Gluten-Free Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

Name: Gluten-Free Cheddar Garlic Biscuits
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 14 min
Total time: 19 min
Yield: 1 biscuit
Ingredients: 1 pouch (12.3 oz) Pamela's Gluten-Free Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuit Mix; 2/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese; 1 cup cold water; 3 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing (optional); 1 clove garlic, minced, for brushing (optional)

on Oct 14 2026

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Restaurant-style biscuits - you know the ones. They come out in a napkin-lined basket before anyone has decided on an entrée, warm enough to steam when you split them, and the table goes quiet for a minute. If you are gluten-free, you know the other part too: watching the basket go around and land back on the table without stopping at your seat.

That biscuit is now something you can make at home, and it takes about twenty minutes.

Pamela's Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuit Mix has the buttermilk, garlic, and chives already in it. You add a cup of cold water and two thirds of a cup of shredded sharp cheddar, drop spoonfuls onto a pan, and bake for fourteen minutes. The cheese goes in fresh, which is why these bake up with actual melted cheese pockets rather than a uniform cheese flavor running through the crumb.

Brush them with garlic butter the second they come out. That is the part that makes people go quiet. So good, no one will guess they are gluten-free, the way Pamela's has done it since 1988.

Are There Gluten-Free Restaurant-Style Cheddar Garlic Biscuits?

Not at the restaurant, no. The biscuits served at seafood chains are made with wheat flour, and most kitchens bake them on shared equipment, so even asking is usually a dead end.

At home, yes, and that is new. Pamela's Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuit Mix is GFCO-certified gluten-free and made in a certified gluten-free facility, and it makes the same style of biscuit: craggy top, soft middle, sharp cheddar, garlic and herbs through the crumb.

The mix these are built on Pamela's Gluten-Free Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuit Mix Real buttermilk, garlic, and chives in the mix. Add your own shredded sharp cheddar. GFCO-certified gluten-free and kosher. Makes about 12.

It is also faster than the restaurant version, which is a strange thing to be able to say. Three ingredients, no rolling, no cutting, fourteen minutes.

Why Fresh Shredded Cheddar Beats Cheese Powder

Most cheese biscuit mixes solve the cheese problem with powder, because powder is shelf-stable and it survives being sealed in a bag for a year. It gives you cheese flavor distributed evenly through the biscuit.

What it cannot give you is a pocket of melted cheese, and that is the thing you actually remember about a good cheddar biscuit.

This mix is built the other way around. The savory base is in the bag with real buttermilk, garlic, and chives, and the cheese is the part you add, so it goes in as shreds and melts into pockets during the bake.

Buy a block of cheese and shred it yourself if you can. Pre-shredded cheese is coated with starch to stop it clumping, and that coating makes it melt less cleanly. Two minutes with a box grater is a noticeable difference here.

Sharp cheddar, not mild. The mix carries garlic and herbs, and mild cheddar disappears underneath them. Sharp or extra-sharp holds its own.

The Secret to Fluffy Cheddar Biscuits

Two things, and both take about four seconds to get right.

Use cold water. The fat in the mix is solid and needs to stay that way until it hits a hot oven. Those solid pieces melt during the bake and release steam in little pockets, and the pockets are what lift the biscuit and make the top craggy. Warm water melts the fat during mixing, before it ever reaches the pan, and you get something denser and smoother on top.

Stop mixing while it still looks uneven. The dough should be shaggy and uneven with a few dry patches. About fifteen stirs. If it looks smooth, you have gone too far, and overmixing both toughens the crumb and smears the fat, which is the same problem warm water causes.

A third thing, smaller but real: do not press the mounds down. A tall, craggy mound bakes taller. Flattening them costs you height for no reason.

And bake hot. 425 degrees F is not a suggestion. The high heat is what turns the fat to steam quickly enough to lift the biscuit before the structure sets.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes

Total Time 19 minutes

Yield about 12 biscuits

Serving Size 1 biscuit

Ingredients

1 pouch (12.3 oz) Pamela's Gluten-Free Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuit Mix
2/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup cold water
3 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced, for brushing (optional)

Shop Gluten-Free Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuit Mix

Directions

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Empty the pouch into a bowl and add the shredded cheddar. Toss to coat the cheese in the dry mix, which keeps it from clumping.
Add the cold water. Stir just until the dry mix disappears, about fifteen stirs. The dough should look shaggy and uneven with a few dry spots. Do not mix until smooth.
Drop mounded spoonfuls onto a nonstick or parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Dip the spoon in cold water between portions so the dough releases cleanly. Do not flatten the mounds.
Bake 14 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden and the cheese at the edges has browned.
While they bake, melt the butter with the minced garlic and let it sit so the garlic infuses.
Brush the tops with garlic butter the moment the biscuits come out of the oven, then cool 5 minutes before serving.

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Gluten-Free Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuit Mix

Recipe Tips & Notes

The Garlic Butter Brush

This is the finishing move and it is not optional if you want the full effect.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter with one minced garlic clove, or half a teaspoon of garlic powder if that is what you have. Let it sit for a minute so the garlic infuses.

Brush the tops the moment the biscuits come out of the oven, while they are hot enough that the butter soaks in rather than sitting on top. A pastry brush is easiest, but the back of a spoon works.

Add chopped parsley to the butter if you want the look as well as the flavor.

That is the whole step, and it takes about ninety seconds. Skip it and you have very good cheddar garlic biscuits. Do it and you have the ones from the basket.

Common Mistakes When Making Biscuits

Overmixing. The most common by a wide margin. Stop while the dough looks shaggy.

Warm liquid. Melts the fat before baking and costs you the flaky top.

An oven that is not fully preheated. Biscuits rely on immediate high heat. Going in early means a slow rise and a flat biscuit.

Crowding the pan. Two inches apart. Closer and they steam each other instead of browning.

Pre-shredded cheese. The anti-caking starch makes it melt less cleanly. Shred a block.

Opening the oven early. The first ten minutes are when the lift happens. Let them alone.

Mixing the dough ahead. The leavening starts the moment the water goes in. A dough that sat bakes flat.

Can You Make These with Canned Biscuits?

Not gluten-free, no, and that is worth saying plainly because it comes up constantly.

There is no gluten-free canned biscuit dough. The refrigerated tubes that every shortcut cheddar biscuit recipe starts with are all wheat. If you have been searching for a gluten-free version of those, it does not exist.

This is the closest thing, and in some ways it is better. The dough takes about ninety seconds to make, it has no preservatives, and the cheese is fresh rather than baked in months ago. You also get to control the sharpness of the cheddar, which canned dough never lets you do.

If it is the convenience you want, the dough freezes well. Drop the mounds onto a sheet pan, freeze until solid, bag them, and bake straight from frozen. That is a tube of biscuit dough in your freezer, and it is gluten-free.

What to Serve with Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

Seafood. Shrimp, crab, scallops, a fish fry. This is the pairing they exist for.

Chowder and soup. Clam chowder, corn chowder, tomato soup, chili. They are built for dunking.

Holiday dinners. Alongside ham or turkey, where the garlic and cheddar sit well next to everything else on the plate.

Game day. Split and filled with pulled pork or sliced ham as sliders.

Breakfast. Split with a fried egg and bacon. The garlic works better at breakfast than it sounds like it should.

A pot pie topper. Drop the mounds straight onto the filling and bake.

What These Biscuits Contain

These biscuits contain milk and soy, and cheddar adds more dairy.

Milk comes from the buttermilk, butter powder, and whey in the mix, plus the cheese you add. Soy comes from soy flour and soy lecithin. Both are core ingredients rather than trace amounts, so this mix cannot be made dairy-free or vegan.

On dairy-free versions: cheddar is the recipe here, so a dairy-free substitute changes the dish rather than adapting it. If you need dairy-free biscuits, our Biscuit & Scone Mix contains no milk and no soy and lets you add your own fat and liquid, so plant-based versions work. It makes a rolled and cut biscuit rather than a drop biscuit, and you would add your own garlic and a dairy-free shred.

Eggs and tree nuts are not ingredients, but Pamela's products are made on equipment that processes both.

Every Pamela's product is certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization, made in a certified gluten-free, peanut-free facility, and certified kosher.

Make-Ahead, Storage, and Freezing

Best within an hour of baking, like every biscuit ever made.

Room temperature: 2 days in an airtight container. Reheat before serving.

Reheating: 350 degrees F for 5 minutes, or a toaster oven. Skip the microwave, which softens the crisp edge and makes the cheese rubbery.

Freezing baked biscuits: cool completely, wrap, freeze up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes.

Freezing unbaked dough works better, and answers the question people actually ask. Drop the mounds onto a sheet pan, freeze until solid, then bag them. Bake from frozen at 425 degrees F, adding 3 to 4 minutes. No thawing. This is the version to have in the freezer before a holiday.

Do not refrigerate the mixed dough. The leavening activates on contact with water and a rested dough bakes flat.

Other Recipe Notes

Shred a block of sharp cheddar yourself if you can. Pre-shredded cheese is coated with starch that keeps it from melting cleanly.

Use cold water. The fat in the mix needs to stay solid until it hits the oven, which is what makes the tops craggy.

Stop mixing while the dough still looks shaggy. Over-mixing is the most common reason biscuits come out flat or tough.

To freeze unbaked, drop the mounds onto a sheet pan, freeze solid, then bag. Bake from frozen at 425 degrees F, adding 3 to 4 minutes.

Recipe FAQs

Not at the restaurants, since those are made with wheat flour on shared equipment. At home, yes. Pamela's Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuit Mix is GFCO-certified gluten-free and makes the same style of biscuit with real buttermilk, garlic, and chives in the mix and fresh shredded cheddar folded in.

Cold water and minimal mixing. The fat in the mix has to stay solid until it hits a hot oven, where it turns to steam and lifts the biscuit. Warm water melts it too early. Stop stirring while the dough is still shaggy, about fifteen stirs, and bake at a full 425 degrees F.

You can, but a block you shred yourself melts noticeably better. Pre-shredded cheese is coated with starch to keep it from clumping, and that coating holds it back from melting into clean pockets. Use sharp or extra-sharp cheddar, since mild gets lost under the garlic and herbs.

Not gluten-free. Every refrigerated biscuit dough on the shelf is wheat-based, and there is no gluten-free version. This mix is the closest equivalent and takes about ninety seconds to stir together. For the convenience, freeze the unbaked mounds and bake straight from frozen.

No. The mix contains buttermilk, butter powder, and whey, plus soy flour and soy lecithin, and the recipe calls for cheddar. For dairy-free biscuits, use Pamela's Biscuit & Scone Mix, which contains neither milk nor soy, and add your own plant-based fat, liquid, and shreds.