Bourbon-maple glazed cheddar bacon biscuits

5 from 1 vote

Bourbon-maple glazed cheddar bacon biscuits

These cheddar bacon biscuits are easy to make (done in the food processor) and topped with a bourbon maple glaze infused with fresh thyme after baking for the ultimate salty-sweet combination

Prep Time12

Cook Time45

Total Time57

Course: Breads

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 552kcal

Author: Janice Lawandi

Equipment

Ingredients

Biscuit dough (1 pound)

230 grams bleached all-purpose flour
5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
20 mL baking powder
85 grams unsalted butter
150 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat) cold

Bourbon-maple glazed cheddar bacon biscuits

450 grams biscuit dough (recipe above)
170 grams bacon uncooked
250 mL pure maple syrup
45 mL bourbon
30 sprigs fresh thyme
58 grams extra-sharp white cheddar cheese grated

Metric - US

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 °F (220 °C). Heat a large flat skillet over medium heat. Cook bacon for about 25 to 30 minutes, flipping with tongs every five minutes until crispy (this took me less than 25 minutes, to be honest). Transfer to a paper towel–lined plate. Once cool enough to handle, chop into fine pieces.
Bring maple syrup, bourbon and thyme to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat to maintain a slow boil and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until liquid is reduced by a third. Set aside.
Pulse flours, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor. Add chopped bacon and grated cheddar to the dry ingredients.
Chop butter into ½-inch cubes. Add to flour mixture. Pulse for 1 to 2 seconds 8 to 12 times, until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
Add milk and pulse 2 to 4 times, until dough begins to come together. It will form a few large chunks and many small ones.
Transfer dough chunks to a very lightly floured surface and push together. Knead 3 to 5 times, until dough just holds its shape. Take care not to knead the dough too much or add too much flour, which can make the biscuits tough.
Pull dough apart with your hands into six chunks and arrange them on a parchment paper–lined baking sheet.
Bake for about 12 minutes, until biscuits just begin to turn light golden. Remove thyme sprigs from infused syrup and discard. Brush biscuits with glaze while they are still warm.
Serve.

Notes

This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
This recipe was adapted from Making Dough: Recipes and Ratios for Perfect Pastries by Russell Van Kraayenburg, published by Quirk Books. You can find it on Amazon. I made the following changes from the original recipe in the book:
- the ingredients list for this recipe in the book includes only baking powder, which is fine except the directions state to add "the baking soda". Most of us know that baking soda and baking powder are not the same chemical leaveners. And I knew right away that the author most probably meant baking powder, firstly because no recipe would ever call for 4 teaspoon of baking soda unless we were working on a kilo scale recipe, and secondly because there isn't an acid present in the recipe to react with that baking soda. Clearly baking powder was the correct ingredient to use. I deduced this and you probably would too, but we can't expect every reader to come to the same conclusion. I fear somebody may read the directions and add 4 teaspoon baking soda instead of 4 teaspoon baking powder. Yikes! That would be inedible, if that happened. Use baking powder! They aren't interchangeable.

Nutrition