Whole Wheat Cheese Biscuits

Whole wheat cheese biscuits are best served fresh out of the oven and slathered with butter. With minimal ingredients and effort, enjoy them with any meal!

I’ve been making cheese tea biscuits for a few years now using an old family recipe. I tweaked it over time to include whole wheat flour, as well as a different chilling technique. Whole wheat cheese biscuits have the flakiest layers!

Our favourite meal to have cheese tea biscuits with is homemade molasses baked beans. Whether you eat a bowl of beans for supper with a warm biscuit, or have them with eggs for breakfast, you really can’t go wrong!

Ingredients You Need To Make Whole Wheat Cheese Biscuits:

• whole wheat flour
• baking powder
• salt
• butter, room temperature
• grated cheddar cheese
• milk

Make These Whole Wheat Cheese Biscuits Step-By-Step:

• Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
• Whisk to combine.
• Add the butter to the flour mixture.

• Rub the butter into the flour mixture with your hands until it looks like coarse, sandy breadcrumbs.
• Place the flour mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes.

• Preheat the oven to 450ºF / 230ºC. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Add the grated cheese to the flour mixture and stir it with a fork to combine.
• Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the milk.

• Stir everything together with a fork until no dry bits of flour remain on the bottom of the bowl.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and pat it into a 1-inch / 2.5-cm thick disc with your hands.

• With a rolling pin, roll the dough lengthwise, up and down, until it’s about 16-inches / 45-cm long.
• Fold the top third of the dough over into the middle.
• Flip the bottom third of dough up over to the middle.

• Roll the dough gently to smooth the seams.
• Turn the dough 90º so the rough edges are now at the top and bottom.
• Roll the dough lengthwise again, from top to bottom, making a long rectangle.

• Fold the top third of the dough down to the middle and flip the bottom third up.
• Gently roll the dough to smooth the seams, into a rectangle about 8×12-inches / 20×30-cm.

• Smooth all four sides of the dough with the edges of your hands.
• Slice the dough in half across the middle widthwise.

• Slice the top and bottom halves of the dough in half across the width.
• Cut the dough into thirds from the top to bottom.
• Place the biscuits onto the baking sheet and brush with milk.
• Bake the biscuits for 15-17 minutes until golden, then cool them on a rack.

Tips, Substitutions, And Add-Ins For This Recipe:

Tips

• Don’t skip freezing the flour mixture. This method is so much easier than trying to grate cold butter and truly yields the flakiest layers!
• Mix the dough with a fork. It keeps the chilled dough cold which makes a flakier biscuit.
• Roll the dough on a floured surface. The dough is a bit sticky so make sure you roll it out on a well-dusted work surface.

Substitutions

• Flour – You can make these whole wheat cheese biscuits with white flour or spelt flour if you prefer. If using white flour, reduce the milk by 1/4 cup.
• Butter – You can substitute plant-based butter or shortening for the butter.
• Cheese – Feel free to swap in any other kind of hard grated cheese you like. Soft cheese like goat cheese, or even cream cheese might be good too, however, I haven’t tried them.
• Milk – You can use plant-based milk if you like.

Add-Ins

• If you like cheese tea biscuits feel free to leave the recipe as-is and jazz them up with some fresh chopped herbs or chives. Chopped garlic is also great!
• If you don’t want cheese in your biscuits you can swap in fresh herbs, finely chopped or grated fruit like apples, dried fruit like raisins or apricots, seeds, or spices like cinnamon or cardamom. The dough can be a blank canvas for you to play with!

Other Biscuit / Scone Recipes You Might Like:

Blueberry White Chocolate Scones

Raspberry Thyme Scones

Skillet Spring Onion Buttermilk Biscuits