Dijon Ham and Cream Cheese Biscuits for holiday brunch.

I can still smell my mother’s homemade biscuits baking away in the oven. She made the best from scratch biscuits. My sister and I use to have her bang the pan on the counter so the biscuits would flatten out and you would have two crunchy sides with no middles. These days, people want big fluffy biscuits and I think, now, I prefer that type of biscuit, but what I wouldn’t give to have one of my mother’s.

A couple of years ago I was flipping through one of my food magazines and saw an advertisement for a Cream Cheese Ham Biscuit. They were $24/dozen and the first thing I thought of was “I could make those”. I love the challenge to try and make something I have tried in a restaurant or seen in a magazine.

I found these biscuits at a local store, bought some, baked them and then baked mine. Mine were really close and after tweaking the recipe I think I would rather save my $24 and make my version.

Don’t these look absolutely wonderful.

Cut the butter in with a pastry blender or you can use your fingers. When I make scones and sometimes biscuits I like using the tips of my fingers to break up the butter. The more little flakes of butter you have the flakier your biscuits will be.

The cheese is mixed and and then form into a large rectangle.

Cut into squares are you could cut with round cutter. I don’t like wasting any of the dough and I don’t like reworking these. Reworking dough sometimes makes a tougher biscuit.

Here they are ready for the filling. I have grated the country ham (or you could use regular ham) until it is finely shredded. I think shredding the ham makes it easier to eat this little biscuit. They are spread with a Dijon butter that I made just by mixing softened butter with some Dijon mustard.

Try these for your next cocktail party or brunch.

Cream Cheese Biscuits with Ham

2 c. self rising flour
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. buttermilk
1 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2-3/4 lb. country ham or ham, shredded
1 stick butter, softened
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard (or to taste)

Put the flour in a bowl and work in the butter and cream cheese using either your finger tips or a pastry blender until you have the butter/flour mixture in small pea sizes. Add in the buttermilk and stir only until mixed, add the shredded cheese and stir until that is incorporated into the dough. Turn onto floured board and knead a couple of times. Pat out to a rectangle or square about 1″ thick. Cut into 1 1/2″ squares. Put the biscuits onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400° until nice and brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Put the ham in your food processor and process until finely chopped. I used some country ham and some ham slices to get a mixture of ham flavors.

Mix the softened butter and the Dijon mustard and set aside.

When the biscuits are done, split, spread Dijon mixture on both sides of the biscuit, top with about 2 tablespoons of shredded ham. OR, you can bake until almost done. Split the biscuit, put the Dijon mustard on both sides of the biscuit, top with a shredded ham and wrapped them up in aluminum foil and freeze them. When you are ready for the biscuits at a later date, simply put the foil packages in the oven and bake at 400° for about 20 minutes, then open up the package and continue baking until they are nice and brown on top 3-4 more minutes.