Sun, April 19, 2026 at 12:00 AM UTC
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Jennifer Jasinski is skilled at creating inventive dishes. The James Beard Award–winning chef-owner of Rioja, a 20-year-old Mediterranean restaurant in Denver, Colorado, has gained a devoted following for her braised artichoke and white truffle tortelloni, cardamom-brined pork belly, perfectly grilled leg of lamb, and other elegant, farm-to-table fare.
But one of Jasinski’s most beloved recipes is also the simplest: Goat Cheese Rosemary Biscuits.
In fact, over the past two decades, Rioja has made more than five million of the buttery, flaky wonders—that’s 700 to 800 biscuits a day. “We came up with the recipe before we opened Rioja, and they’ve been served since day one,” says Jasinski, who was a finalist on” Top Chef Masters” in 2013.
What Makes These Biscuits So Special?
Jasinski was inspired to develop the recipe for Goat Cheese Rosemary Biscuits before the restaurant opened after meeting the goats and visiting the grounds at Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy—a Colorado farm known for its creamy goat cheese. Since then, Rioja has sourced cheese from the dairy (though it stopped raising goats several years ago) for its biscuits, which are served with an array of other breads at dinnertime and as a base for eggs Benedict during brunch.
The pillowy, rosemary-speckled biscuits are delicious with a simple pat of butter or as the base for eggs Benedict or a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Here’s how to make them at home.
Rioja’s Goat Cheese Rosemary Biscuits
Rioja/Jennifer Jasinski
Yield: 14 large biscuits
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
6 ounces butter, diced, very cold
8 ounces goat cheese, crumbled small
Directions:
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, rosemary, and salt in a bowl.
Rub diced butter into flour mixture with your hands until pea-sized specks. Do the same with the goat cheese.
Stir in buttermilk and milk all at once, mixing enough just until a dough comes together; do not overmix.
Meanwhile, turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface; roll out until about 1-inch thick. Make a 4-fold by turning the 2 outside edges together into the center, then fold the entire piece of dough up like a book. Roll out again until 1-inch thick. Make a 3-fold (folding like a trifold wallet).
Roll out dough until about 1-inch thick. Cut biscuits, using a 3-inch cutter.
Transfer biscuits to the prepared baking sheet. Brush biscuits with a bit of buttermilk; sprinkle tops with salt.
Bake in the preheated oven until puffed and golden brown, about 18 minutes. Depending on your oven, you may need to rotate the baking sheet once for even browning.
This recipe is also featured in Jasinski’s cookbook, “The Perfect Bite,” published in 2010.
Pro Tips for Mastering the Biscuits
Freeze the small butter cubes before you make the dough so you don’t overmix the dough. “That one step will really help the butter stay in chunks and not get overmixed into the dough,” Jasinski says.
Rioja pastry chef Eric Dale, who makes the biscuits daily, also recommends ensuring that the butter, goat cheese, buttermilk, and milk are very cold before adding them to the dry ingredients.
You can also make the dough in advance and refrigerate it up to a week before cutting and baking, Dale says.
Read the original article on Allrecipes
Dining and Cooking