I have only good things to say about these cute cream cheese biscuits, and yet when I was challenged to bake up something yummy using summer tomatoes by some of my blogger pals, I won’t lie: i was flummoxed. I tend not to bake savory treats (umh, you may have noticed) but now and again I kind of dig venturing out of my comfort zone. Biscuits are sort of the perfect baked good for a savory overhaul (yes, scones are great, too) and I have an everything biscuit in my book, The Vintage Baker, and wondered if that would be a good vehicle for tomatoes.
Peeps, I’m just here to tell you, it is. I roasted a boat load of cherry tomatoes with oil and salt and pepper until they burst, chopped them up and set them aside. I made an easy biscuit dough by hand in a bowl, but I substituted half of the butter for cream cheese, adding an everything bagel seasoning blend into the dough (and even sprinkling a little of the seasoning on top of each biscuit, as well). Then I folded in some of the cooled and chopped roasted tomatoes, and voila: light and fluffy biscuits with some of the flavors of my favorite breakfast treat (an everything bagel with cream cheese, okay, extra cream cheese, if you must know). Recipe is easy peasy and I made these cuties extra small, making them completely adorable and easily able to feed a large crowd. If you’re wondering about how to use up the plethora of cherry tomatoes growing in your garden, or just those you picked up at the market this week, give these a try and please tell me about it, if you do. To see all of the other recipes my fellow tomato bloggers developed check out the hashtag: #wesaytomatoes
Everything Cream Cheese Biscuits with Roasted Tomatoes
Ingredients
- For the Roasted Cherry Tomatoes:
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- For the Everything Seasoning Blend:
- 1 Tbsp poppy seeds
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
- 11 ⁄2 to 2 tsp dried garlic
- 2 tsp dried onion flakes
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- For the Biscuits:
- 4 cups all-purpose
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp table salt
- 1/2 cup butter cold
- 1/2 cup 4 ounces cream cheese, cold
- 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup roasted tomatoes
- For the Egg Wash:
- one egg
- 1/4 tsp table salt
Instructions
- For the roasted tomatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 400-degrees. Toss the tomatoes in a bowl with some oil until coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and place in the oven for about 20 minutes until all of the tomatoes have softened and collapsed. Set aside and let cool to room temperature. Once cool, chop the tomatoes and set aside about 1/2 cup, draining off some of the oil. Save the rest for something else, like eating with your fingers.
- For the seasoning blend:
- Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Reserve 2 to 3 tablespoons of the mix to combine with the dry ingredients, and set aside the rest for sprinkling on top of the biscuits before baking.
- For the biscuits:
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the 2 to 3 tablespoons of the reserved seasoning blend to a large bowl and whisk to combine. Cut the butter and cream cheese into small cubes, add to the bowl, and using your hands or a wooden spoon, mix the dough until it resembles coarse meal. Add the buttermilk and, using a wooden spoon or your hands, combine the wet into the dry until a shaggy dough forms. Add the tomatoes and mix again, just until combined.
- Lightly flour a work surface and knead the dough a few times until it is no longer crumbly and the dry and moist bits are fully integrated. If the dough is at all sticky, lightly flour your work surface again. Gently pat or roll the dough into a rectangle about 3/4 of an inch thick. Using a 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour, begin cutting out biscuits from the dough rectangle and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Collect the scraps and reroll and cut as needed.
- Freeze the biscuits, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, for at least an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 425-degrees. Brush the biscuits with the egg wash and sprinkle with the reserved everything seasoning. Bake for 5 minutes and then reduce the heat to 400-degrees and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the biscuits have risen and the bottoms are lightly browned. Serve warm with butter.