quote:

Originally posted by JimInKy

I’m thankful GaGal shared her recipe for cream biscuits. It was sometime this month that a version of cream biscuits was demonstrated on my favorite cooking show, "America’s Test Kitchen" (produced by the people at Cook’s Illustrated magazine). The show appears on public TV stations just about everywhere.

For several years now, I’ve been collecting and trying different biscuit recipes, trying to replicate the buttermilk biscuits my late mother made every day. I make decent biscuits, but nothing I try compares to Mom’s or to the best biscuits I ever ate-the small, silky ones served every day at The Jarrett House dining room in Dillsboro, North Carolina. Here’s the ATK recipe; fortunately, it’s one that will suit folks who prefer all-purpose flour:

QUICK CREAM BISCUITS

Makes eight 2 1/2-inch biscuits

Bake the biscuits immediately after cutting them; letting them stand for any length of time can decrease the leavening power and thereby prevent the biscuits from rising properly in the oven.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups cream and stir with wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough from bowl to countertop, leaving all dry, floury bits behind in bowl. In 1-tablespoon increments, add up to 1/4 cup cream to dry bits in bowl, mixing with wooden spoon after each addition, until moistened. Add moistened bits to rest of dough and knead by hand just until smooth, about 30 seconds.

3. Shape dough into round, 3/4 inch thick. Cut into rounds with
biscuit cutter or cut into wedges with knife. Place rounds or
wedges on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.

Source: Cook’s Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen. Nov. 2003

On the show, the finished biscuits looked very appealing. Consequently, on some upcoming cold weekends, I plan to make both this recipe and the one posted by GaGal.
_______________________________________________________________

Here’s a short article about all-purpose flour from the ATK November newsletter (fortunately, I saw the show where this report was made in detail):

TASTING LAB: All-Purpose Flour

If you could keep only one kind of flour in your pantry, which brand of all-purpose flour would it be? To find out, we stocked our test kitchen shelves with nine brands of all-purpose flour and started a bake-off that eventually stretched over six months.

Of all the product taste tests we have run, these flour tastings were undoubtedly the most difficult. The differences in flavor between the biscuits, muffins, and chocolate chip cookies that we baked were very subtle. The most obvious differences were often in appearance. That is not to say, however, that the tests were inconclusive–we can recommend two brands wholeheartedly. Both King Arthur and Pillsbury unbleached flours regularly made highly recommended baked goods, producing a more consistent range of results over the other brands.
________________________________________________________________

I happen to take Cook’s Illustrated magazine, and have the highest regard for these folk. If you need to learn to cook or want to cook better, CI is one good answer. They have a fine Web site: http://www.cooksillustrated.com

JimInKy

"I bake biscuits for the pleasure of adding sorghum syrup and sweet butter." What Rene Descartes really said.

Oooh, I just took ,22,47073.009,1,10294,24.205.62.238
47081,47073,47073,2003-12-04 20:17:00,RE: Whipped Cream Biscuits”

If these are nearly as good as the cream wafer cookies I’ve had, they should be a winner!

Since we are on the subject, I have a biscuit question. I have never actually made biscuits, but I have made scones several times, which are really mostly slightly sweeter biscuits. All the recipes that I have ever seen for biscuits or scones call for light kneading, as do the recipes posted here. But I found that if I just handled the dough gently, patting it into place before cutting it, I get a much lighter, flakier product than when I knead it. Kneading it at all seems to make them harder and flatter. (And I kneaded it only very briefly.)

Am I doing something wrong? Has anyone else had the same experience?

By the way, I totally agree about Cooks Illustrated. Their issues are very entertaining to read, as well as being informative. I think that my favorite how-to article (the one that made me laugh the most as opposed to the one that has been the most helpful) was the one that suggested for the best apple pie with the flakiest crust, make the filling on the stove top, bake both the bottom and top crusts separately, and then pour the filling into the cooked bottom crust and top it with the cooked top crust. Voila! Tasty pie with no soggy crust! [:p][:p]

Paul,

We too are fans of Hardee’s biscuits and the nearest thing we have found to duplicate them is by using General Mills Foodservice [Gold Medal] Buttermilk Biscuit Mix. It comes in a 5 lb box and to my knowledge, it is not available in supermarkets. We found it once a long time ago at Odd Lots and loved it. We did have a manager at Festival Foods who would order it for us by the [6 box case], but Festivalclosed the store. You might be able to find a supermarket that would do the same. We now order it direct from General Mills. Perhaps it is available by the box, I don’t know, we have always ordered a 6 box case and divide with our family. I runs a bit less than $40/case. It sure makes great biscuits. We always top the biscuits, prior to baking,with a tab of butter/margarine.

E-mail: Foodservice @CIC.C.comompuserve PH 800-228-4810 or you might be able to order through: http://www.bettycrocker.com.

Paul,
The secret to Hardee’s, and many other fast food places, biscuits is ultra hardened bits of fat in the biscuit mix they use. It’s generally not available on grocery shelves, but can be found in restaurant supply places. Here in OR I see it at United Grocers. BTW, that form of fat is considered by the medical community to be the absolute worst contributor to cholesterol problems. jm

JiminKY: Good bisquit review. I will try and I also wish I could do the bisquits like Hardee’s. Hardees is to a bisquit like Krispy Kreme is to a doughnut. Unfortunately it is the only thing Hardee’s does right. I get their bisquit and sausage or just plain bisquits by themselves.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I’m thankful GaGal shared her recipe for cream biscuits. It was sometime this month that a version of cream biscuits was demonstrated on my favorite cooking show, "America’s Test Kitchen" (produced by the people at Cook’s Illustrated magazine). The show appears on public TV stations just about everywhere.

For several years now, I’ve been collecting and trying different biscuit recipes, trying to replicate the buttermilk biscuits my late mother made every day. I make decent biscuits, but nothing I try compares to Mom’s or to the best biscuits I ever ate-the small, silky ones served every day at The Jarrett House dining room in Dillsboro, North Carolina. Here’s the ATK recipe; fortunately, it’s one that will suit folks who prefer all-purpose flour:

QUICK CREAM BISCUITS

Makes eight 2 1/2-inch biscuits

Bake the biscuits immediately after cutting them; letting them stand for any length of time can decrease the leavening power and thereby prevent the biscuits from rising properly in the oven.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups cream and stir with wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough from bowl to countertop, leaving all dry, floury bits behind in bowl. In 1-tablespoon increments, add up to 1/4 cup cream to dry bits in bowl, mixing with wooden spoon after each addition, until moistened. Add moistened bits to rest of dough and knead by hand just until smooth, about 30 seconds.

3. Shape dough into round, 3/4 inch thick. Cut into rounds with
biscuit cutter or cut into wedges with knife. Place rounds or
wedges on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.

Source: Cook’s Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen. Nov. 2003

On the show, the finished biscuits looked very appealing. Consequently, on some upcoming cold weekends, I plan to make both this recipe and the one posted by GaGal.
_______________________________________________________________

Here’s a short article about all-purpose flour from the ATK November newsletter (fortunately, I saw the show where this report was made in detail):

TASTING LAB: All-Purpose Flour

If you could keep only one kind of flour in your pantry, which brand of all-purpose flour would it be? To find out, we stocked our test kitchen shelves with nine brands of all-purpose flour and started a bake-off that eventually stretched over six months.

Of all the product taste tests we have run, these flour tastings were undoubtedly the most difficult. The differences in flavor between the biscuits, muffins, and chocolate chip cookies that we baked were very subtle. The most obvious differences were often in appearance. That is not to say, however, that the tests were inconclusive–we can recommend two brands wholeheartedly. Both King Arthur and Pillsbury unbleached flours regularly made highly recommended baked goods, producing a more consistent range of results over the other brands.
________________________________________________________________

I happen to take Cook’s Illustrated magazine, and have the highest regard for these folk. If you need to learn to cook or want to cook better, CI is one good answer. They have a fine Web site: http://www.cooksillustrated.com

JimInKy

"I bake biscuits for the pleasure of adding sorghum syrup and sweet butter." What Rene Descartes really said.

GaGal,
Thanks for the new biscuit recipe – this looks like a candidate for inclusion in the Akins diet – you know, an overload of cholesterol negates the effect of carbohydrates. Here’s another that may be of interest:
http://southernfires.com/db/breads/biscuit_recipe.htm

I’ve made this a few times, and it bakes up nice and light. I don’t have biscuit mix around, or self rising flour, but all one needs to do is use any standard biscuit formula up to the point of adding liquid (that’s true for either recipe).

I do a lot of baking, and have found sev ways to make my biscuits better. I use the food processor, BUT only let it work in the COLD shortning until the size of peas. It’s hard to stop there; it seems to be too big – but that’s what makes them really light. I’ve also found that real lard is the best hard shortning one can use – not the stuff on the grocery store shelves, but the non preserved kind that bakeries use (you can make your own by simply rendering down some pork fat in a big pot on top of the stove – the grocery butcher should be a good source for a lb or two – leaf fat is best). And I try not to use bread flour, cause that stuff is blended to develop glutin fast, the enemy of biscuits – all purpose or even cake flour is best.

Thanks again for the new idea. We have a local grocery that weekly discounts all its milk products, including cream (which has a remarkable shelf life, thanks to all the high tech preservatives they use!). Next time I see cream marked down, I’ll try this one. jm