This month, Bake Club takes inspiration from a certain popular chain restaurant, for our own take on flaky, cheesy biscuits. This version is transformed with the help of Old Bay seasoning. Hosts and senior Test Kitchen editors Shilpa Uskokovic and Jesse Szewczyk make the case for why biscuits are a must-have for any occasion. As Shilpa puts it, “Anything bread can do…a biscuit can do better.”
Jesse and Shilpa also tackle listener questions. And iconic baker and bestselling cookbook author Cheryl Day—a biscuit guru who made them everyday for 22 years in her bakery—stops by the clubhouse. Cheryl’s advice for the best biscuit is simple: “I would say: practice, practice, practice…then, take notes.”
We’d love to hear from you! You can send your questions to us via our Substack chat, by emailing us at bakeclub@bonappetit.com, or commenting on each month’s recipe.
Jesse Szewczyk: I’m Jesse Szewczyk.
Shilpa Uskokovic: And I’m Shilpa Uskokovic.
JS: We are both senior test kitchen editors at Bon Appétit.
SU: And this is BA Bake Club.
JS: Bake Club is Bon Appétit’s community of confident, curious bakers.
SU: We’re creating the nerdiest and most wholesome corner of the baking internet.
JS: Every month we publish a recipe on bonappetit.com that introduces a baking concept that we think you should know.
SU: Then you’ll bake, send us any questions you have or pictures of your finished creations.
JS: And we’ll get together here on the podcast to talk about the recipe.
SU: The March Bake Club recipe for chocolate Guinness cake is live now on bonappetit.com, and we’ll tell you a little bit more about it at the end of this episode.
JS: But today we’re going to be talking about a savory bake, the perfect flaky cheesy accompaniment to any meal. Shilpa, it is your cheddar biscuits with Old Bay. So Shilpa, why these biscuits?
SU: Jesse, I feel like you have to answer the question.
JS: It was a loaded question.
SU: Yes. The idea for the Cheddar Bay biscuits originally sprung from you.
JS: It did. It did. It was the result of a long brainstorm. I said, “What if Red Lobster biscuits were flaky?” Then next thing you know, I was on vacation and the onus fell on Shilpa to execute the idea.
SU: Yes, I think we succeeded in making a very flaky, very tasty, very, very, very cheesy biscuit
JS: From there magic was made.
SU: Yes.
JS: Amazing. So I think it’s time. Let’s get our how-to music playing. Oh, there it is. Shilpa, can you walk us through kind of the basic steps of your recipe?
SU: This one is a particularly easy recipe for a Bake Club recipe. And to make your biscuit dough, you start with your dry ingredients, flour, some leavening. I added a bit of sugar just to season everything along with Old Bay, my very favorite. Also some garlic powder, parsley, and then of course the main component, which is plenty of butter. And to make these biscuits flaky, this is the important step where you cut the butter into the dry ingredients, but you leave them in slightly bigger chunks. And then once that’s done, you moisten the dough. I use buttermilk for its acidity. I think it really works well with the cheese that I add. And then you bring this dough together, and for the flakiest, flakiest biscuits, I end up laminating them. So I end up folding the dough on top of itself a couple times before you punch out the circles, chill it for a little bit and bake.
