Southern Skillet Cream Biscuits
During my pie book endeavor, I became an expert in pie crusts. I recently tried my hand at biscuits. Where in the past I got flat rocks, this time they were fluffy, flakey and totally fabulous. I blame all that pie dough practice. It taught me how not to overwork the dough and to work quickly with cold ingredients.
These biscuits are soft and fluffy with flakey layers of buttery goodness. They make the perfect pairing with my Bacon and Chicken Corn Chowder, perfect topped with sausage and egg for breakfast and are amazing drizzled in honey.
I love making them in a cast iron skillet. It makes the bottoms crisp and makes for the most beautiful southern presentation.
A couple of tips: work quickly as you don't want the heat from your hands to melt the fat, fold the dough over itself several times before rolling it out to make the flakey layers, and when cutting the biscuits, press straight down on the dough.
Skillet Cream Biscuits 2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons butter 1 cup heavy cream, chilled
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Liberally butter a 9 inch cast iron skillet.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled cream. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.
Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. Place biscuits in buttered cast iron skillet so that they just touch.
Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.
Recipe adapted from Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits.