My husband and I met in college, in the fall of sophomore year. We didn’t have much money, but we managed to scrape enough together every once in a while to go out to the fanciest restaurant in town……Red Lobster! We were pretty sneaky with our spending too: soup, split an entree, and endless cheddar bay biscuits. We may or may not have slipped a few of those delicious cheddar bay biscuits in my purse and taken them home.
Oh, I loved those little cheesy bits of goodness. Well, now we are gluten-free, which pretty much eliminates all forms of bread, including biscuits. Until now! I went ahead and came up with a gluten-free cheddar bay biscuits recipe. So exciting that I want to stuff them all in my purse!
Gluten-Free Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Who doesn't love those savory cheesy biscuits from Red Lobster? Oh, I loved those little cheesy bits of goodness. I just had to make my own healthier version that is made with real food and is gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup grass-fed butter
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 cups tapioca flour
- 2 pastured eggs, beaten
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried parsley
- 2/3 cup grated grass-fed cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- In a medium saucepan, combine butter, water, milk, and salt.
- Bring to a boil and then remove from heat.
- Stir in tapioca flour until a paste forms but do not over mix. The tapioca creates an amazing texture to these biscuits that I honestly like better that the texture of the white flour gluten biscuits.
- Leave it sit for 10 minutes, or until cool.
- Stir in beaten eggs, garlic, parsley, and cheddar until well combined, again do not over mix — the texture will be lumpy like cottage cheese.
- Using a cookie scoop (like this), scoop balls of dough onto a Silpat lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
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58 Replies to “Gluten-Free Copycat Cheddar Bay Biscuits”
Awesome! I am so excited to try these this week!
These do look awesome. I used to make a similar recipe, years ago, but of course, it wasn’t gluten free, because at that time, gluten was something you ADDED to breads! (usually whole wheat four to make the breads less crumbly)
Just a note, and really NOT meant to be negative, but the NOW tapioca flour is NOT organic. Nowhere on the label does it say organic: it says 100% “natural”, and GMO free, but not organic.
Where does the butter go? I think it is left out, unless I am totally skipping over it somewhere.
Kerry, good catch! I just edited the post. I forgot to add it to the first part of the directions! Very important part too. They would not be the same without the butter 🙂
Carol, it does not say organic on the package so I don’t think the tapioca flour is advertised to be organic. I am glad that you like the recipe. I also remember buying “high gluten flour” for baking, we added it to baked goods to make the texture better! Now I love the texture the tapioca flour creates!
I hate to be one of “those” people, but any chance you know if arrowroot works in place of tapioca? I know they have similar textures but I understood that arrowroot was lower in carbs.
They look yummy and I can’t wait to try them!
I often use arrowroot powder and tapioca flour interchangeably. Go for it and let me know how they turn out 🙂
omg i just died when i saw this recipe! my sister and i would always take the leftover biscuits and put them in our purse! we’d microwave them so they were hot again like at the restaurant. i just have to make these beauties for us.
Whew, glad to know I am not the only one who snuck them out 🙂
I don't see any mention of a yield here, unless I missed it. About how many biscuits will this make?
I don’t see any mention of a yield here, unless I missed it somewhere. About how many will this recipe make?
Oop, I forgot to add that in, I edited and added it. Thanks! It makes about 18-20
Makes about 20 biscuits, depending on the size
what is the substitute ofr tapioca flour – something commonly available outside the usa – like almond flour ? – gluten free pls
Tapioca really creates a perfect texture for these. You could try almond flour but it would have a heavier texture
I have no idea what i did wrong but my biscuits did NOT turn out at all. There was way too much liquid ratio to flour. I checked and re-checked the recipe. It never got the “cottage cheese” type consistency even though I tried to add more flour.
Hmmm, I am not sure. I have made them many times without issues.
Any chance I could use coconut flour? Or a GF all purpose flour? I don’t bake often so I’m not great at determining what’s exchangeable when it comes to flour swaps. .
You could try it, but the tapioca flour gives them the chewy texture that I love
Hi, is there anything else I could substitute for the milk? Coconut milk or Almond milk?
You could give it a try, I have not used them in the recipe though. Let me know how they turn out!
Cant wait to try these. They look a little like red lobsters biscuits.
That’s exactly what I modeled the recipe after! I used to be obsessed with the biscuits at Red Lobster!
I made these tonight and they didn’t turn out well at all. The taste was really good, but the texture was really rubbery, almost jelly-like. And the mixture before baking was pretty wet, much more liquidy than your picture showed. Any idea what I did wrong?
You could try adding more tapioca flour or more cheese. I’m sorry they didn’t turn out, not quite sure why. Hope this helps, they are so good!
Mine didn’t turn out either. The insides are super gummy, not all all flaky
I also had issues with this recipe. I made it exactly as the recipe dictates, and they looked great! But the inside was very rubbery. The 2nd time I decided to temper the eggs with my liquid instead of the egg in the end. It made the dough liquid, and it also baked with a rubbery texture.
I have made cheese biscuits so many times in the past. And have been making cathead and angel biscuits all my life. I tried this recipe twice this morning. And it didn’t ever turn out. 🙁
Sorry they didn’t work Summer. Not sure why.
I’m curious… I’m guessing Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuit recipe has baking powder in it, but your recipe doesn’t.
If that’s just an other-sight, perhaps this is why no one says they are able to duplicate your results from the written recipe so far. I’m looking forward to trying them myself… if that’s all it is.
Maybe I will try adding baking soda to my recipe and see what happens. I always have them turn out though!
I made just made these. The flavor is delicious, but the texture turned out gummy. The outsides would have burned if I cooked them much longer. Any suggestions? Thanks!
They can get a little gummy sometimes. Maybe try baking them at a lower temperature for a little bit longer
I liked these. I am used to working with tapioca flour which is naturally “gummy” when you cook it as a bread. I think the only think I would suggest is to make them into flatter biscuits, that will reduce the gummy flavor because they won’t be as dense. I am going to try to modify it a bit, but I would have it again as is.
We made these for thanksgiving and like the other comments ours didn’t turn out at all either :(. Way too gummy on the inside couldn’t even eat them cuz the outsides were cooked perfectly but not inside. Has anyone tired with another flour? Weird they don’t call for baking soda either.
Bravo! These are AMAZING!!! They remind me of the pao de queijo served at Texas de Brazil yet better! Crispy on the outside, moist, garlicky, and gooey on the inside. My new favorite “bread” to go with dinner. Thank you!
Aw, thank you so much for the great review Crystal!!!! <3
Tried these today for Lunch to go along with the Navy bean soup. I had high expectations that they would be great. They weren’t. They didn’t even resemble the picture. I agree with others that maybe the problem is no baking powder or soda. Mine needed a lift for they went flat and my husband wasn’t happy with the gummy results.
Did not like these. They came out uncooked and gummy on the inside with a crispy outside. I even tried covering them with foil and cooking them for another hour and a half at 300 degrees with no luck.
Unfortunately, this recipe as written does not work… I wish I had read the comment section first.
It seemed odd to me that it did not contain baking soda or baking powder and the ratio of dry to wet ingredients seemed off but I tried it anyway. Following this recipe exactly, produces a thin cakelike batter that is not scoopable only pourable. (GF dough’s are moister but should not be liquid)
To try and save the ingredients I had already used, I added another cup of tapioca flour (3) to get a more biscuit dough like consistency. This altered recipe produced a cookie like, spread out flat bread. The flavor was good but certainly not what anyone would call a cheddar bay “biscuit”. (I reserved a little of the mixture and added a pinch of baking soda to test, it did then rise like a biscuit should) So my advice to the blogger reexamine and rewrite your recipe, because it seems that most people are not able to achieve the results that you have shown.
I LOVE these!! I follow your recipe to the letter and they always come out perfectly! I was just wondering, do you think they would freeze well?
So glad you like them Sarah! I don’t think they would freeze well, the texture is different than that of regular bread and I think they would become really crumbly when they thawed out. Plus, they are SO good fresh out of the oven 😉
We were very excited about this because we really like Cheddar Bay biscuits, but they turned out very runny and flat after we baked them even though we were very careful following the directions.
Could it possibly be related to altitude? Mine turn out great every time. Make sure you are using the same ingredients 🙂
I thought I missed an ingredient because I ended up with a runny cake-like batter similar to others. I also compensated by adding additional tapioca flour to make it thick enough to drop. They tasted good but they were very rubbery. I like a little chewiness, but knew I couldn’t serve these to my family without getting a lot of wise cracks. I thought about the baking soda after I saw how they came out…should have read the comments first.
I just made these and they’re excellent !!! Just needs a tad more salt and I added plenty of parsley flakes ! I don’t get why some people commented that it didn’t turn out ok. I’m a new cooking/baking rookie and it worked for me! My family finished the whole tray in one sitting! Thanks so much for sharing !
Glad you liked them Doreen! I have never had issues with them not turning out either, and we make them often! My kids gobble them down!
They are extremely similar to the brazilian cheesy breads that I love but can’t get here! We dont have anything similar here in Malaysia but we do use tapioca starch quite a bit in Chinese cooking so this recipe was so easy to replicate!! Might add some chopped spinach too the next time!! Gonna try the chocolate fat bombs next!
I added a bit extra cheese, coriander instead of parsely and a bit of cayenne pepper. It turned out amazing!! However, it resembled more of a flat biscuit rather than a scone type look. Next time though, I’ll bake for 18 minutes to adjust to our altitudes here in South Africa.
The flavour, texture, all of it, was extremely yummy!! Thank you for sharing your recipe ?
So glad you liked them Denise! We love them!!!
What altitude are you at? I noticed you replied to one person who had difficulty with your recipe that perhaps it was a difference in altitude. Also, just curious…your recipe calls for “milk”. What type of milk do you use (guessing full fat)? Could the difference in results be due to others using a low-fat milk? I want to try these, but trying to figure out what to try so they turn out. Thanks in advance for your reply.
I am in Minnesota, so whatever altitude that is. We use whole raw milk.