Spicy Cheese Chive Biscuits

Last summer, I visited Montréal and had an early brunch at Olive et Gourmando on our first day there. Olive et Gourmando is a surreal restaurant: it’s a bustling, rustic nook at a cobblestone crossroad in old Montréal boasting a vast array of baked goods and innovative dishes. But what I fell in love with during that brunch — and still miss dearly — is their cheesy, smoky, slightly-spicy chive biscuits. They were so good that on our third day leaving Montreal, my mom and I made a 20 minute walk over from our hotel to buy a bagful to go. 

Fortunately, this summer, Olive et Gourmando released their beautifully written cookbook, revealing a collection of their dishes, and most importantly, their biscuits! I made their recipe a few times, and ended up taking a decent amount of liberty in adapting and meshing it with Bon Appetit’s iconic Sour Cream and Onion Biscuits. It combines the best of both worlds: BA’s flakier, butterier onion biscuits with Olive et Gourmando’s spicier, fluffier biscuits. 

Steps:

8 tbsp chilled unsalted, cubed

5 stalks of chives or scallions, minced

313g all purpose flour

2 tsp Morton kosher salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp ground white pepper, optional

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 1/2 tsp harissa

90g gruyère, shredded or grated

90g sharp cheddar, shredded or grated

1 cup sour cream

flaky salt for dusting

Steps:

1. Cube the butter first, then chill it in the freezer while you prepare everything else so it will be cold.

2. Preheat oven to 375º F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. Mince chives/scallions thinly (not on a diagonal). 

4. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, black pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and harissa.

5. Take the butter out from the freezer. Using your fingers, smush the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter cubes become irregular, pea-sized bits.

6. Toss in scallions, gruyère, and sharp cheddar, and mix thoroughly. Using a fork, incorporate sour cream into the mix until a shaggy dough forms. 

7. Lightly flour a work surface and dump dough out. Use a lightly floured rolling pin and roll out the dough into a 1 inch thick rectangle with the longer sides horizontal to you. With a bench scraper, fold the right 1/3 portion of the rectangle over and the left 1/3 portion on top, as if folding an envelope in thirds. Roll out dough into another rectangle and fold in thirds again. Repeat this process one more time for a total of three times. Make sure to scrape any stray dough on your hands and the work surface onto the dough. This folding process is vital for getting the flaky layers in your biscuit.

8. Cut the rectangle in half lengthwise, and then cut each half crosswise into 4, yielding 8 biscuits.

9. Lay them out onto baking sheet. Lightly dust with smoked paprika and sprinkle with flaky salt.

10. Bake for a total of 20-22 minutes. Serve warm as is or with some more butter!