Last weekend my mind drifted to my 5-Ingredient Freezer Biscuits, as it often does on lazy Sunday mornings, and that got me thinking about breakfast sandwiches. It was only a split second before I started to wonder what would happen if I baked a layer of ham and cheese inside my 5-Ingredient Freezer Biscuits. I tested those Ham and Cheese Biscuits idea today and let me just say, best. Idea. Ever. This recipe is similar to Ham and Cheese Sliders but swaps the rolls for buttery, flaky biscuits.
But make no mistake, these breakfast biscuit sandwiches are super rich and indulgent, so save this recipe for a special occasion. While they are delicious, they are not something I could (or would suggest) eating every single day.
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Prep Ahead
Just like the original freezer biscuits, I’m sure you could assemble these, freeze them, and then bake one, two, or three as needed straight from the freezer. I haven’t tested any frozen Ham and Cheese Biscuits yet because I just went ahead and baked ’em all today, but just like with the original plain biscuits, they will probably need a few minutes more in the oven when baked from frozen.
I brushed a little butter on top of my Ham and Cheese Biscuits after baking, but I’ll be honest, I don’t think they needed them. The biscuits themselves are so fluffy and rich that the butter on top was almost too much, so I didn’t write that into the pricing. ;)
Ham and Cheese Biscuits
Servings 6Ingredients
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour (plus a little for dusting) ($0.26)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1/2 Tbsp sugar ($0.02)
- 4 tsp baking powder ($0.16)
- 1 pint heavy cream* ($1.69)
- 6 slices cheese ($1.03)
- 12 slices deli ham ($1.59)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. In a large bowl combine the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Stir until they are very well combined.
- Pour the heavy cream into the bowl and stir until all of the flour is moistened and a thick ball of dough forms.
- Scrape the biscuit dough out of the bowl onto a well floured surface and press it down into a rough rectangle. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into a rectangle about 8×11 inches and about 1/2-inch thick. Cut the rectangle into 12 pieces.
- Stack one slice of cheese and two slices of ham onto 6 of the biscuit squares, then top with the remaining 6 biscuit squares. Place the Ham and Cheese Biscuits onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper and transfer to the preheated oven.
- Bake the Ham and Cheese Biscuits for about 25 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden brown on top. Serve hot.
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Ham and Cheese Biscuits – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. In a large bowl combine 2.5 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 Tbsp sugar, and 4 tsp baking powder. Stir them together until they are very well combined.
Pour one pint of heavy cream into the flour mixture.
Stir until all the flour is moistened and a sticky shaggy dough forms.
Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and press it down into a rough rectangle.
Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a flatter rectangle, about 8×11 inches and about a half inch thick. Use your hands to shape the corners and make the rectangle more even. Cut the rectangle into 12 squares.
Stack two slices of ham and one slice of cheese on each of six of the squares, then top them with the remaining six squares. Place them on a baking sheet lined with a piece of parchment paper.
Here’s the side view so you can see how thick/thin the biscuits were rolled out. They puff up QUITE a bit, so you want them fairly thin.
Bake the Ham and Cheese Biscuits in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or until they are puffed up and golden brown on top. The total baking time will vary with how thick your biscuits are, so just keep an eye on them. I would start checking at about 15 minutes just to be safe and add 3-5 minutes as needed until they are nice and golden brown on top.
The biscuits are some of the best our family has ever had. If you are a golden arches breakfast fan, those times where you get a fresh biscuit and it melts in your mouth, these are similar, but better. Highly recommend!
Kids’ favorite was mozzarella cheese and pepperoni on the biscuit, dipped in pizza sauce. They are so versatile!
This recipe didn’t turn out so well for me unfortunately. The biscuits didn’t cook through on the first try and needed longer in the oven. It also ended up being pretty dry and way too much biscuit for me personally, so if I try this one again I’ll halve the dough to get a thinner end product. I liked how simple and easy these were, but not a great result as written.
Made these for my family and loved them!! Only complaint was that that can be a little heavy for breakfast. Perfect for brunch or morning tea though! Question… I’m thinking of making this for our youth group, about 30-35 people, do you think if I cooked them closer together they would still come out okay? I was thinking I’ll need to get at least 12 on a pan to cook them in the oven. Might have to cut them apart and the ham not as crispy, but I think they’d still be good! Right? Any thoughts would be appreciated!
It will probably work! The only thing you have to be careful with when placing them closer together is that if they’re too close there won’t be enough airflow between them and you may get a little steam trapped, causing them to be a bit moist or gummy around the edges, rather than golden brown.
Could you tell me please what the uk equivalent of “heavy cream “ is? We have single and double cream, Creme fraiche and soured cream. Thanks
Double cream! ~ Marion :)
Can I freeze these after making them?
They’d probably freeze okay. Try freezing one first to make sure you like how they reheat before freezing the whole batch. :)
Very good biscuits but I found them to be a bit thick. I’d roll them out thinner next time. Tops sliding off too, so I’d swap ham on top and cheese on bottom as another reviewer did. My husband doesn’t like tea biscuits and he said he likes these. Always a win.
I love how simple these are and easy enough to make in a big, family batch. I put the cheese on bottom then ham and didn’t have any problems with the tops slipping. They do feel like they’re missing something like a sauce, as their a bit dry and need a little extra flavor. When they came out, I peeled up the top biscuit and put honey and mustard on and that did it for me! I wonder though if you could bake it that way…?
That sounds delicious and I think it wouldn’t hurt it at all to try it that way. Let us know!
These were so good! My top biscuits kept sliding off, too, so next time I’ll try toothpicks like the other reviewer mentioned. Everyone in our family loved them.
Yum! Just made these this morning. I ran out of heavy cream and had to use a bit of half and half, and they still turned out quite yummy. Super easy and quick! And now I’m thinking of biscuits and gravy… Nom, nom, nom.
My top biscuit puffed up beautifully but the bottom layer kinda flattened out and didn’t cook all the way through. What did I do wrong? I followed the directions exactly (1 piece cheese, 2 thin slices ham). I want to love these so badly!
Hmm, I’m honestly not sure. I wonder if you made the biscuits slightly thinner there wouldn’t be as much weight on the bottom biscuit and it would also cook more quickly.
Any reason that butter was omitted from this recipe? I just made them but found that I really wanted to brush the tops with some butter, if not for a little extra flavor but at least for a golden color.
There’s no butter in the dough because it’s “included” in the heavy cream. :) One less ingredient and you can just stir it in instead of having to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. I find these biscuits to be so rich that when I DO brush butter on top they’re a bit too rich for me.
Do you think you could freeze these like your “VEGGIE PACKED FREEZER READY BREAKFAST SANDWICHES”?
Yes, I do think you could. :)
Would you leave the biscuits raw and bake them from frozen, or would you bake the biscuits, leave them to cool, fill them and then freeze?
Yep, I freeze them raw and then pop them into the oven straight from the freezer. You usually only need a couple extra minutes of bake time. :)
These look delicious and I love the simplicity of the recipe. No excuses no to make them! Thanks for the recipe.
Made these last night. Shared with my niece. She liked them, but I found them oddly bland. I want to make them again and will see if I can jazz them up in some way. Maybe a sharper cheese. Maybe some sauteed onions, or a spoonful of chutney.
Also, the issue, which you show, is that the tops can end up sliding off. Maybe wood toothpicks to secure them during the bake?
Toothpicks is a great idea! In retrospect, I think layering the cheese on the bottom and then the ham would also help. The top biscuit won’t slide on the ham the same way it would on melted cheese.
I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but my first instinct to spice it up would be a slick of spicy dijon mustard in between the ham and cheese!
Hi Beth!!
How long would these be good to eat without freezing and then reheating in the microwave? I’d like to have these for breakfast during the week but I have no time to cook them in the oven.
Thank you so much in advance!
I’ve been reheating them in the microwave all week since making them and they’ve held up really well. I would say about four days.
Thoughts on if I substituted 1-1 gluten free flour?
I’ve been making these with the Namaste brand GF flour blend in a 1:1 ratio and they turn out PERFECTLY! Even the non GF members of my family love them!
Hi Beth! Just curious – do you think these would work with sausage patties or bacon? Thank you in advance :)
Hmmm, my concern would be that the sausage would be too thick to cook all the way through and that both of those types of meat would release too much grease and just saturate the biscuit. The bacon may need longer than the 25 minutes to cook as well, and it won’t get nice and brown and crispy if it’s inside the biscuit. It needs exposure to the hot air to achieve that texture.
I’m thinking I’m going to use this biscuit dough to make ones like I’ve seen elsewhere, where you mix into the batter precooked crumbled bacon or sausage, shredded cheese, and chopped green onions or chives and whatever other seasonings you prefer. I’ve tried it with the recipes I’ve seen before, and it was good, but I was having trouble mixing it all together, largely because I was tentative with the cold butter, and was trying to work too fast before it melts. This cream version seems to be a godsend.
If you want it to be sandwich form, maybe precooking the bacon or sausage first.
I know this reply is super delayed, but figured I’d share in case it helps anyone else. I tried it with sausage patties this morning. I precooked the sausage, dabbed off some extra grease, assembled the sandwiches as directed, and it worked out great! I undercooked the patties just a bit from where I would normally want them, and they didn’t seem overcooked after the extra oven time either. I imagine you could do it the exact same way with bacon.
Another brilliant idea, but I still want egg in my breakfast sandwich, My family is small, so I actually baked only 2 of these sandwiches and put the other unbaked biscuit squares in the freezer. I scrambled 2 eggs and cooked them in a small square skillet (I rarely use this pan–only 6″ square–but it took only a minute to cook the thin layer of egg which I cut into 2 rectangles and then folded each in two) and inserted the egg between the two ham layers. It was a really good sandwich, so I will have to see how the rest of the biscuits survive the freezer. DH would have preferred a fried egg, so might do that next time.
Beth, these look great. If I were to cook them and then freeze them, could they be microwaved to reheat, like the ones you can buy frozen in the store? I’m rating these on how they look and sound since I haven’t made them yet, but I surely will.
I think you could probably microwave to reheat from frozen if they are pre-cooked. You might want to start on defrost before going to full heat, since they are kind of thick.
Beth-
I already have your 5-Ingredient biscuits in the freezer. Any way to work this into those??
I suppose you could put some ham and cheese between the biscuits you have before baking, but the issue would be that those biscuits are full thickness, so you’ll end up having a double high biscuit, LOL! I rolled these out to about half thickness so I could have “half” on top and “half” on bottom, so to speak. :)
Why not just split the cooked biscuits in half?
You could, but then you wouldn’t be baking the ham and cheese with the biscuits. Baking them all together makes the edges of the ham all nice and crispy and the cheese very melty.
Alright, I know this comment is very old, but I tested whether this would work and wanted to post the results in case someone else has the same question.
I baked the frozen biscuits until they were almost done, then split them in half, added the ham and cheese, and baked for just a few more minutes. It worked very well! The ham didn’t have enough time to get crispy but everything was warm and the cheese was melted, so I consider that a win.
For us non-Americans, how much is a pint?
Google says about 473 mL.
Oh, my gosh. I wouldn’t mind eating Ham and Cheese Biscuits for breakfast every morning. My mouth is watering right now!!! :-)
First off I love your recipes. Second, i know this random but I was thinking about going to school for microbiology. Im pretty sure I read on here that that’s what you do. I was just wondering about your opinions on it and if you like it and what not
I loved working in microbiology, but working in a hospital setting and with doctors can be very stressful. :) My degree was in Clinical Laboratory Science, which allowed me to work in multiple areas of medical laboratories, like chemistry, hematology, molecular science, blood banking and more. It’s a very diverse degree and I think has a more clear cut career path than a general microbiology degree. Here is more info: http://www.ascls.org/what-is-a-medical-laboratory-science-professional
Thank you so much Beth! :) I appreciate it!
Hi Mandy! I have a degree in microbiology and after working in research for 12 years went into clinical laboratory science (specifically clinical microbiology). It really depends on what you want to do as to which education course would be best. I personally preferred research to clinical (much more intellectually stimulating) but clinical pays really well. I am personally now in the process of applying to graduate school because I found being a Medical Technologist was not quite my cup of tea. Maybe consider spending some time on the ASM (American Society for Microbiology) website https://www.asm.org/ and see what you think.
High five for another microbiology CLS! :D Definitely the best/most interesting department in clinical laboratories.