It's one of those sweet days, you know the kind, when the sky invites you outside, and the day unfolds instead of rushes by, and you think more about fun than work.
Those are the creative days. Why?
My guess is that because I'm slowing down with fewer things to do, I am more open to ideas. It also helps to get a good night's sleep. And take Vitamin D. Voila.
I think the day someone decided to use heavy cream instead of butter and milk to make biscuits must have been creative baking nirvana. Really! No cutting of the butter into the flour? I wasn't sure it would work. I come from a part of the world where biscuits are important. Like oxygen. You put sausage gravy on them, or honey, or jam, or butter, or just eat them plain. Biscuits make a life a whole lot better. Like oxygen. That's my belief. But they're kind of a pain to make. Only not these. NOT THESE.
You combine flour, baking powder, a little sugar and a little salt and you add heavy cream. Knead very lightly, cut out, bake. That's it! It's like my physics professor just told me the easy formula for completing the hardest problems. That's all I have to do??
And of course once I got those biscuits done, I couldn't just eat them. It was a creative day. So I added strawberries and a little vanilla ice cream with real vanilla!
Oh, if you could have been here to taste them you would have hugged me and kissed me.
Those are the creative days. Why?
My guess is that because I'm slowing down with fewer things to do, I am more open to ideas. It also helps to get a good night's sleep. And take Vitamin D. Voila.
I think the day someone decided to use heavy cream instead of butter and milk to make biscuits must have been creative baking nirvana. Really! No cutting of the butter into the flour? I wasn't sure it would work. I come from a part of the world where biscuits are important. Like oxygen. You put sausage gravy on them, or honey, or jam, or butter, or just eat them plain. Biscuits make a life a whole lot better. Like oxygen. That's my belief. But they're kind of a pain to make. Only not these. NOT THESE.
You combine flour, baking powder, a little sugar and a little salt and you add heavy cream. Knead very lightly, cut out, bake. That's it! It's like my physics professor just told me the easy formula for completing the hardest problems. That's all I have to do??
And of course once I got those biscuits done, I couldn't just eat them. It was a creative day. So I added strawberries and a little vanilla ice cream with real vanilla!
Oh, if you could have been here to taste them you would have hugged me and kissed me.
I have Melissa of Love At First Bite to thank for choosing Sweet Cream Biscuits on page 23 from Dorie Greenspan's Baking book.
Your picture makes me want to hug you! I love it! Im glad you enjoyed the recipe. I really loved it! SO so simple and the outcome was great. I made mine with buttermilk and they turned out great. My kids ate them in two days.
ReplyDeleteI just did these with my students - and believe me, they were a hit. We finished a biscuit unit... and at the end, they designed their own. Their concoctions were quite incredible. Lovely photo and the yummiest strawberry shortcake ever. I love the warm biscuit with the cold berries.
ReplyDelete:)
valerie
Is there any way you can post the recipe for the amazing biscuits? They look so good.
ReplyDeleteOh Val, I'm so glad the students loved them! Gosh were they perfect.
ReplyDeleteVickie, ethically I can't post the Tuesdays with Dorie Recipe but I can post a recipe that I found that is ALMOST EXACT and will give you spectacular results too. Here it is:
For the Biscuits:
2 cups all-purpose flour, (I have used 1 3/4 unbleached and 1/4 pastry flour)
3 tablespoons white sugar, plus more for topping
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ cups whipping cream, plus more for brushing tops
Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk until completely incorporated. Stir with a fork until well mixed. Add about 1 cup of the cream and stir with the fork until the dough comes together. If the dough is still very dry, add the rest of the cream. If it is forming into a ball, add half the remaining cream (¼ cup) and stir with fork – you don't want the dough to be too wet. When the dough forms a ball, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead once or twice or until smooth.
Roll out with a rolling pin until the dough is ¾ thick. Cut with a floured biscuit cutter and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.I put one cookies sheet on top of another to slow the browning of the bottom of the biscuits. (I learned this technique in making macarons.)
Brush the tops with the reserved cream and sprinkle with a generous coating of sugar. Bake biscuits for 10- 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Let cool.