Giant Cheddar-Cornbread Biscuit

This giant biscuit is one of those recipes that is total, genius-level indulgence.  Basically, picture making a biscuit dough full of cornmeal and sharp Cheddar cheese, but then baking it in a round pan to create a giant biscuit.  Amazing!  After baking, the biscuit can be cut into big wedges for serving (or small wedges if you're not feeling gluttonous -- this is pretty rich).  Leftovers kept pretty well, wrapped tightly, since the dough is very moist.  Fair warning -- you'll need to plan ahead because the dough should chill for about and hour in the fridge and then bakes for quite a while.  You could speed things along by baking this as regular-sized biscuits...but that just wouldn't be anywhere near as fun, would it?

Giant Cheddar-Cornbread Biscuit (adapted from Food52 and A Periodic Table)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup coarse cornmeal
3/4 cup sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
5 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
2 sticks cold butter, cubed
3/4 to 1 cup buttermilk
Heavy cream, freshly ground black pepper, and sea salt, to finish

1. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and Cheddar cheese.  Add the butter, and cut in with a pastry blender or your fingers.
2. Add 3/4 cup of the buttermilk and gently fold into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined.  Add more buttermilk if needed so that the dough is just moistened.
3. Cover the bowl, and chill 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9-inch springform pan.
5. Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and use your hands to pat it down so everything is even.
6. Brush the top of the dough with heavy cream, and then sprinkle with sea salt and lots of black pepper.
7. Bake 30-45 minutes, until the top is brown and a tester comes out clean.