Butter & Baggage

Biscuits with Caramelized Onions and Gruyere

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Mile high biscuits with caramelized onions and cheese are easier to make than you think. They’re the best for breakfast or brunch, all by themselves but even better with bacon! Check out my tips for PERFECT buttermilk biscuits every time.
      This is a sponsored post but as always the opinions are my own.
 A biscuit with bacon on a napkin
While fluffy dinner rolls might be my favorite food, they take some time and planning.  A good biscuit can be ready to bake before your oven preheats and no advanced notice is needed. You’ll need buttermilk but otherwise you probably have the ingredients for biscuits. It’s taken a bit of experimenting to find the best technique that works for me every time, creating light and fluffy biscuits that melt in your mouth. These are biscuits that any Southerner would be proud to serve.
a biscuit with bacon on a napkin

This particular version has caramelized onions and gruyere which I think are a heavenly combination . However, you can leave them out completely if you don’t have 30 minutes to caramelize your onions and substitute green onions and whatever cheese you like.  What I’ve been doing lately is to make a large batch of caramelized onions and refrigerate them. Then they’re ready to add to quiche or biscuits as needed. If you need to read up on how to caramelize onions, check out my technique for French Onion Rounds.

Of course you can leave them plain and just serve them with butter and you can’t go wrong.

A plain biscuit on a baking sheet

How to make biscuits:

You only need to keep a couple of things in mind to make perfect biscuits.  First start with cold butter and buttermilk. The colder the better.  Next try to use a good quality flour. I discovered that Bob’s Red Mill not only makes almond flour, which I use all the time, but they make an All Purpose Flour. Their flour is as light as air, whole grain and unbleached with no Bromates. When you start with quality products, it really makes a difference in something like biscuits.
Ingredients in the food processor
I start in the food processor with butter and the dry ingredients.  You want the butter to still be in little chunks when you add the buttermilk. Then process just until the dough starts to come together.  It should look pretty messy. If you don’t have a food processor handy, you can use a pastry cutter, try to avoid using  your hands which will melt the butter.  If that happens, you don’t get the nice pockets of air that make a biscuit tall and flaky.
Biscuit dough cut into rectangles
Next turn the dough out onto the counter and roughly form it into a rectangle trying to handle it as little as possible.  I cut the dough into three or four rectangles and then stack them on top of each other gently rolling the stack into a rectangle.  Repeat this process three to four times. So first I tell you not to handle the dough and now I’m telling you to roll and cut it four times.  The reason this works is that you are creating lots of layers by stacking and re-stacking your dough. The goal is to keep your butter cold while doing this.  So start with really cold butter and buttermilk and try to keep your warm hands off the dough as much as possible. Finally roll it into a rectangle and using a biscuit cutter, cut straight down, don’t twist it, this keeps the layers nice and tall.
 Biscuit dough stacked
If you’re going to add onions and cheese, or any other ingredients, do so before you add the buttermilk.
Biscuit dough with biscuit cutter
Now that you have the perfect biscuit add some bacon or my favorite is to serve them for game day with Smokey Pimento Cheese and Slow Cooker Carnitas. YUM!
Biscuits on a cooling rack
Biscuit with pimento cheese and pulled pork
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Biscuits with Caramelized Onions and Gruyere

Biscuits on a cooling rack

Mile high biscuits with caramelized onions and cheese are easier to make than you think. They’re the best for breakfast or brunch, all by themselves but even better with bacon! Check out my tips for PERFECT biscuits every time. 

  • Author: Barbara Curry
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 12 minutes
  • Total Time: 32 minutes
  • Yield: 12-15 1x
Scale

Ingredients

  • 3 ½ cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 16 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 4 ounces gruyere
  • ½ cup carmelized onions, 1-2 onions
  • 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoon cream

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425º. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. In a food processor, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Process until combined. Add cold butter and process until it resembles coarse meal. Transfer to a large bowl. Add cheese and onions and stir to combine.
3. Add buttermilk and mix lightly just until dough comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a rectangle. Cut into 4ths and stack each fourth on top of each other. Pat into a rectangle and repeat 3 more times.
4. Pat or roll dough to 1 inch thickness. Using a 21/2 inch round cutter, cut dough without twisting. Place on prepared pan and freeze for 10 minutes.
5. Remove from freezer. Beat egg and cream together in a small bowl. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with pepper.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Notes

Can substitute green onions and cheddar or leave onions and cheese out completely.

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Roy, you will have to make a few adjustments but I think they taste pretty close to the ones with regular flour. I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour. I added an additional 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 2 eggs. Whisk the eggs together before adding them with the buttermilk. The dough will be a bit stickier but it handles about the same. They seem to do a better texture if you let them sit for about 5 minutes before eating. Mine took about the same baking time. Let me know how yours turn out. I’ll write a post with photos in a few weeks.

      Reply

  2. Oh Barbara, I just recently come upon your blog. We must get together in the New Year. I am your neighbor in Winston Salem, NC. I am a retired Foods and Nutrition Educator and my passion is food, cooking, entertaining, perusing cookbooks, gardening and living a beautiful life. This biscuit looks like a delicious Christmas Breakfast for me and my husband Michael ( we just may be soul sisters). please share what name brand bacon that you used in this photo. Looks wonderful. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I will follow up in 2019!

    Reply

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