Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cream Biscuits

My mom has been getting a lot of attention on the ole blog, but I don't want you to think that she's the only parenting game in town. Allow me to introduce my father:


In my family, there were a few culinary tasks that always fell to my father: grilling (of course), butchering and filleting fish, and making pie crusts and biscuits. I’m not sure how it is that a man who’s so good at breaking down large fish also has the light touch required for making fluffy biscuits and flaky pie dough, but the fact remains: no one could ever compete with his skills with the pastry cutter. Maybe that’s why I rarely (uh, never) make biscuits myself—I doubt my biscuits now could compete with the biscuits of my childhood, which, in addition to the gobs of butter and jam, also benefit from a hefty heaping of nostalgia.


Nevertheless, this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe called for cream biscuits, so I dusted off my biscuit cutter and got to work. This recipe was unusual in that it didn’t call for butter at all; instead, it gets all its fat from heavy cream. Consequently, these were the easiest biscuits I’ve ever made—no worrying about cutting in cold butter and wondering whether your butter bits are the size of a pea, or a grain of oatmeal, or any other ridiculous food analogy. All you have to do is whisk the dry ingredients and stir in the cream, and you’re done! Easier’n cuttin’ the head offa trout, as my pappy would say.


The resulting biscuits were pretty awesome. Tall, flaky, tender, with a lovely crumb and a firm crust. I’ve always been a sweet biscuit sort of girl, so I ate mine with butter…

and honey…

…and jam.

Okay, so I ate a lot of biscuits! It’s been years since I’ve had them, I was due for a major biscuit binge, and these were delicious. And I won’t say that they were better than dad’s, but I think I need some of dad’s biscuits soon—for comparison purposes, you understand. This is all highly scientific. And then he can grill me some salmon and feed me some pie. For science!

12 comments:

  1. Your biscuits look fantastic! That biscuit making genius must be hereditary. You may have lots more biscuits in your future!

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  2. Bravo for your baking dad! What a great memory. Your biscuits look delicious.

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  3. Love the picture of your dad! I do like how simple these biscuits are without the butter, and so much better for me. ;) ahem.
    This recipe is close to my favorite scones, so I took the liberty to really play around here.
    But I love a good biscuit with butter and honey or jam!

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  4. You have such photogenic family :) Love that hat, where can I get one? And the biscuits (or scones to us Antipodeans) look divine, but I thoroughly agree, you do need to do comparison testing just to be sure.

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  5. they look amazing!!

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  6. they rose so high! looking good as usual :)

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  7. Anonymous5:22 PM

    Your biscuits look fabulous! Great photo of your dad - he should guest post with his biscuit recipe!

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  8. You dad is a great sport...love the photo of him!

    I'm salivating at the photo with the biscuit slathered in butter and honey....YUM!!!!!

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  9. Love the picture of your Dad! Great pictures of your biscuits! I am going to make these again tomorrow morning and have them with bacon and eggs. :)

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  10. LOVE the DAD pic. He doesn't look happy tho. He would be if he saw your biscuits.

    They look fantastic. with butter. with honey. with jam.

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  11. I love how you are willing to sacrifice in the name of science :) Your biscuits of course, look amazing.

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  12. Oh the things one must do in the name of research :P

    Congratulations on making biscuits! I still haven't been able to!

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