Cranberry Walnut Cheese Biscuits

These Cranberry Walnut Cheese Biscuits are easy to make. They are buttery, rich, flaky, and irresistibly delicious. These are perfect for snacking or with soup. And they can be a great addition to a cheese plate along with a glass of wine.

Hello everyone – I hope you all are doing well.

Since we are heading into the holiday season, this recipe is what you need, let me tell you. Don’t get me wrong. You can enjoy these biscuits any time of the year – I made them at least few times a year. (They are always a hit at baking sales and potlucks.) But there’s something special about having them during the holiday season. Perhaps, their cozy and comforting aroma coming from a lot of cheese, butter, nuts, and herbs. Oh maybe you just crave a savoury item after so many sweet cookies!

Biscuits? Cookies?

To be honest, I often struggle to classify this type of baking. What are they? Biscuits? Cookies? Crackers? Something else? Yes, these terms can be used interchangeably, but the meaning can vary depending on the region. Particularly, I am talking to you, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada!

To me it’s a cross between a cookie and biscuit. leaning towards a biscuit. Like 70% biscuit and 30% cookie. But after all, who cares as long as cookies / biscuits are delicious? And these Cranberry Walnut Cheese Biscuits fit the bill!

Cranberry Walnut Cheese Biscuits

These biscuits are cheesy, buttery, and herbaceous. They are savoury with a lovely hint of sweetness coming from cranberries. I love using medium-hard (i.e., Gouda, Jarlsberg, etc.) or semi-hard types of cheeses (i.e., Cheddar, Monterey Jack, etc.) But honestly you can go with any available. It should have a prominent flavour, though (i.e., pizza mozzarella will work, but the flavour will be mild.) I normally use cheddar – and OMG – smoked cheddar works wonderfully here!

And you can play with additions, too. Almonds, pecans, pistachios, dried apricots, dried cherries, and other thing – all work well. I even made similar biscuits with chestnuts Cheese Chestnut Biscuits.

I hope you like these Cranberry Walnut Cheese Biscuits, and you will give them a try. If you make it, let me know in this post or send me an Instagram message or share your photos adding the hashtag #havocinthekitchen.

Cheers!

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Cranberry Walnut Cheese Biscuits

Recipe by Ben | Havocinthekitchen

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: Savoury Baking, Savoury Cookies and Bisquits

Servings

30-40

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (170 gr.) unsalted butter

• 3 cups (about 300 gr.) shredded medium-hard or semi-hard cheese of your choice (i.e., Cheddar, Gouda, Monterey Jack, etc.)

• 1 egg

• about 1 and 1/2 cups (170 gr.) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

• 1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, minced

• 1 – 1 1/2 tbsp. Herbs de Provence 

• 2/3 to 1 tbsp. smoked paprika

• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. chipotle powder

• 1/2 – 1 tsp. icing sugar

• ~ 1/2 to 1 tsp. salt, depending on the saltiness of cheese

• 1 to 1 1/2 cups (100 – 150 gr.) walnut halves, roughly chopped

• 1/2 to 3/4 cup (70-100 gr.) dried cranberries

• 1 small egg (for egg wash)

Directions

• Place the butter cut into small pieces in a bowl and microwave it for 10-15 seconds, 1 or 2 increments. It should be very soft (but not too melted.)
• Place the grated cheese, softened butter, and egg in a large bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon (spatula) until smooth, 30 second or so.
• Stir in the herbs and spices. Mix just to combine.
• Stir in the flour – add 1 cup at once and the remaining gradually (You might not need all 1/2 cup of it.)  You will get a soft, slightly sticky to a touch, and pliable dough (some crumbs would be okay).
• Lastly, add the walnuts and cranberries. If the dough turns a bit too dry, it is easy to fix by melting a little (1 tbsp.) of butter and adding it to the dough.
• If you have about 20-30 minutes, it would be great to let the dough rest in the fridge. Otherwise, you can bake it right away.
• Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment.
• To make the egg wash, in s small bowl whisk the egg and water, 15 seconds.
• Roll the dough out (about 0,7-1 cm) and cut using a cookie cutter or simply a knife. Place the cookies onto the sheets and brush with the egg wash.
• Bake for about 10-14 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of your biscuits (and of course, your oven) – they should be golden brown. The small-medium biscuits like in my photos took about 12 minutes. If desired, you can use the broiler for a minute or so to get more beautiful browning.
• Remove from the oven and let completely cool. Once cooked, they will harden up more but still remain soft and flakey. Keep them in an airtight container. They will stay fresh for up to a week. After a couple of days they might become too soft and less flavourful, but it’s easy to fix. Just preheat the oven to ~400 degrees F, place them onto a baking sheet, and pop in the oven for 1-2 minutes them remove. Once cooled, they will be fresh and crisp again! Enjoy.