Make Your Own Biscuit Loaf With Red Lobster and Cheddar Bay
Portland was covered in ten inches of snow Wednesday, which is a lot of snow for a city full of people who can’t drive in snow. That means I’ll stay at home until it melts and play the fun game of Chopped with my pantry and chest freezer. I hope to unearth many treasures. Seeing as I’ve already found a box of Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit mix, I’d say I’m off to a pretty good start.
If you’re unfamiliar with this particular mix, I’m happy to tell you that it’s pretty good and close to the cookies you get at a mid-range seafood chain. (Although I haven’t been to Red Lobster in a while, the box mix cookies taste almost the same as I remember them in the restaurant.)
One of the nice things about making things at home is that you can play with the format. I didn’t feel like dividing the dough into cookies, so instead I scraped it all into a loaf pan and then baked as usual, adding about 10 minutes to the baking time.
It turned out beautifully, if you count the giant sliced biscuit as an object of beauty. (And I do.) Being a biscuit, it didn’t rise as much as a loaf of yeast bread, but you can always double the recipe (and double the cooking time) to make a taller biscuit that can be sliced, but I find thin slices to be quite charming.
Once sliced, you can put in a few pieces and top with a fried egg, or fry the slices in butter for extra crunch (and then top with a scrambled egg). You can also place a thin slice of cold cream cheese, a few slices of ham, or anything else you think would go well on a cheesy, buttery cookie board. If you get bored with the taste, you can always replace the cheddar with another cheese. I made mine with Jarlsburg (because I’m covered in cheddar snow) and it was nicely sweet and nutty, but I can’t wait to try it with aged Gouda or Dublin.
Bread from Cheddar Bay
Ingredients:
- 1 box Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix
- 1/2 shredded cheese such as sharp cheddar, gouda, or dubliner
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 1/4 cup butter
- seasoning package
Stir the cheese into the dry mixture, then add the water and mix until a dough forms. Press into a buttered standard bread pan and bake in the oven at 350℉ for 25-35 minutes until the top is golden brown. Melt the butter in the microwave, mix the sachet of seasoning with the butter, then butter the loaf. Let cool until you can touch the bread pan, then run a butter knife around the edge before inverting the loaf onto a cutting board. Cut and serve.