Baking Powder Biscuits

AC declared these the best biscuits I ever made. I blame the cream, it seems like even adding just a little bit of cream goes a long way to making biscuits tender even for beginners.

Also, I know most people make round biscuits, but then you have to re-roll the dough which toughens it so why!? I have heard you get a little more rise out of round biscuits, but honestly I would rather have less messing about and more tenderness than another half centimeter of height.

So here they are, I have subbed in various amounts of whole wheat and whole wheat pastry flour and have liked every version. If you don't have cream on hand you can just use milk (with a slight decrease in richness and tenderness) though you want to have a smaller final volume of liquid because milk is more liquidy than cream. When you are making these if you find that you are getting pockets of dry mix that resisting mixing in you can just sprinkle a little milk or cream on the dry patch to incorporate it. That is better than overmixing.

Ingredients

2 cups AP flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter (salted)
3/4 cup whole milk (scant)
1/4 cup cream

Mix flour, salt and baking powder. Quickly work butter into dry mix by first slicing it thinly then rubbing it in between your fingers.

Stir in milk and cream with a fork until just barely mixed in. The dough should be very soft and sticky. Dump dough onto a lightly floured surface and press flat, to about 1/2 inch with your fingers, fold in half and press flat again, shaping until you get a rectangle that is about 1/2 inch thick.

Optional: brush the top of the dough with either cream or melted butter

Using a dough blade or large knife cut into rectangles, I usually get about 6 biscuits because I like to make them big enough to perch an egg on.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 450 for 12 - 14 min until just starting to brown nicely on top.