Elie Assaf's Jalapeno & Cheddar Biscuits

Merchant Homestead, with Elie Assaf.

We asked chef Elie Assaf, to share one of his favourite lockdown recipes. Delicious, easy, and made with minimal ingredients, these delectable biscuits will be both a warming treat, and a wholesome weekend activity.

Meet Elie:

Elie Assaf was born in Beirut and moved from Lebanon to New Zealand with his family in 1995.

Learning from his mother, Assaf started cooking Lebanese food from a young age with his family at Phoenician in Wellington, and eventually started his own branch of Phoenician in 2010, starting a journey that would see him broaden his horizons as a chef.

Assaf is now the head chef of Williams Eatery and is brings Lebanese flavours into the Auckland food scene. He is currently working on a Lebanese Cookbook that will honour his heritage and the food he grew up with.

Jalapeno & Cheddar Biscuit Recipe

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups Bakers Flour
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Flaky Salt
50 gm Cold Butter

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup Buttermilk
1/3 cup Chopped Jalapenos
3/4 cup Grated Cheddar
1 Egg

Instructions:

1. Start by preheating your oven to 200 degrees.

2. Mix your dry ingredients and start working the cold butter in until it looks like sand. (I can’t stress the importance of this step enough, it makes the difference between flaky and moist biscuits and dense and dry biscuits.)

3. Add the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to form a wet dough.

4. Add a liberal amount of flour and lightly knead to form a soft dough.

5. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 1.5 cm thickness. Now fold the rolled dough in half.

6. Sprinkle with flour and use a glass or a cookie cutter to cut out your biscuits.

7. Place on a non-stick baking tray and place in the oven.

8. Bake for 25 min or until golden

Enjoy!