Monday, February 3, 2014

Best Biscuits Ever

Serious yumminess has been coming out of my oven lately.
Yes, that would be my new oven.  (Protagonist sighs happily here.)
These may be the finest biscuits I've ever made.  And no wonder -- they contain cream.  HEAVY cream.  (Protagonist adjusts her slightly ill-fitting waistband here.)
This recipe came from a Martha Stewart magazine.  I was going to just link to it from here, but the various instructions I found online were slightly different from the directions in the printed magazine, and I have a few changes/comments of my own.  So I think for clarity's sake I shall just type it in here, adding my own comments as we go.
Ready?  Begin.
BEST BAKING POWDER BISCUITS EVER
(By the way, I divided this recipe in half.  Using my 2 1/4-inch cookie cutter, it still made 11 biscuits)
4 c. flour, plus more for work surface
2 T. baking powder
2 t. sugar (next time I will double this amount)
1 t. coarse salt
1 c. (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into pieces (Martha uses unsalted; I like salted)
2 c. heavy cream (the reason I cut the recipe in half -- I had just a small carton of cream)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  In large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  Cut the butter into small pieces and drop into flour mixture.  Using tips of fingers, rub butter into flour mixture until butter is dispersed and texture resembles large breadcrumbs. 

Add the cream and stir until dough just comes together.  (Martha says dough will be sticky but mine was quite dry.  I kneaded it in the bowl just a bit to get it to come to a ball.  I suppose another option would be to add a tad more cream [or milk, if you're out of cream] but what I did worked fine.) 

Transfer to a lightly floured surface (I use my large cutting board), pat to 1-inch thickness, and use a round cookie cutter to cut out your happy little biscuits.  Place an inch or two apart on cookie sheet that's covered with parchment paper and bake about 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
Yeah.  Like the "light butter" is really gonna help.
NOTE: I baked these on the second to highest rack, but after consulting my wonderful baking reference book Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cook's Illustrated, next time I would bake these on the middle rack instead. 

Labels:

4 Comments:

Blogger ~~louise~~ said...

Hi Lynn!

I can never remember which rack is which when it comes to baking:)

I see you are putting your brand new spanking oven to good use. I'm sure it is worthy of the heavy cream biscuits. The way this winter is going the jeans are getting tighter by the second. What the heck, I'll take a biscuit, or two.

Thanks for sharing, Lynn...

February 4, 2014 at 5:38 AM  
Blogger Farm Girl said...

What a wonderful looking biscuit. I always am in the market for the perfect recipe.
I am so glad you are enjoying your new oven. I bet your family is as well.

February 4, 2014 at 8:33 AM  
Blogger grace said...

fantastic biscuits! making biscuits from scratch is something that absolutely must be learned and practiced and i'm impressed by your batch!

February 25, 2014 at 11:05 AM  
Anonymous Kim said...

Maybe I will try the heavy cream. Mine never quite come out moist.

July 25, 2016 at 4:17 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home