Use 1 Tbsp of the butter and heavily butter two 8″ round cake pans – get sides and bottom very good. Keep spreading around until all the butter is used.
With the remaining 10 Tbsp of butter, cut into small cubes and freeze for 15 minutes.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
Toss in the frozen butter and use a fork or pastry blender to break the butter up until it is in pea size pieces.
Gently mix in the cheese and chives.
Pour in the buttermilk and stir just until there are no flour pockets left (all flour should be moist) but don’t over mix.
Dump onto a floured surface, and form into a rectangle. Gently press down then do a book fold once. Gently press down again.
Rotate 90 degrees and do one more book fold. Gently press down one more time, fold in half, and then roll with a rolling pin to 3/4″ thickness.
Use a 2 1/2 – 3″ biscuit cutter if you have one, or just freehand circles with a knife to make 16 biscuits. You may have to re-roll the dough after the first set of biscuits to be able to make 16.
Place 8 into each buttered round pan. They should be touching.
Place the two round pans on a large cookie sheet. Bake on the cookie sheet for 20-25 minutes or until tops are very golden brown.
While the biscuits are cooking, melt 1/4 cup salted butter in the microwave, then stir in 1/4 tsp minced garlic.
Remove biscuits from oven and from cookie sheet. Immediately brush with all of the butter. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, and then remove from the round pans to a cooling rack. Best served immediately but you can store them on the counter in a sealed container.