So jessicapierce's recent return to E2 reminded me that I had always been meaning to try these, so tonight I finally got around to making them, and they were indeed just as awesome as the title of this node promised. Here are my notes and reactions to this recipe:
I used whole wheat flour because I use that in everything and it's all I have. I also used green onions because honestly I've never known the difference between chives and green onions, nor do I care. Neither of these changes detracted from the awesome in any way. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly, including the suggestion to use both cheddar and jack, which worked out great.
I found that these biscuit thingies actually could have stood to be even more spiced, so next time I will probably add a little bit more of the spices.
I don't have baking parchment or a silpat or anything so I just baked these as is in glass pyrex thingy, without greasing of any kind. But I actually had no trouble at all and they slid off easily without sticking or leaving anything behind except a slight, clear oily residue. I think that these things have so much freaking cheese in them that the cheese provides its own oil to grease the pan, so to speak. So save your parchment and just throw these things on whatever, is my advice.
I found that rather than 10 minutes these things needed at least 15 minutes to be fully cooked, and 20 minutes is even better if you want a crispy golden brown bottom and a super soft top just like a real biscuit. But that might just be because I have a super shitty, tiny, apartment-size oven.
JP said that this recipe would be enough for four polite people or two people if they are hogs. I consider my wife and I pretty much food hogs by any normal standard, and we didn't eat anything else for dinner, but I gotta say these small, unassuming little things are RIDICULOUSLY filling. Using the measurements given above, one batch gave me 20 little buns about the size of a baby's fist, but I started to get full after four of them and couldn't make it past seven. So fair warning that you better be a crazy food hogs if you expect two people to get through an entire batch of these in one sitting, even being as tiny as they are.
I found out that the most amazing drink to drink with these is milk! Milk goes down soooo well with these things.
I actually doubled this recipe so that I could have some to feed to my kids, which turned out not to be an issue, so we had plenty of leftovers for snacks tomorrow and over the weekend. As you might expect with a recipe this straightforward, there were no issues with doubling all the amounts.
Overall this was an awesome recipe and I would definitely make these again. My wife couldn't stop gushing about how tasty they were and my kids ate two each, which is a lot for them. One thing I kept thinking might go well in these was, of all things, green peas, so maybe I will try adding those next time, perhaps instead of the green onions/chives.
Somewhat dark photo here.