Cream Biscuits

 

Oh biscuits.  Amiright or amiright?!  Yep.  Love 'em.  And bonus within the biscuits genre, there are varieties upon varieties out there to well ya know, test and enjoy.  As one should.  So here, try these Cream Biscuits.

Sure.  Heavy cream.  Yes.  That's what's meant by "cream" in the Cream Biscuits title. 

So yeah, these are likely not going to be an everyday sort of biscuit.  But, then again, are they really that much different on the not-great-for-you scale?  Cream versus butter?  Mmm, maybe a little but these are a very nice treat.

These little puppies just melt in your mouth though.  Whoo, can't beat that.  I just drooled myself, hang on....

They're more delicate and on the fluffy end of the flaky vs. fluffy biscuit scale.  Ah crap, drooled myself again....

So they're kind of like a baking powder biscuit meets a buttermilk biscuit, but again, made with cream without using butter and instead of buttermilk.

Decadent, Iiiii know.  Luxury.  Whoo, I think I'm sweating a little bit now.

These Cream Biscuits come together so rapidly, from start to finish, you'll be stuffing them in your face under a half hour.  How's that for fast?!

All in all though, I really think you're going to enjoy these little numbers.

 

You might be wondering, well, cream, that's pretty heavy.  Can I make these with milk or another dairy or non-dairy liquid?

Well, no.  Well wait, I don't mean to be curt or dismissive but then these would not be Cream Biscuits, they'd be other dairy biscuits. 

All purpose biscuits or similar indeed which surely are outstandingly tasty but the vast majority of those call for butter along with the dairy liquid.  Other than the butter for brushing before baking, there is no butter inside these here biscuits.

The luxuriant butterfat percentage in cream makes up for the butter's fat, for not using butter so other milks or non-dairy liquids would not yield the same results in this case.

Which is interesting to note because the average heavy cream hovers around thirty six percent butterfat while most American butters ring in at around eighty percent.  Heavy cream has a water content of sixty seven-ish percent while butter is in the neighborhood of sixteen to eighteen percent.

A little science-y?  Yeah.  I will not profess to thoroughly understand baking science but I found the percentages interesting to share.

If you're interested in a wee bit more biscuit science relating to leaveners and fats, The Kitchn has a post for you.

I know, still, heavy cream.  Or just the idea of Cream Biscuits.  You're doubtful and scratching your head, giving me a funny look. 

It might give you heavy pause but that's what makes these biscuits *mwah*, chef's kiss.  Look at it this way, if you scale up and get a bigger jug, you can also make ice cream!  Hallelujah!  Sounds like a double win to me.

So bear with me here, take a look at the photos of the glorious insides and hopefully I will convince you.

These are, after all, a James Beard recipe soooo, you now have two guarantees that this is a winner.

And in reflection, at this point, I think I should add a try-every-type-of-biscuit-recipe quest to my myriad of other ongoing concurrent baking quests because why not.  Biscuits are tasty.  We like biscuits.  And I like to bake.

All righty, let me grab a towel, time to clean myself of all this drool and sweat and get to the recipe, give you some tips and pointers, and show you how they're done.  Shall we?  Yes, let's.

Oh I should mention, I cut eight biscuits out of the dough rather than twelve as outlined in the original recipe.  So, that's what I've called for here, that's what the nutrition reflects; feel free to cut twelve but to me, they seem too small, heh!

All right, Cream Biscuits!

This is going to happen so fast; don't blink!

Grab a large bowl and toss in your flour, the sugar, the baking powder, and the salt. 

Of note, I find the full teaspoon of salt a hair on the salty side for me (probably not for Mike; he'd be thrilled for his own personal salt block), so you're welcome to adjust down to maybe three quarters of a teaspoon. 

Whisk* that stuff up.

Next, stream in one cup of the heavy cream -- hold off on the remainder as it's backup. 

Stir very gently with a nonstick spatula* and once it starts to come together, take a dry vs. wet survey.

Mine here was borderline a smidge dry but I went with it.

If it seems things are too dry, add more cream one tablespoon* at a time until things mostly stick together.

Lightly flour that work surface of yours, dump out the dough onto it, and gently shape and flatten the dough into a half inch tall rectangle or square or whatever shape floats your boat.

Next time, to see, I'm going to try for more like three quarters or an inch thick, see how that goes.  Let me know if you do.

Key of course, as with any biscuit, is to not overwork, not over-stir or over-manipulate the dough.  Be gentle, stay off of the dough as much as possible.

With a knife or dough scraper,* slice up the biscuits into eight equal ones.  Or twelve, but I find eight is better.

Brush* the bottoms of the biscuits with the melted butter, set them on the baking sheet* which you can leave unlined, ungreased, or add a layer of parchment paper* or a silicone baking mat.*  The latter two aren't really needed; I'm suggesting mostly for ease of clean up, if desired.

Brush the remaining butter over each side of every biscuit and pop those lovelies in the oven!

Bake.  Pace.  Bake. 

Wait until they're lightly golden brown or to your liking which may or may not be longer or shorter than I've outlined, depending on how many you've cut, so don't panic.  I will advise against over-browning which results in over-baking.

Once done, serve right away while hot.  With butter, or maybe jam or.....ok, I'm drooling again.  Gotta go make some. 

Leftovers?  Oh please, don't you worry -- slice 'em up, pop 'em in the toaster.  Omg.

Enjoy these seriously delicious Cream Biscuits!  Whoooie I am melting.....

*The whisks, nonstick spatulas, dough scrapers, pastry brushes, baking sheets, parchment paper, and silicone baking mats are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.