Herbed Cottage Cheese Biscuits

2 cups flour, plus more for the work surface

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ to ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup full-fat cottage cheese

½ cup cold whole milk

6 tablespoons (¾ stick) very cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

2 to 3 tablespoons minced fresh herbs, such as dill, basil, chives, parsley, cilantro or a combination

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt (to taste) and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the cottage cheese and milk in a separate bowl.

Scatter the butter and herbs over the flour mixture; toss to coat the butter with flour. Use your fingertips or a metal pastry blender to rub, squeeze and/or cut the butter into the dry ingredients. You're aiming for a lumpy mix with pieces of every size and shape, from pea-size to flake. It will look rough, and that's just what you want.

Pour the cottage cheese-and-milk mixture over the dry ingredients; use a fork to gently stir everything around until you have a soft dough. Squeeze a piece and it will hold together. You might have a few dry spots here and there, but you're about to take care of them. Reach into the bowl and turn, fold and knead the dough - go easy, it's not bread - just enough to bring everything together into a ball.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly, and either pat the dough out with your hands or roll it with a pin until it is between ½-inch and ¾-inch high. Don't worry if the dough isn't rolled out evenly: A quick, light touch is more important than accuracy here.

Use the cutter; your goal is to cut the biscuits as close to one another as possible, so you get the most you can out of this first round. Transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet as you work, spacing them at least an inch apart. Gather together the scraps; lightly pat the dough out again, working it as little as possible, and cut additional biscuits, again as close together as possible; transfer those to the sheet. You can go for one more pat-and-cut; just know that third-round biscuits won't rise as dramatically as the others; they will, however, be delicious. Keep in mind you're aiming for a total of 10 biscuits.

(At this point, the biscuits can be frozen till firm, then wrapped airtight and kept in the freezer for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting; just add about 3 more minutes to the oven time.)

Bake for 14 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheet from front to back halfway through, until the biscuits are tall, puffed and golden brown. Remove them from the baking sheet and serve right away.

Variation: You can make more-traditional biscuits by replacing the cottage cheese and whole milk with ¾ cup of buttermilk. (Or omit the cottage cheese and baking soda and increase the whole milk to ¾ cup.) If you like sweet biscuits, omit the herbs, use ½ teaspoon of salt and add 2 teaspoons of sugar to the dough.

10 servings

For these tender, nubbly biscuits, it's important to use a deep, thin-walled 2 ¼-inch biscuit cutter, which will allow a clean cut around the edges.

Serve with butter; these are terrific for making sandwiches.

Make ahead: Cutout biscuits can be placed on a baking sheet, frozen and then packed airtight; they'll keep for up to 2 months and can be baked directly from the freezer. Baked biscuits should be eaten straight from the oven (best) or within 2 hours. You can reheat the biscuits in a 350-degree oven, but the texture will be denser than for just-baked.

Nutrition | Per serving: 170 calories, 4 g protein, 21 g carbohydrates, 8 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 25 mg cholesterol, 290 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 1 g sugar

From cookbook author Dorie Greenspan