Baking the ‘Ted Lasso’ Biscuits Is Like Watching the Series All Over Again

Ted Lasso didn’t save me — I don’t think any show has that kind of power — but it helped me pull through the final stretch of a dark year. When the soccer football comedy made its debut in August 2020, I completely missed it. I knew almost nothing about it, except that former SNL cast member Jason Sudeikis was in it. My friend, ever the football nerd, told me I had to watch it immediately, sending along random tweets from out of context ted lasso; at the time, I was busy watching all of ’90s sitcom The Nanny on HBO Max and had little space for anyone who wasn’t Fran Drescher. But even those episodes are finite, and when it was over, I needed something to fill the Fran-shaped hole in my heart. Ted Lasso was waiting to do exactly that.

Like many viewers, I found myself particularly drawn to the early Season One episode “Biscuits.” On his first day at AFC Richmond, Ted — the folksy, charming coach of American football — attempts to win over the skeptical soccer players and team management. He brings Rebecca Welton, the new owner of the team, shortbread in a pink box as a present. She rebuffs his attempt at friendliness but becomes obsessed with the biscuits after one bite. When Rebecca asks Ted where he got them, he doesn’t reveal the source, and instead promises to bring a box everyday, a tradition he calls “biscuits with the boss.” It’s revealed that Ted bakes the biscuits himself because of course he does. He’s Ted Lasso.

And naturally with any show that has a huge and growing following and a featured food item, people quickly take to the Internet to figure out where they can get it or how they can make it at home: 30 Rock is fiction, but we all know the teamster sandwich is real; the SpongeBob SquarePants Krabby Patty isn’t exactly recreate-able (seriously, what is the meat product?), but it’s certainly worth a try; and while we wouldn’t sink our teeth into the baby dumpling from Pixar’s Bao, we know there’s an official recipe for those who want a taste. Ted Lasso is no exception. While the biscuits used on set weren’t actually good, copycat recipes began to pop up all over the internet, and it wasn’t until I was on TikTok that I realized there’s an official recipe. You can even purchase a set of pink boxes to put them in.

My decision to make these biscuits had nothing to do with wanting to eat them — that was just a bonus. I wanted to see if the process would bring me the same level of happiness as watching the show for the first time. A lot of us — including Christina Tosi — are chasing that feeling, so I was in good company when I purchased all the ingredients, queued up season two (yes, even the Christmas episode), and set out to make the Ted Lasso biscuits. The process is easy — most shortbreads are — but between the prep, the baking, and cleaning, I found myself doing a bit of Ted Lasso karaoke in my kitchen, reciting my favorite lines (“I hope he dies of the incurable condition of being a little bitch.”) along with the show as it played in the background. It also gave me an opportunity to pick up on small details I missed the first time I watched the episodes, like counting all the rom-com references in “Rainbow,” which brought me renewed joy.

Baking the biscuits yielded a delicious batch of buttery, crumbly shortbread that melted in my mouth. I even dipped a couple in some hot brown water (a.k.a. tea). But it was the overall process that reminded me why I fell in love with the show in the first place: Like the biscuits, Ted Lasso is a buttery delight, one that comforts you when you need it most. As the world around us continues to fall apart, I take comfort in knowing that even without new episodes every Friday night, I can leave all of that behind and savor the irresistible magic that is Ted Lasso.