The recipe for these savoury cheese biscuits comes from Les Fougères, a farm-to-table restaurant located in the town of Chelsea, Quebec, about a 20 minute drive from Ottawa. They’re the perfect companion to cocktails or a glass of wine, and are always one of the first things to disappear when I serve them.
Rich with butter and sharp cheddar, these crisp little biscuits get their irresistible crunch from toasted pecans and a somewhat surprising ingredient—Rice Krispies cereal. A pinch of cayenne adds just enough heat to keep you reaching for another.
One of the things I love most about this recipe is that the dough freezes beautifully. Keep a log or two tucked away in the freezer and you’re never more than a few minutes from a warm batch of homemade cheese biscuits. They’re essentially the savoury version of slice-and-bake cookies.
A Note About This Recipe
This recipe has been on the blog since 2010, and I probably wouldn’t have revisited it if it weren’t for a reader named Meredith.
She left a comment questioning some of the measurements in the original recipe. After taking another look, I realized she was absolutely right. The recipe was published during my second year of blogging. I was still learning the art and science of recipe development, and several of the quantities contained errors.
So I headed back to the kitchen and started testing.
Over the past 16 years, I’ve learned that baking recipes are far more reliable when ingredients are measured by weight rather than volume. I retested the recipe several times, converted everything to grams, and rewrote the instructions for clarity and consistency.
The recipe below is the corrected and thoroughly tested version. I’m grateful to Meredith for catching the mistakes and prompting me to revisit an old favourite.
Then and Now
When I first published this recipe in 2010, I was only in my second year of blogging. Meredith’s comment prompted me to revisit not only the recipe itself, but also the photos.
In the past 16 years, I’ve learned a lot about recipe development, testing, and writing. I’ve also spent countless hours behind the camera. Looking back at these original images makes me smile—and reminds me just how far this little blog has come.
Les Fougeres Cheese Biscuits
Ingredients
- 227 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
- 227 grams aged (sharp) cheddar cheese, grated
- 270 grams all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt, or 1/2 teaspoon Morton's Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 85 grams pecans, toasted, cooled and coarsely chopped
- 60 grams Rice Krispies cereal
Instructions
- Fit a food processor with the metal blade. Add the flour, sugar, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Pulse 5 times to combine.
- Add the butter and pulse 10–15 times, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the cheddar, pecans, and Rice Krispies cereal. Pulse just until combined and the mixture is crumbly, about 30 seconds.
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide it in half. Shape each portion into a log about 1½ inches (4 cm) in diameter, and about 8 inches long. Wrap each log tightly in wax paper.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Slice the chilled logs into 1/3-inch-thick rounds and arrange them on parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between biscuits.
- Bake until lightly golden around the edges, 14–16 minutes. Let the biscuits cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.