
Truth in advertising. That’s what you can expect from this easy cream biscuits recipe that calls for just two ingredients yet turns out remarkably airy and lovely biscuits.
It’s a lesser-known Southern biscuit tradition that chef and author Nathalie Dupree learned both in the 1964 issue of Joy of Cooking as well as when she was a culinary student in England.
She quotes Atlanta chef Gena Berry, who says of it, “A respectable homemade biscuit is an essential art of the Southern table, and this scandalously simple recipe makes turning out the perfect biscuit a snap.
“This recipe breaks all the rules of Southern biscuit making; there’s no shortening to cut in, and you don’t even roll out the dough. The results are remarkable and even a novice can turn out fluffy, perfect biscuits in minutes.
“Would a respectable Southern lady bend recipe rules, defy convention and use sneaky shortcuts all in the name of turning out a hot, homemade biscuit? You better believe it!”–David Leite
What is White Lily Flour?
An intrepid recipe tester of ours, Eydie Desser, recently had the good fortune of chatting with the lovely Nathalie Dupree about this very cream biscuits recipe, which comes from Dupree’s recent cookbook, Southern Biscuits.
Nathalie imparted many words of biscuit-minded wisdom in response to Eydie’s questions, including the fact that she prefers to work with White Lily, a Southern belle of a flour that boasts a relatively low gluten content and, as a result, invariably turns out biscuits that are lighter and fluffier than anything made with standard-issue flours.
If you aren’t able to find White Lily (or another self-rising, low-gluten Southern flour such as Martha White or Midstate Mills), continued Nathalie, you can substitute an equal measure of self-rising cake flour and the results will be close to indistinguishable.
Even if all you have available to you is standard-issue self-rising flour, simply scale back on the amount of flour in this recipe by two tablespoons and your biscuits will mimic those made with White Lily. Neat-o, yes?
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How to Make Self-Rising Flour
One last flour fact. Because we know self-rising flour isn’t necessarily a must in everyone’s pantry, we wanted to share how to make your own self-rising flour via a very easy equation: 1 cup of self-rising flour = 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon salt + 1 cup all-purpose flour.
[In case you haven’t a calculator handy, when you do the math for this recipe, that equates to 1 tablespoon of baking powder + 3/4 teaspoon salt + 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. You’re welcome.]
Easy Cream Biscuits
Ingredients
- Butter for the baking sheet and brushing
- 2 1/4 cups self-rising White Lily Flour or 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons homemade self-rising flour, (See Note Above)
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F (232°C). Adjust the oven rack to one of the top positions, setting the rack one shelf above the middle shelf but not so close to the top of the oven that the biscuits will bump into it as they rise.
- For a soft biscuit exterior, select an 8- or 9-inch cake pan, pizza pan, or ovenproof skillet. The biscuits will nestle together snugly, helping each other stay tender but rise while baking. Brush the pan with butter.For a crisp biscuit exterior, select a baking sheet or large baking pan where the biscuits can be spaced wide apart, allowing air to circulate and creating a crisp exterior. Brush the pan with butter.
- In a large bowl, fork-sift or whisk 2 cups flour. Make a deep well in the center of the flour. Pour 1 cup cream into the well and stir with a rubber spatula or large metal spoon, using broad circular strokes to quickly pull the flour into the cream. Mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened and the dough becomes sticky and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If flour remains on the bottom and sides of the bowl, stir in 1 to 4 tablespoons of the reserved cream, just enough to incorporate the remaining flour into the shaggy, wettish dough.
- Lightly sprinkle a cutting board or other clean surface with some of the reserved flour. Turn the dough out onto the board and sprinkle it lightly with flour. Flour your hands and then fold the dough in half. Pat the dough into a round about 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick, using a little additional flour if the dough is sticky.
- Fold the dough in half a second time. If the dough still seems clumpy, pat and fold it a third time. Pat the dough into a 1/2-inch-thick round for a normal biscuit, 3/4 inch thick for a tall biscuit, and 1 inch thick for a giant biscuit. Brush any visible flour from the top.
- Dip a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter into the reserved flour and cut out the biscuits, starting at the outside edge and cutting very close together, being careful not to twist the cutter. Re-flour the cutter after each biscuit. (The scraps may be combined to make additional biscuits, although the scraps will result in tougher biscuits.)
- Using a metal spatula, move the biscuits to the pan or baking sheet. Bake the biscuits for 6 minutes and then rotate the pan so the front is now turned to the back. If the bottoms are browning too quickly, slide another baking pan underneath to add insulation. Continue baking another 4 to 8 minutes, until the cream biscuits are lightly golden brown, a total of 10 to 14 minutes.
- When the biscuits are done, remove from the oven and immediately brush the top of the biscuits with softened or melted butter, using a light touch. Turn the biscuits out upside down on a plate to cool slightly. Serve while still hot, right side up.
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Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Seemed strange–if not outright blasphemous–that a Southern biscuit recipe not have butter or shortening, but this recipe is awesome! I don’t think I’ll go back to cutting butter into flour ever again. The heavy cream works like magic. They were mostly devoured warm, but the ones that were left over still tasted great the next day.
This is a fabulous recipe for perfect biscuits in a snap—it only has two ingredients!
It was with great trepidation that I entered Nathalie’s kitchen almost two years ago to start working on this book. I, a Southerner, had never made a biscuit. The thought of cutting in fats, kneading, snapping the dough, rolling, and hand-shaping just scared me to death. (Fear of failure, I suppose.) But, these biscuits changed everything. Easy, fast, and practically foolproof, they come together in a snap and are so delicious, you’ll be tempted to pop them straight from the oven and into your mouth.
Any skepticism I had about making biscuits from only two ingredients evaporated halfway through baking, when I went to rotate the biscuits and found they were raised, puffy, and emitting the most drool-inducing aroma. The finished product delivered on this promise: biscuits so incredibly tender, fluffy, and savory that you’d swear they had to contain buttermilk, or butter, or even lard.
These are easy and delicious, and although I had my doubts that any recipe with only 2 ingredients could be any good, I was wrong! They’re tasty, light, and very easy to spread butter or jam on. These would be perfect for summer shortcakes.
These biscuits are the perfect version of what a Southern biscuit should be, without complication. They’re light, tender, and have a great rise. If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can make your own (1 cup of self-rising flour = 1 cup of all-purpose flour sifted with 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of table salt). I found the amount of salt to be perfect, but I tend to like things on the salty side—cut back if you don’t.
What a great recipe! It took longer to preheat my oven than it did to make these biscuits. With only two ingredients (although, if you make your own self-rising flour, there are four), and easy, detailed instructions, anybody can make these biscuits. I halved the recipe and got 5 biscuits that were a bit crumbly but tender and tasty. My biscuits rose beautifully and were perfectly baked in 12 minutes.
First, I must say that I’m no biscuit snob. Though I’ve certainly had some biscuits in the past that I didn’t think were very good, when I have a biscuit, I tend to enjoy it. I’ve only bothered to make biscuits at home a few times. I can’t imagine a recipe being any easier than this one, and the final result worked well as a vehicle for rhubarb jam at a Mother’s Day brunch. Though mom wasn’t impressed at how high the biscuits rose, she did agree that they were much lighter, and more tender than they looked—and very tasty, to boot. I can’t claim to have the experience to rate this a great biscuit, but it’s a very good one, and is very easy to make.
Around here, we all grew up on biscuits—so everyone has their secret recipe or ingredient. I think I’ll claim this recipe as my own secret—you know the kind: The “it’s an old family recipe I can’t share, or I’ll have to kill you if I do” kind of recipe.
This was, without a doubt, the easiest biscuit recipe ever. If more beginning cooks learned to make biscuits using this recipe, they wouldn’t ever turn to that can of pre-made biscuit dough instead. While I missed a bit of the buttery goodness that a more traditional biscuit recipe imparts, this biscuit should be taught to every grade-school child in America so they know how to make this one American mainstay well.
Biscuit recipes strike me with both longing and fear. What could be more homey than eating hot biscuits slathered with butter? Yet, I’ve tried many biscuit recipes and I’ve been disappointed a lot. I always fret that the ingredients aren’t at the right temperature, that I’m handling the dough too much, or that the biscuits won’t rise and end up as proverbial hockey pucks. But this recipe has put me on the road toward biscuit confidence.
This recipe is about as simple as it gets: Two ingredients are mixed together to become magically light and flavourful biscuits. The recipe takes no time at all to put together.
Needing one more dish to round out a meal of barbecued chicken, I turned to this simple recipe. Your guests will think you were hard at work, when in reality, it took you about 15 minutes and two ingredients to make fluffy, light, and perfect biscuits.
Just as Nathalie Dupree promises, this biscuit is a snap to make. It comes out very tender and very delicious. The recipe is written perfectly. The baking time was spot on as well.
I live in the South, so I love my biscuits. For the longest time, I was afraid to make biscuits because I’d heard so many horror stories of hockey pucks masquerading as a bread source. If this describes your experience, then wait no longer! This recipe is super simple, easy to understand, and make. The biscuits had a very tender crumb, and if you want to cut them in half, make sure to go for the thicker dough, or they’ll disintegrate when cut.
I liked these biscuits, but have some caveats about the recipe. I’m always a little annoyed by recipe claims of two or three ingredients, when one of those ingredients itself has multiple ingredients. Just saying.
I used to dislike biscuits because the only times I had them when growing up was when my mom made them with a mix. They were terrible, with a distinctive and unfortunate flavor that was hard to ignore. This is a simple recipe, and the resulting biscuits are surprisingly light and tender, with a subtle flavor that won’t overpower whatever you choose to eat with them.
While this recipe is very simple, the results are delicious. I chose the crisp version, so I followed the suggestion to have space between them on the cookie sheet. One additional note about baking is that if you use a dark baking sheet, the biscuits will bake quicker. It really is important to rotate the pan during baking so all of the biscuits brown evenly.
Easy peasy, baby! I can make and bake these biscuits while half asleep on a Sunday morning. I love that. These biscuits are airy, releasing a puff of steam when the crisp outside is broken. This makes them the perfect foil to mop up a dish with gravy or a creamy sauce.
Simple and delicious! Only two ingredients, and the self-rising flour does all of the work.
The biscuits were a quick stir of the heavy cream, fold a few times, and roll out the beautiful dough. They rose so nice and high, I separated them to get more of a crisp and double panned them to not brown so fast. This was a good hint. I will fix these again.
These cream biscuits were extremely easy to bake up and resulted in a delicious, fluffy biscuit that will easily replace the typical “pop open” biscuits that I typically prepare. I think that the next time we make them I will add a little something (i.e. cheese and/or garlic powder) for additional flavor but this is an excellent basic recipe.
Great biscuits! These are so crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. Like what you would expect biting into a cream biscuit.
The recipe is certainly as easy as it purports to be. The biscuits rose and browned perfectly. I used the cake pan method and I didn’t have any issues with over-browning on the bottom. I served the biscuits with butter and raspberry jam.
This recipe is simple and for most part it works as the author has described. A lot would depend on the flour. Not living in the US, my flour had a little bit more fiber and I had to use 1 and 3/4 cups cream to get the dough moist. The biscuits rose very well and were golden and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. The second batch with a few extra tablespoons of cream was a bit dense though they did rise well. The recipe will work very well with all-purpose flour of lower protein content commonly available in the states.
It was hard to believe these biscuits only had 2 ingredients. They were so light and fluffy with a slightly crunchy buttery exterior, in my mind the perfect biscuit. It was such an easy recipe with amazing results I am tempted to make them much more often than I should! We have neighbors who make honey which was perfect paired with the warm biscuits. This recipe is a treasure.
This is a great recipe if you want to make some easy biscuits with little effort and don’t want to deal with shortening or measuring.
Someone once told me that, “a biscuit without butter can not be a biscuit.” Having encountered this recipe, I beg to differ. This is an easy to make, delicious biscuit that even the most skilled cook can be proud of.
I can’t believe how good these biscuits are with only flour and cream. Simple but divine.
Dangerously delicious! Just two ingredients to make these fluffy & tender biscuits. I didn’t re-roll after cutting the initial biscuits and just patted together to cut the second bunch. They looked like Frankenstein and didn’t rise as much but still tender and the texture was great.
Those look amazing, Lily! Thank you for taking the time to comment.