Pancetta and Fontina Biscuits

My daughter likes her version of cheese biscuits with cheddar and garlic. This is my go to flavored biscuits. They are a nice delicate savory biscuit that you can serve with a dinner or just for a snack or I like them for breakfast. Sometimes I add a little sage to it and you can make them with a biscuit mix if you like. Just use buttermilk instead of the milk that it calls for.

-4 oz pancetta diced
-2 cups flour
-6 tablespoons cold butter cut in cubes
-3/4 cup buttermilk
-1 tablespoon baking powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 sage (optional)
-1/2 cup shredded fontina

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a saute pan on medium heat cook pancetta until crisp-about 5 minutes-
In a bowl whisk together the dry ingredients- flour-salt-baking powder-
Mix in butter pieces with pasty cutter or using your hands until it is a course meal-
Add in the cheese and cooled pancetta-stir in buttermilk until moist clumps-try not to overwork the dough-
Drop onto baking sheet- I use my stoneware cookie sheet so I don't need to use parchment paper-I used my cookie dough scoop, or use a spoon or two-
Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown-transfer to cooling rack- enjoy-

Pancetta is like an Italian bacon that is similar to bacon but has not been salt cured. You can use bacon instead. Dicing the pancetta it cooks quickly!

You can add a little more buttermilk if it's too dry -

It's hard to wait until they cool before eating them. If you like you can serve with a flavored butter to jazz them up a little, but we enjoy them just the way they are!

Cheddar Biscuits

These biscuits are Maranda's specialty! It's a quick and easy, but good almost cheater recipe. A few years back when we went to Red Lobster (Maranda's choice) she loved the biscuits. I'm sure it's because I'm not much of a baker and never really make biscuits. She would pick this place often, not one of my favorites. I finally found out why...it's the biscuits that they serve when you order any meal. So...I told her she should make some, just google Red Lobster Biscuit recipe. There are plenty of the copy cat recipes out there. This is what we came up with after looking at several of them.

2 cups biscuit mix

2/3 c milk

1 c grated cheddar cheese (you can use less)

1/4 c melted butter (they call for 1/2c)

1/4 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp sea salt - or you can us 1/2 tsp garlic salt the kind that comes with parsley (I usually mix my own anyway)

Preheat oven to 425 degree. Mix biscuit mix, milk, and cheddar cheese until soft dough forms; Drop dough by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix melted butter, garlic powder, and dried parsley; brush generously over warm biscuits before removing from cookie sheet. Make 10-12 biscuits.

Some recipes call for a lot more butter, we use about half that amount. It's not exact, but close enough for us without all the fat. One recipe called for you to cut in 1/2 stick of butter into the biscuit mix, and brush the melted butter on top. I'm sure this is closer to the true taste of Red Lobster's. Like I said these are fine for us.

They are still good and buttery, you can eat the as is! Maranda has been making them for awhile now! She likes them for breakfast too!