I still had half a carton of heavy cream sitting in the fridge leftover from the ganache for my chocolate cupcakes. It kills me to waste cream, butter or chocolate even when the stuff I make sometimes ends up in the trash anyway. I just can't throw out straight cream, butter or chocolate. Since I wasn't up for the caloric overkill of whipping cream pound cake I made these cream biscuits from ATK. I threw in some cheddar and dill for some savoury goodness.
The dry.
Pour in the heavy cream
Stir until it comes together with a spatula, but don't over do it.
Knead lightly until it comes together into a ball. I like to do this over saran wrap so clean up is easy.
Squish down and cut into squares. I like squares because there are no scraps to deal with. Plus, I don't have biscuit cutters :(
I can never help picking at something warm. So the rise wasn't so great, but the texture was really nice and soft, something I would have expected considering it was made with heavy cream.
Cream Biscuits
America's Test Kitchen's Revised Cookbook Chock Full Of Recipes
These are very simple, made with flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and heavy cream — NO butter or Crisco.
2 cups (10 oz) all purpose flour, plus extra for the counter
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1. Adjust an oven rack to the upper middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until the dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 seconds.
2. Pat the dough into a ¾-inch thick circle. Cut the biscuits into rounds using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter or 8 wedges using a knife. Place the biscuits on the parchment lined baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
The day it was 40C (104F) outside, I had the sudden urge to bake biscuits... the kind of recipe that requires the oven to be preheated to 425F! I don't even like biscuits, but when I want to bake something, I have to or else it drives me crazy. These were so much fun because everything is done by hand. I made easy drop biscuits before, but I've never attempted buttermilk biscuits because I was afraid they wouldn't get those flaky layers or rise. These were inspired by Em and Kelly (who offers really great tips for getting those perfect layers and height). I used the recipe from Chris Kimball because I had all the ingredients available except that I subbed the shortening for butter. It's probably me, but the last time I made banana bread with shortening to see if there was a difference in texture with butter, it sort of had a meat aftertaste. Since these are not flavoured, I didn't want beef tasting biscuits...gross!
I was pretty pleased with the rise, but the texture wasn't as soft as I would have liked. I think it was my fault for over working the dough though. I wanted those layers so badly that I folded and patted the dough down more than I should have. Next time, I'm going to buy some lard so I can try Em's recipe. Overall, I would say that these were a success because my brother who I usually have to beg to try a cookie, brownie or cupcake had 4 of these!
Baking Powder Biscuits
Chris Kimball
If you do not have buttermilk, you can substitute regular sweet milk as indicated below. For extra height, let the cut biscuits sit on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before baking.
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons chilled butter
3 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening (I used butter)
2/3 to 3/4 cup buttermilk
(I just used my fingers to rub the butter in and skipped the food processor)
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor. Process for 2 seconds to mix.
Add the butter, cut into 1-tablespoon bits, to the flour and pulse 6 times for one second each. Add shortening and pulse another 5 times or until mixture looks like coarse meal (the flour should take on a slightly yellowish hue from the butter).
Place mixture into a large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, fold mixture together while adding buttermilk in a very thin stream. When mixture starts to hold together, press the dough with the side of the spatula. Note that you may use a little more or less than the 2/3-cup of buttermilk called for in this recipe.
Turn onto a floured surface and roll out dough very gently to a thickness of 1/2 inch. (I patted the dough down and folded it over a few times)
Use a biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits and then place on a cookie sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, turning the sheet after 5 minutes in the oven.
Makes 10 thick 2 3/4-inch biscuits or 16 2-inch biscuits.
SWEET-MILK VARIATION
Substitute milk for buttermilk, add 3 teaspoons cream of tartar, and reduce baking powder to 1 teaspoon.
Flaky is definitely not my thing, so when it comes to biscuits, tea biscuits, pie crust, I can easily pass them by. Despite not liking them, biscuits have definitely been on my to-bake list for a long time mostly because I love how they just split in half when they're pullled apart. I chose this recipe because there was no food processor to clean, no frozen butter to grate and everything is done in one bowl, and two measuring cups. If the food processor made superior biscuits, I would drag that thing out, but this was a Cook's Illustrated recipe (how can I not believe them!). The coolest part was watching the melted butter turn into clumps when it was poured into the buttermilk. That's actually the secret to fluffy and flaky biscuits because the clumps mimick the effect of frozen clumped butter. Even though I'm not crazy about biscuits, these were pretty good and very light tasting. They were especially yummy with peanut butter!
By the way, what kind of baking sheets do you use when the baking temperature is 475!! If I used my jelly roll instead of the airbakes, the bottoms would have burned badly before the top would even cook. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a non burning, nicely browning jelly roll or cookie sheet pan?
Cook's Illustrated
Best Drop Biscuits Recipe
