Everything Bagel Cream Cheese Biscuits

These Flaky Cream Cheese Biscuits are made with butter, buttermilk, and everything bagel seasoning for a savory biscuit that tastes like your favorite bagel met a buttery Southern biscuit. Best of all, these homemade biscuits can be ready in as little as 30 minutes!

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These Cream Cheese Biscuits started as a biscuit version of everything I love about an everything bagel: the cream cheese, the seasoning, the golden top, and the excuse to pick up some smoked salmon and capers. In addition to spreading cream cheese on the biscuit after baking, I work cold cubes of cream cheese directly into the dough with the butter, so every biscuit bakes up soft, flaky, and rich all the way through.

If you want quick bagels, but don't want to go to the bagel shop, you're going to lose your mind over these cream cheese biscuits. The everything seasoning and the cream cheese, along with the flakiness of my biscuits, brings all flavor and texture you could dream of!

❤️ What you'll love about this recipe

• Texture - Cream cheese and butter make these biscuits tender, flaky, and soft in the center with crisp golden edges.
• Flavor - Everything bagel seasoning adds garlic, onion, sesame, poppy seeds, and salty crunch inside the dough and on top.
• Quick - These homemade cream cheese biscuits are ready in about 45 minutes, including chill time.
• Freezer-friendly - You can freeze the cut biscuits before baking and bake them straight from frozen when you need them.
• Versatile - Serve them with butter, eggs, smoked salmon, cream cheese, bacon, or anything else that belongs near a breakfast biscuit.

Ingredients & Substitutions

The photo below shows what you need to prepare this delicious recipe, and I will go over the major ingredients and how they can be substituted if needed.

• Cream cheese - Use cold brick-style cream cheese, not whipped cream cheese or cream cheese from a tub. Tub cream cheese has extra ingredients that make it spreadable, which can make biscuit dough too soft. Full-fat cream cheese gives the best flavor and texture, but Neufchatel (low-fat) can be used if needed.
• Butter - Cold unsalted butter gives the biscuits flaky layers and rich flavor. If you only have salted butter, reduce the added salt slightly.
• Buttermilk - Buttermilk helps give these cream cheese biscuits a tender texture and gives the baking soda something to react with. You can substitute plain kefir, plain yogurt thinned with milk, or sour cream thinned with milk. If you use plain milk, leave out the baking soda.
• Everything bagel seasoning - Store-bought everything bagel seasoning works great, or you can make your own with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried garlic, dried onion, and flaky salt. If your seasoning is very salty, reduce the added salt in the biscuit dough.
• All-purpose flour - Regular all-purpose flour gives these biscuits structure without making them heavy. You can use cake flour for an even softer biscuit. For best results, measure carefully, preferably with a kitchen scale, or spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off.

See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Quick Recipe Video

Instructions

This cream cheese biscuit recipe comes together like a classic cut biscuit, and the process photos will walk you through each step. Keep your butter, cream cheese, and buttermilk cold, handle the dough gently, and don't worry if the dough looks shaggy at first. It will all come together.

Step 1: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Toss cold butter and cream cheese cubes into the dry ingredients and, using a pastry cutter or your fingers, mix in the cold butter until you have a mixture of flat pieces and crumbly, pea sized bits of butter mixed into the flour. 

Food Processor alternative: Add all the dry ingredients, plus grated butter and cubed cream cheese, to the bowl of your food processor. Pulse 5 to 6 times to combine, leaving you with a texture of coarse crumbs with some larger pieces of butter and cream cheese present.

Step 3: If using food processor, transfer everything into a large mixing bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of everything bagel seasoning and mix in.

Step 4: Add cold buttermilk.

Step 5: Gently mix the buttermilk and the dry ingredients together until you have a fairly uniform, loose dough. The flour won't look all mixed in and that's okay. It will come together.

Dump the shaggy dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, gently bring it everything together into a rough square.

Step 6: With a bench scraper or knife, cut into four smaller squares. Stack the pieces of biscuit dough on top of each other. Smush it all down into a square again. Repeat this cutting and stacking procedure 2 more times.

Step 7: Pat or roll dough into a rectangle about ½ to ¾ inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter or sharp knife to cut out 2-inch to 3-inch biscuits. Place on a parchment paper lined large sheet pan and place in the freezer to chill while you preheat the oven to 425°F.

Step 8: When the oven reaches 425°F, remove biscuits from the freezer and brush with an egg wash made of one egg whisked with a tablespoon of water.

Step 9: Sprinkle everything bagel seasoning on top or I like to dip them into a small dish of everything bagel seasoning for full coverage.

Step 10: Bake at 425°F for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden brown.

Finish: Top with anything you like, from just a schmear of butter to an entire bagels and lox vibe with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers.

Cynthia's Helpful Tips

• Keep it cold - Cold butter, cold cream cheese, and cold buttermilk help create flaky layers and keep the biscuits from spreading or leaking butter while baking.
• Use brick cream cheese - Spreadable tub cream cheese is too soft for this dough and will change the texture of the biscuits.
• Do not overmix - Stop mixing when the dough is shaggy and just coming together, because overworked biscuit dough can bake up tough and flat.
• Cut, do not twist - Use a sharp biscuit cutter or knife, press straight down, and lift straight up so the layers will be exposed and the biscuit can rise properly.
• Freeze before baking - A short freezer chill helps the biscuits hold their shape and gives the butter and cream cheese time to firm back up before they hit the oven.

Recipe FAQ's

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