fast becoming a favorite in our house.
MiL - I'll have to make them for you in October!
Oh I'm so glad you're back! Or is it me who is back? Any who, we love Jiffy mixes but I have always been afraid to check the ingrdients. Glad to have your endorsement! I don't have to feel guilty (mrChaos LOVES the blueberry muffins).
Katie - there's a few things in there that I would prefer are not, but the two main ingredients are flour and vegetable shortening - which is exactly what most people start off with for biscuits.
Also, I've always shared a secret love affair with the apple cinnamon muffins. Glad you're back, hope Hawaii was great!
tabasco? interesting! i actually thought of experimenting of making curry cake!
Renaye - I bet a curry biscuit would be delicious. I might actually have to try that myself.