Savory Biscuits

      There is nothing like waking up early with an idea that won't go away.  Sleep is futile.  Besides, once the cats know that I am awake there is nothing but annoyances:  things knocked off the bedside table, noise-making running the gamut from purring to the proverbial 'singing the songs of my people.'  The idea itself was based on a biscuit that we had at a local bakery lately, a tall biscuit, with ham.  I wanted cheese in there as well.  I had no ham.   But I did have prosciutto.....
      Saturday mornings around this household are fairly quick.  I volunteer and thus need breakfast to be done before 9:30.  But I don't mind doing fairly straightforward baking.
      A quick look online found a recipe on Food 52, for Garlic Cheddar Biscuits, which looked promising.   I mangled it a fair amount however.  I certainly wanted no garlic.   And another recipe mentioned that you want a fairly dry cheese here.
     I will say that this level of mangling produced savory buttery biscuits which needed no embellishments.  I have no idea about the original recipe, but this one was a winner.  And while I hate waking up early, this time it was worth it.

Ham and Cheese Biscuits

Makes 5-6 large biscuits, enough for 3

Adapted heavily from Posie Harwood's Garlic Cheddar Biscuits from Food 52

3 c flour

1T baking powder

1/8 t baking soda

1/2 t kosher salt

1 c unsalted butter, cubed

1/2 c aged Cheddar cheese

1/2 c Romano cheese

1/3 c prosciutto chopped into 1/2" squares ( or ham, cut smaller, or browned bacon....)

1 c sour cream mixed with heavy cream ( think buttermilk would work fine)

1/4 c + milk

Preheat the oven to 425F.  You will need a baking sheet with parchment paper.   

In a food processor, pulse the flour, powder, soda and salt.  Add the butter and continue to pulse until you get butter chunks the size of small peas.  Add the cheeses and pulse quickly to mix.  

Add the prosciutto to the sour cream/cream mixture.  

Turn the flour mixture out into a large bowl, and add the cream, stir to combine.  The idea here is to barely work the dough.  I found it much too dry at this point, and a lot of flour not combined.  So I added 1-2 T more milk, and stirred again.  You might need another couple tablespoons milk, the idea is a fairly stiff rough dough.  

Turn it out on a lightly floured counter, and knead to make a fairly cohesive dough, again, barely working the dough, just trying to get everything to hang together.  Pat the dough to about 2-3" thick, and either cut into squares or use a large drinking glass to get large rounds.  

Place 1-2" apart on the baking sheet, and bake 20-30 min, until the tops are golden brown.  

These are best served warm/hot.  I suspect they are fine if they are cold though.  Ours just never had the chance.