I had these biscuits at a restaurant once and they were the perfect blend of sweet and savory. They had these sweet crunchy bites throughout that were absolutely addictive. Of course, I racked my brain for ways to recreate that textural experience and one of the best ways I came up with was to crush up bits of homemade honeycomb and infuse them in the biscuits. These biscuits really have it all—and because I can’t leave well enough alone, they’re topped with a sumptuous honey butter. Good luck eating just one.
What to Notice
- When mixing the baking soda into the honeycomb, be careful not to overmix. The baking soda helps create the signature porousness of the candy. Keep that in mind as your stir—you want to see those nooks and crannies, not deflate them all.
- Crush up your honeycomb with a kitchen mallet. If you find yourself wondering what size you should crush your candy to, simply think about how it will work infused into a biscuit. Too large and it might be too jarring of a bite. Think little crumbs and some other smaller pieces. Varying textures will help create more interest.
- Biscuit dough is supposed to look and feel shaggy. Using a bench scraper will help all your ingredients come together without your hands warming up the cold ingredients too much. You know those signature flaky layers that are present in all good biscuits? That’s partially due to “folding” the dough. Take your bench scraper and pick up the edge of your dough and fold it into the middle, pressing down to combine, don’t be afraid to get your other hand involved to help. At the end, you just want to see that there are no loose flour or wet bits. It shouldn’t look perfectly smooth!
Servings: 9 Biscuits
Ingredients
For the Honeycomb:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup light corn syrup
- ½ cup water
- 2-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
For the Biscuits:
- 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ cup 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed then put in the freezer for 10 minutes
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoon cold buttermilk, divided
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- ¾ cup shredded sharp cheddar
- ¼ cup crushed honeycomb pieces
For the Honey Butter:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1.5 teaspoons honey
- A good pinch of flaky sea salt
Instructions
Make the Honeycomb:
- Line a 9-inch baking dish with parchment and set aside. Measure out your baking soda and also set aside.
- Combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and heat over medium, stirring often until the mixture comes to a boil. Give this time, don’t be tempted to turn up the heat. Once it comes to a boil, insert a candy thermometer in the pot and let the mixture reach 300 degrees. Once it does, remove from the heat and quicky pour in the baking soda. Stir to get rid of any clumps from the baking soda. The mixture will become nicely golden brown. Quickly pour into your prepared baking dish and let the honeycomb set on the counter for about an hour or two. Break into pieces and crush some in a ziplock bag to make ¼ cup of course crumbs (all you need for this recipe is ¼ crushed, so eat the rest or use on a cake or something else fun). Set this aside until we’re ready to mix into our biscuits.
Make the Biscuits:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 10-inch cast-iron pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, powder and cubed butter. Using a pastry cutter, cut everything together, making sure the butter coats the flour. You’re looking for your butter to become about the size of large peas. Once you’ve done this, create a well in the center of the bowl and pour in your buttermilk and honey. Bring the dough together with a spatula. Add in your chives, cheddar and honeycomb pieces. The dough shouldn’t be fully together at this point and that’s ok.
- Turn out the dough onto the counter and use a bench scraper to fold the outside of the dough into the center. Turn the dough and continue this process about 10 more times. You’re essentially combining all the ingredients by folding and packing down with your bench scraper. This creates layers in the dough.
- Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and with your hands (working quickly so it doesn’t warm up too much) pat out to a rectangle that’s about ¾ of an inch thick. Use a standard biscuit cutter and cut out about 9-10 biscuits. Place them in the prepared cast iron pan and brush the tops with the remaining 2 tablespoons buttermilk.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the tops are nicely golden.
Make the Honey Butter:
- In a small saucepan, melt together the butter and honey over medium-low heat. Sprinkle in the flaky sea salt and brush over the warm biscuits and serve.
