Two Ingredient Biscuits

Two Ingredient Biscuits – A Science Experiment

May 20, 2021June 5, 2021 Tracy Knutsen

It was mesmerizing. I remember standing at the counter at my grandmother’s house in Baton Rouge watching her make biscuits from scratch, over and over again. The mound of flour, the well in the center, cold milk (sometimes buttermilk), a few shakes of baking powder, salt and Crisco. The way she moved was like a conductor coaxing every little bit of flavor out of each simple ingredient. She explained how the dough should feel and that it was important to handle it gently. Flour and hands would fly, no measuring, and before I knew it, a pan of lovely dough discs (thinner ones for her and fat ones for the rest of us) emerged via an empty tuna can cookie cutter, and was on its way to the oven. She used the same “biscuit” pan every time and I’m convinced that this (and maybe the bacon grease she used on the bottom) added to their magical flavor.

Then, just as I got perched on my tiptoes, mouth hanging open, peering into the oven…BAM! I had to move out of the way and let my little sister have her turn at the counter. I just wanted to cry and I’m pretty sure I did some stomping and pouting on my way out of the kitchen.

My favorite breakfast at Grandma’s was bacon, an egg fried in the bacon drippings, the biscuits and fig preserves. I’m so glad I didn’t let the biscuit-making magic pass me by. Not too long ago, I ran across a recipe that claimed wonderful biscuits could be made from only two ingredients. Well, of course that peaked my interest and I did some research. Evidently, one could indeed use self-rising flour and whipping cream to make a light and flavorful biscuit. This I had to try. And as long as I was experimenting, I tried doing a buttermilk version, too.

Here are the surprising results.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups White Lily Self-Rising flour – any good Southern cook knows that you have to use White Lily flour to make biscuits

1 cup whipping cream -the full fat stuff (heavy cream) – OR – 1 cup full fat buttermilk

Melted butter for the tops

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450F degrees. Spray a baking sheet with a nonstick spray.

Measure out flour into a large bowl – do not pack the flour. Stir in the cream (or buttermilk), adding enough to create a sticky dough. Don’t over mix this. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface using the same self-rising flour. If the dough is too sticky to handle, sprinkle a little more flour on top of the dough.

Fold the dough over itself 2-3 times, then roll out to 1/2″ thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut out the biscuits – without twisting the cutter – and place them on the baking sheet. Roll out the remaining dough one more time and continue cutting. Do not roll out the dough more than twice. The biscuits will be tough. I don’t waste it though! I just put the scraps on the baking sheet, too. Just like my grandma did. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter.

Place the biscuits in preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Serve warm.

This recipe actually worked! I was so excited!

OK, when I say it worked, I mean the recipe that include the whipping cream worked best. The buttermilk biscuit didn’t brown well and it was rather tough. It didn’t even rise as well as the whipping cream biscuit. The whipping cream biscuits had a beautiful texture and were really fluffy, not crumbly.

Lesson learned. I proceeded to make three more batches of the whipping cream biscuit dough, froze the cut out biscuits on cookie sheets (before baking) and popped them all in a zip top bag in the freezer. Now I can pull a few out whenever I need them. Certainly not as good as grandma’s, but a nice, quick, easy substitute. I like yummy biscuits, but I LOVE easy.

UPDATE: Guess what else you can do!?!? Don’t have whipping cream? Use melted ICE CREAM. Oh my goodness. These made the BEST base for strawberry shortcakes. You just have to trust me and try it. And don’t worry if you have no vanilla ice cream! We’ve used chocolate, peaches and cream, and butter pecan. I think most flavors would be really good.

Go on. You know you want to try it!