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blue cheese biscuits

I have a bad habit of reading cookbooks while I’m eating, if I’m alone at home. I like flipping through the pages and looking at pictures, but the downside is that too often I get so excited about a recipe that I don’t even finish dinner and head over to the kitchen and start pulling out the tubs of flour and sugar. To avoid malnutrition, I finally decided that I should just bookmark recipes that look interesting to me and get back to them later.

Quite a while back, I’d bookmarked the recipe for Galettes au Roquefort in Mastering the Art of French Cooking just because these finger-sized crisps sounded so good and the recipe looked so darned simple. Plus I loved the idea of crisp, savory biscuits with the sharp tang of blue cheese in them. Unfortunately I now have a rather imposing stack of cookbooks with recipes bookmarked in them, and as the stack grew, this one moved farther and farther down the pile.

However while I’m nearly finishing As Always, Julia, a compilation of her correspondence when she lived in Europe, I decided once and for all to tackle the teetering pile of cookbooks, and the recipe, and give them a try.

blue cheese biscuit dough

The result was worth the wait and although the dough looked pretty standard as I was putting it together and rolling it out, when baked, the flat circles rose up and became light and flaky little circles of buttery biscuits. These galettes are puff pastry-like, and Julia Child calls them “featherweight”, which is pretty right-on. (As she usually was.) I added a bit of red pepper powder to spice ’em up as well as some chopped fresh thyme and a bit of salt, which I don’t think she would have minded at all.

I should warn you that when you beat the blue cheese to a paste, it looks somewhat unappetizing—a steely green-gray mash, and if someone showed me a picture of it, I would not have known what it was. But that dissipates when you add the rest of the ingredients and the biscuits are a warm burnished brown when baked, masking their unfortunately colored past.

blue cheese brushing blue cheese biscuits

The dough is slightly sticky, and may require a bit more flour than you think when rolling them out. You don’t need to go overboard, but add enough to keep the dough from sticking, and turn it constantly to make sure it’s not getting welded to the counter. While cooking, the biscuits will puff up a bit and some will exude bits of sizzling fromage bleu, thanks to all the cheese packed in them. Which doesn’t bother me in the least. In fact, I save those ones just for me.

blue cheese biscuits

Blue Cheese Biscuits

Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle The biscuits should be cooked until the tops are nicely browned for the best flavor. These biscuits should be served the day they’re baked but the dough can be refrigerated up to three days in advance or frozen for at least two months. Child advises the biscuits can be baked and frozen, then “…reheated for 5 minutes or so in a hot oven.”
  • 4 ounces (115g) blue cheese or Roquefort, at room temperature
  • 4 ounces (115g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons (30ml) heavy cream or sour cream
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 3/4 cup (110g) flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/3 teaspoon red chili pepper
  • optional: 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
  • egg wash: 1 teaspoon egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water
  • In a bowl of a stand mixer, or by hand using a fork mash the cheese.
  • Mix in the butter, heavy or sour cream, and egg yolk.
  • Stir in the flour, salt, chili powder, and thyme (if using), mixing until smooth.
  • Gather the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic, and chill the dough for a few hours, until firm.
  • To bake the biscuits, preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, or use non-stick baking sheets.
  • Roll the dough on a floured surface until about 1/4-inch (1/2 cm) thick. Use a cookie cutter (mine was 1 3/4″, 5cm, but you can use other sizes) to cut the biscuits, then set them evenly spaced apart on a baking sheet. Brush the tops with a bit of egg wash.
  • Bake the biscuits for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking. When the biscuits have puffed a bit and the tops are well-browned, remove them from the oven and cool the trays on a wire rack.

Notes

Note: Julia Child gives completely separate recipes in her book for biscuits made with firmer cheeses, like Gruyère and Comté, and those using very soft cheeses, like Camembert, Brie, or Liederkranz. So it’s not recommended to try this particular recipe with other cheeses.

Related Links and Recipes

Bleu de Termignon

Blue Cheese Dressing

Gougères (Cheese Puffs)

Making Swiss Fondue

Raclette

Roquefort-Honey Ice Cream

Baking Ingredients and Substitutions

American Baking Ingredients in Paris

101 Shares

56 comments

    • Hannah

    I have had exactly four ounces of Roquefort in my fridge for about three weeks. It was clearly waiting for this recipe to happen. Of course, it’s half past midnight right now so it shall have to wait a bit longer… but soon, my precious. Soon.

    • Silvia

    And another one to bookmark.
    Thank you very much for the recipe!

    • Meg

    That sounds absolutely amazing, David! I also have a habit of bookmarking recipes – both in physical books and on the web….as I have just done with this one. Thanks for passing it along!

    • Nathalie (spacedlaw)

    Yum. I have some stray gorgonzola roaming in the fridge…

    • Three-Cookies

    Biscuit or cookie?:) I see in your recipe you write biscuit, cookie, biscuit, cookie…

    With the cheese and cream my guess is that this is either an American biscuit (scone elsewhere) or a hybrid between cookie and biscuit. You are integrating well in Europe:)

    • parisbreakfast

    A moment of dire shock…I thought these were misbegotten macarons on Flickr..
    But no never.
    I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have J-P Hevin’s cheese chocolates on hand to accompany these yummy delights.

    Please do write your own Paris diet book next David!
    I want to know the secret to your sylph-like figure.

    “The Paris Pastry Chef’s Diet”

    HOT HOT HOT!

    • My Kitchen in the Rockies

    Will make a note in my copy of Julia’s book. I would fight you for the ones with the cheese running out. They are the best. Don’t we all have stacks of cookbooks with lots of sticky notes?

    • Mitchell Robinson

    “But that dissipates when you add the rest of the ingredients and the biscuits are a warm burnished brown when baked, masking their unfortunately colored past.”

    Damn–that is simply beautiful writing. Bravo. [and the biscuits look good, too!]

    • good enough cook

    The one attempt I once made at blue-cheese biscuits has gone down in family lore as “that time you made those green cookies” (for company, no less!) The recipe I used (NOT JC’s) never really progressed beyond the grey-green stage. You’ve inspired me to try again, with the better recipe. Those look delicious.

    • berit

    Those look amazing! I bet they would taste nice with cheddar as well.

    • David
    David Lebovitz

    parisbreakfast: Well, a lot of it is that I believe you can eat whatever you want, as long as to walk to the place you eat it, and walk back home. However when cooking at home, that kind of blows that theory. However when you have to walk back from the market carrying big bags of flour, sugar, and butter..well, that’s quite a workout, too!

    (And I actually like those cheese chocolates at Hévin, which took me a few months to bring myself to try..)

    Three-cookies: Curiously, I doubt many Americans would call these biscuits anymore; biscuits generally mean puffy shortcake-style quickbreads. So they could be called ‘cookies’, although I’m not sure it’s enough to confuse anyone reading the recipe. (And in France, “cookies” means something a little different than what it means in America.) Still, I did standardize that in case anyone is perplexed.

    • Susan

    I have just begun making scones and biscuits in the last 3 weeks..like every day. (I foist them off on family) I’m so behind the times on the scone scene and never really found much charm in biscuits, until now. The egg and sugar were the only thing I could see that was different between the two but now JC’s recipe doesn’t even use leavening. How’d they rise?

    • David
    David Lebovitz

    Susan: They get their rise because of the water in the butter & cheese which when baked, turns into steam and gives them a lift (like puff pastry). That said, these are not scone-sized or traditional American biscuits; but bite-sized treats that are less than a couple of inches across. I think Julia Child called them ‘biscuits’ because they’re not really cookies, per se, but also perhaps because Americans in the 1950-60s didn’t know what a galette was.

    • The Newlywed Chefs

    These look amazing! This site is awesome, and we can’t wait to spend more time here.

    • naomi

    I’ve been making pecan/cheddar “bites” which the neighbors love, but my favorite cheese is blue. In the past I made (of course) Stilton souffles, and every few years a blue cheese cheesecake. No one loves blue cheese as much as me, however, and I can’t finish one of those cheesecakes myself, as tempting as it is. I’m gonna spring these on the neighborhood next – thanks, David. As always, the quality and prodigiousness of your writing is savored as much as the recipes. Thanks.

    • Three-Cookies

    Thanks David for the clarification. I didn’t know cookies in France were slightly different from American cookies. An American cookie is biscuit in most other countries, a cookie is a bun in Scotland, a biscuit is a scone in the US and a cookie is generally chocolate chip cookie in UK. Too confusing but they are all tasty

    • Renee (Kudos Kitchen)

    Oh my! I must try these, and soon :)

    • JulieD

    These look so beautiful…I adore blue cheese.

    • Jackson

    Yum, this looks delicious. I’m off to buy a half-pound of Stilton.

    • KosherCorvid

    I need to start checking your site before eating, not after. Now I want these with my morning eggs, instead of the leftover baguette I just had. Oh well; they’ll be great with leftover lasagna!

    • sandra

    I’d make these for my husband but there is a big problem – hiding the blue cheese for long enough so that I could make them. I swear he has radar for any goodies that I have earmarked!
    As for the bookmarking problem, you should see the size of my laptop bookmark folder!:)

    • Sasha @ Global Table Adventure

    I’d love to eat these alongside a salad (topped with some thinly sliced steak).

    • Stephanie

    Oh my, this reminds me of my mom’s favorite appetizer to serve before a dinner party in the 80s. She would buy the grocery store biscuit dough in a cardboard tube, cut each biscuit in to quarters and cover with melted butter and blue cheese. People loved them and I have to admit I ate my share, though these sound much better !!!

    • Jenni

    I too have tons of pages marked in cookbooks for recipes I want to try. This is not one I have marked in my copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but now I think I’m going to have to mark it and make it too.

    • Karena

    David how delightful and I am sure delish, I will definitely try these!
    xoxo
    Karena

    • Jan

    In Turkey I learned (the hard way, of course) they have “sugary cookies” and “salty cookies” at the bakery counter. That was a good language lesson. I think these could be considered savory cookies.

    • Tags

    Often enough, when a recipe I see in a cookbook or on TV looks better than what I’m eating, the flavor improves.

    • Danielle

    These look amazing! And I’m hoping that they might even win over some of the anti-blue cheese people in my life. Thanks for sharing!

    • Anna

    oh my, blue cheese is tormenting me right now. i am pregnant and not supposed to eat soft cheeses (although i suspect everything would be JUST FINE if i did!), and it’s haunting my dreams. thanks for the lovely pics to tide me over :)

    • Catherine

    I saw this quote from Laurie Colwin recently about the appeal of cookbooks and reading about your bad habit (that I share), I thought I’d pass it along to you:

    “Cookbooks hit you where you live. You want comfort; you want security; you want food; and you want to not be hungry. And not only do you want these basic things fixed, you want it done in a really nice, gentle way that makes you feel loved. That’s the big desire, and cookbooks say to the person reading them, ‘if you read me, you will be able to do this for yourself and for others. You will make everybody feel better.'”
    -Laurie Colwin

    • tasteofbeirut

    i have some roquefort in the fridge still and so glad to find a use for them; only 110 g of flour, sounds like the dough is very rich!

    • Tina

    I wish I had some leftover blue cheese before I ate it for dinner so I could make this! At least it’s a good reason for me to head over to Murray’s Cheese and get a slab. :)

    • almostalwayshungry

    these sound heavenly!
    how do you think they would they ‘keep’ for shipping (2 days in the post…)

    • CM

    I have the same cookbook-reading habit… but unlike you, I never abandon my food to go make something else! I’m trying to stop doing that because it makes me think of what I’d rather be eating, instead of enjoying what I’m actually eating.

    • Marg

    I’ve just put a batch of gougeres in the oven for our valentines dinner tomorrow night, next time it will be these that I try. Thanks David for your continuous inspiration.

    • Nancy@acommunaltable

    Ah, I like your term for them David – I have made them and they were wonderful – but I have a sneaking suspicion that yours were better since 1) finding good blue cheese in this part of the world takes a bit more effort and 2) the fact that you are a far better baker than I am!

    So glad I finally found out WHAT that picture was that you posted!!!

    • Sally – My Custard Pie

    What is it about oozing cheese that gets almost burnt and crispy? Always glad of another good recipe with blue cheese.

    • Claudia

    I think cooks should get a rebate on sticky notes since we use so many. It does look worth the wait and has been noted. Anything with blue cheese pleases.

    • Joan Bedard

    Hi David,
    So glad to be back from a 2 week holiday and catch up on your postings.You’re number 1 on my list of bloggers.By the way I read Julia’s “My Life in France” on the beach and positively adored it.I look forward to “As Always, Julia” next.Happy Valentines Day !

    • Christina

    Just rescued the remains of my stilton from the bird table!!

    • Holly B @ Recipes from a Normal Mum

    I have a really bad habit of reading food blogs when I’m eating… (These look like they might be part of my next laptop supper.)

    • Jacki

    Wow, that dough is “different!”

    Must….make……blue…..cheese……biscuits…….. Maybe for my wedding reception!

    • Felicia

    The blue cheese biscuits are a great idea..I will give it a try..
    thanks-

    • Martha

    I am enjoying the same book you are reading, and it has driven me back to my old, old copy of Mastering the Art. I made coq au vin for dinner Friday…sometimes we forget the old great ones. I will make these biscuits next time I have people over. With a nice red wine.

    I am thinking of re-reading Vol. I and Vol. II again when I have finished the Avis/Julia letters book. I’m pretty sure it will mean rediscovering many ‘old friend’ recipes. Thanks for your great writing.

    • Figs, Bay & Wine

    Ah fantastic! I have leftover farmer’s market blue from a dinner party this weekend. I love how much these puff. Can’t wait to give them a go!

    • AlanaD

    I think I saw Ina Garten make this once,and I’ve wanted to try it ever since.

    • Chanel

    Wow, these look like heaven! I adore blue cheese :)

    • tobias kocht!

    This is perfect with a glass of wine. I have to try those soon!

    • Mavis

    I feel your pain—I have piles and piles of cookbooks and magazines with recipes all waiting to be made. Someday I’ll get to them all …. :)

    • Juliet

    David, These look absolutely delicious and very pretty.
    I make a very simple cheese cracker at home all the time. It’s my mother’s recipe and the ingredients are: almond flour (or ground almonds), sharp cheddar, butter and sesame seeds. That all gets processed until it forms a ball. Very good with wine.
    My real reason for commenting was to tell you that instead of rolling these crackers out. I usually form them into a log wrap that in parchment and freeze for an hour or so. Then you can slice rounds off as needed and even bake them on the same piece of parchment. Just an idea for lazy folks like me who hate rolling!

    • vanillasugarblog

    these would be fabulously addictive with a nice cold glass of white wine…..

    • David
    David Lebovitz

    Hi Juliet: Yes, that’s a good idea to roll the dough into logs, chill them, then slice them. I do that with a lot of cookie doughs as well.

    Thanks for passing along the tip!

    • michael

    Made these today, can’t wait to try them !!

    • ash

    I just made these – and I’m wondering if I can reduce the amount of butter? Because during/after the baking, there were these puddles of butter everywhere and the biscuits basically where swimming in butter… But otherwise yummy (:

    • Diana

    This is the magic recipe by Julia Child.
    I baked these cookies, add walnuts –
    great idea, photos, and taste.
    Thanks so much, Diana

    • Sara

    These look great. I love in particular how much they puff up. The butter and the roquefort combination must be magnificent. I always (sheepishly) enjoy reading about recipes that I have had but never noticed in cookbooks I already own.

    And I love reading cookbooks while I eat too!

A

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