May 4, 2021
Ahhhh . . . whipped cream biscuits. My daughter Mia thought she would hate these biscuits because she doesn’t love whipped cream. But instead she wants to know when I will be making them again. The secret here is that the whipped cream is in the biscuit, not on the biscuit!
So the recipe makes 8 biscuits and we ate all 8 biscuits in record time. I’m not proud of our actions. I’ll admit that. I’m constantly baking there are a lot of baked goods in our home. And don’t get me wrong, my family is happy to eat whatever I make, but I have never seen something I made get consumed that quickly. It was more like a tornado of hands tore through the kitchen and breakfast disappeared.
These biscuits are light and tender, and extremely flavorful. They are not rolled as out as most biscuits are, but cut into squares, making them an easy pastry to prepare. Also, the oven gets preheated to 475ºF and then lowered immediately to 425ºF as soon as the biscuits go in. Starting the biscuits in a very hot oven helps them rise and brown better.
Whipped Cream Breakfast Biscuits
Adapted from Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street
For the Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar, divided
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups heavy cream, plus more as needed
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes + 1 tablespoon melted butter
To Make the Biscuits
Heat the oven to 475ºF (NOT A MISTAKE-YOU WILL BE REDUCING TEMPERATURE) with the oven rack in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl of a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the cream and sour cream to soft peaks. (Soft peaks is when you dunk a spoon in the mixture, lift straight up and the mixture forms a pointed mountain, but the mountain top folds over.) Set aside. Go back to the flour mixture and scatter the butter cubes over the flour. With your fingertips, rub together until the butter is thoroughly and evenly dispersed in the flour.
Add the whip cream mixture to the flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold and press the until large clumps form and no flour remains. Use your hand to knead the dough in the bowl until it forms a shaggy mass. This is where you may need a little more cream, a tablespoon at a time, until all the flour is completely mixed in. (I added 1 tablespoon more of cream to get the dough to come together.)
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop and divide in half. Form each piece into a rough 5 inch square, about 3/4 inch thick. With a bench scraper or a knife cut each square into 4 smaller squares for a total of 8 biscuits. Evenly space them on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the top of each biscuit with the melted butter and sprinkle with the reserved 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 425ºF.
Bake until golden brown, 15-18 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.