These Gluten Free Flaky Ham & Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits are a savory breakfast favorite, complete with ham and cheese filling. They’re so good right out of the oven, you may find you have more than one biscuit thief in your home.
A warm, flaky biscuit is one my top most dreamed about foods. It’s so comforting to eat, filling in the belly and makes me reminiscent of wonderful pre-kid brunches. Since shifting my focus to Gluten Free cooking, the flaky biscuit has never strayed far from my thoughts, but it was a daunting task as I believed it would be labor intensive and difficult. As it turns out, I was wrong; it’s pretty darn easy! Perhaps not as easy as popping a can of Pillsbury Biscuits, but it’s a simple process of flour, fold, repeat and it is WAY more satisfying.
What Is the First (and maybe second) Rule of Biscuit Making?
As every accomplished biscuit maker will tell you, DON’T OVER MIX! This is just as true when using gluten-free flour. Once the dough has absorbed the wet ingredients, you are good to go. If you keep mixing, the butter will melt and be too evenly distributed, creating a tough biscuit instead of the desired fluffy/flaky one. In order to help you out in this process, I also call for the added measure of cooling the dough for 20 minutes. Sorry, but you’ll thank me. Added bonus: it gives you the needed time to clean up your kitchen!
Can I Freeze These Gluten Free Biscuits…And Will They Still Be Flaky/Fluffy?
What I truly appreciate about these biscuits, is that they’re almost as good frozen as they are fresh. Let the biscuits thaw out and just before you’re ready to eat, place them in the oven at 250º F for 4-5 minutes. You will be shocked at how good they are. They also last for at least 2 months (I just finished off some that were 2 months old and they tasted great!).
Now that you know this, put these GF Fluffy-Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits in your back pocket as an entertaining tool. When you’re making these, double or triple the recipe. Freeze the extras and pull them out for special company. Everyone will be amazed that you serve incredible, homemade biscuits for THEIR arrival…and only you can I will know the secret of just how easy they are 😉
Wait, How Do you Mix Up this Butter?
You’ll see this in the recipe, but we heat up butter, then add it to COLD buttermilk. The mixing of hot and cold forces the molecules of the butter to separate into small pieces within the buttermilk. Instead of spending TONS of time cutting cold butter into flour, this nifty little trick does the work for you. If you like this method, you can thank my Aunt Chris of Cafe Sucre Farine, who further attributes it to Cooks Illustrated buttermilk drop biscuits.
Tips and Tricks for Making Gluten Free Flaky Ham & Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits:
- If we had to summarize the 3 biggest tips of this recipe, they would be:
Mixing– Let your ingredients work for you, don’t over do it!
Butter– Keep it cool, brah!?
Flour– Give a healthy sift between folds of dough. - You can eat them for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and maybe even dessert… don’t overeat (but I’m not watching)
- To make the GREATEST sandwich, fry up an egg to your liking, slice the biscuit, and eat. Since this already has ham and cheese in it, an egg is all you need.
- Store these in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to a week.
- This recipe calls for aged gouda cheese, but if you want to spice up your life, feel free to give pepper jack a try. You can also try sharp cheddar. You won’t be disappointed.
- We love King Arthur 1:1 Gluten Free Flour, but any 1:1 ratio brand will work.
If you like to bake, try out some of our other recipes like: GF Scrumptious Olive Oil Orange Cake (served with yogurt, it’s another breakfast option!), World’s Best Cheesecake on World’s Best GF Crust, or Gluten Free Decadent Chocolate Cake with Salted Brown Butter Frosting.
Gluten Free Flaky Ham and Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits
Course: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, SidesCuisine: Southern12
Biscuits45
minutes20
minutesKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
1 1/3 Cup 1 1/3 Whole Milk
1/3 Cup 1/3 Heavy Cream
2 Tbsp 2 Lemon Juice
1 Cup 1 Salted Butter
2-1/2 Cups 2-1/2 Gluten Free Flour Blend (I use King Arthur 1:1)
2 tsp 2 Xanthan Gum (in addition to what’s already in the blend)
2 tsp 2 Himalayan Pink Salt
3 Tbsp 3 Granulated Sugar
2 Tbsp 2 Baking Powder
1 Cup 1 Cornstarch
3/4 Cup 3/4 Diced Ham
1/4 Cup 1/4 Sharp Cheddar-Shredded
1/4 Cup 1/4 Parmesan-Shredded
1/4 Cup 1/4 Aged Gouda- Shredded
1/4 Cup 1/4 Gluten Free Flour Mix (for rolling out dough)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400º F.
- Melt butter in a microwave safe dish, then set aside to cool.
- In a 2 small bowl, combine the Whole Milk, Heavy Cream, and Lemon Juice. Mix with a spoon or fork to allow the dairy to curdle.
- Place the bowl with the dairy in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- Combine all dry ingredients and mix to a uniform blend.
- Remove the bowl of dairy from the freezer and slowly pour in the butter while mixing with a fork. (The mixture should instantly thicken.)
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Mix the ingredients so they’re all combined, but don’t over mix.
- Place the dough in the fridge for 20 minutes to keep the butter from melting once you start manipulating the dough.
- Place a large piece of parchment paper down and pull out another similar sized sheet.
- Sprinkle the parchment with the gf flour and place the dough on top sprinkling on more flour.
- Place the parchment paper on top and roll out to about a quarter inch. Sprinkle on some of the ham and cheese, and sprinkle on more flour.
- Fold the dough in half, sprinkle with more flour, and roll out gently with the parchment paper on top to about ⅓ of an inch. Sprinkle on more cheese, ham, and flour, then fold in half again.
- Repeat this process another 3 times allowing for a gradual increase in thickness. Your final uncooked biscuit should be approximately an inch thick.
- Use either a large circular cookie cutter or smooth rimmed glass to cut out individual biscuits. Flatten the scraps with your hands and cut out more biscuits until you run out of dough.
- Place the biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet (you can use the top parchment from earlier).
- Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, depending upon oven accuracy. The tops and bottoms of the biscuits should have a nice light golden crust and they should rise by about 75% of their original height.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the biscuits rest for 10 minutes.
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