Two Ingredient Cream Biscuit Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is buttermilk or heavy cream better for biscuits? ›

Heavy cream provides rich butterfat that gives the biscuits tenderness and flavor, as well as moisture from its water content. The formula requires minimal mixing, reducing the risk of too much gluten development.

Selecting the liquid for your biscuits

Just as important as the fat is the liquid used to make your biscuits. Our Buttermilk Biscuit recipe offers the choice of using milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is known for making biscuits tender and adding a zippy tang, so we used that for this test.

It's an easy substitute that'll work for most recipes. The butter adds extra fat to the milk, making its fat percentage similar to that of heavy cream. Combine 1/4 cup (57 grams) of melted butter with 3/4 cup (178 mL) of milk and mix thoroughly to make 1 cup (237 ml) of heavy cream.

If you are going to substitute a non-cultured liquid into your biscuits, I'd strongly recommend using low-fat milk, or even whole milk, instead of cream. Both will give you a more pleasant biscuit, with just the right amount of fat that you'll still want to slather the inside with butter.

Use good butter and dairy

Because biscuit recipes call for so few ingredients, it's important that every one is high quality—you'll really taste the difference. Catherine recommends splurging a bit on a grass-fed butter or European-style butter (now's the time to reach for Kerrygold!).

Crisco may be beneficial for other baking applications, but for biscuit making, butter is the ultimate champion!

Use Cold Butter for Biscuits

When the biscuit bakes, the butter will melt, releasing steam and creating pockets of air. This makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside. We default to our Land O Lakes® Salted Butter when baking biscuits.

As far as brands of flour, White Lily “all-purpose” flour has been my go-to for biscuit making. It's a soft red winter wheat, and the low protein and low gluten content keep biscuits from becoming too dense.

And the longer it takes the butter to melt as the biscuits bake, the more chance they have to rise high and maintain their shape. So, chill... and chill.

Evaporated milk is an ideal heavy cream substitute in recipes that use heavy cream as a liquid. It won't whip well, but it's a great way to add moisture to baked goods. Substitute an equal amount of evaporated milk for heavy cream. Best for: baking.

Can I use sour cream instead of heavy cream? ›

Sour cream is an easy replacement for heavy cream. It can be easily stirred into a dish and offers another flavor profile to soups, stews and sauces. Plus, using it as a heavy cream substitute is a great way to use up that lingering tub in the fridge.

The main difference between the two is their fat content. Heavy cream has slightly more fat than whipping cream. Otherwise, they are nutritionally very similar. You can use them interchangeably in recipes without affecting the taste, although they may lead to different consistencies.

If you add too much liquid, it will not ruin the biscuits, but the dough will be very sticky and more difficult to work with. If you find your dough is too sticky, you may add a bit more all-purpose flour OR you can make them more like drop biscuits (dropping balls of dough on a pan instead of rolling out the dough.

In general, whole milk is preferred by many bakers for making biscuits because it creates a more tender, flaky, and flavorful result. However, if you're looking for a lower-fat option, low-fat milk can still produce good biscuits, just with a slightly different texture.

The recipe relies on acidity (from the buttermilk) to turn out properly so the biscuits are tender and fluffy. Using plain milk may not yield the same results. But you can sub in half sour cream/half milk for the buttermilk.

“Buttermilk is acidic and reacts with the alkaline baking soda to add more loft when the oven's heat hits the dough,” says Prep Kitchen Manager Catherine Ward. That means your scratch-made biscuits and cakes will rise higher and have a lighter texture. And let's not forget that buttermilk adds flavor.

In general, whole milk is preferred by many bakers for making biscuits because it creates a more tender, flaky, and flavorful result. However, if you're looking for a lower-fat option, low-fat milk can still produce good biscuits, just with a slightly different texture.

Heavy Cream Has Higher Fat Content

“One of the primary differences between buttermilk and heavy cream is the fat content,” Laing says. Heavy cream contains “36% fat” on average, whereas the fat content of buttermilk is only 1%.

Whichever flour you use, make sure to MEASURE CORRECTLY. Too much flour will result in dense, dry, and tough biscuits.