Almost Spring, and Sour Cream Biscuits

The temperature is supposed to climb above zero degrees today.  Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend, and March break has begun.  Despite the snowbanks that surround us, I can feel the promise of spring.  The days are getting longer and the sun is feeling warmer.   

I know I said there wouldn't be any more snow pictures, but looking at all that snow makes me wonder what sort of a mess we're in for when it all starts to melt.  

We celebrated a couple of birthdays this past week, and it was all about hockey.  Hockey cupcakes, a commemorative hockey jersey from the New Year's Eve NHL Winter Classic, a new hockey stick, and a trip to Detroit for a Red Wings game on the same night that Nicklas Lidstrom's jersey number was being retired.

And I made biscuits.  And they were the best biscuits.  We've been having a lot of pasta, soups & stews, and there's nothing better than warm, fresh rolls on the side.  The problem is rolls take time.  Kneading time, rising time, more kneading, more rising... not an option when you walk in the door at 5pm and hope to have dinner on the table by 6pm.  

Biscuits are a quick and easy alternative.  I've tried a few different recipes... some were good, some were horrible.  I've tried buttermilk, yogurt, and butter.  They've come out puffy, flat, salty, tasteless, hard, soft, dry, and crumbly.  Now that I've had consistently good results by combining and tweaking a few different recipes, I can honestly say these are the best biscuits I've ever made.

It's all about sour cream.  Full fat sour cream.  Honestly, those low fat dairy products sort of scare me.  The ingredient list is four times longer than the list on a container of regular sour cream.  Seriously, what on earth do they add in order to make up for the bit of fat they're removing?  Besides, our brains need fat... I read it somewhere.   

So if you're looking for a good biscuit recipe, try this one.  It's easy, it uses real ingredients, and the result is soft, flaky deliciousness.

Sour Cream Biscuits

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  

Whisk together the dry ingredients.  

Add the sour cream and butter.  Stir until it just holds together.  

Roll dough out on a floured surface, about 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick.  Use a round cutter and press straight down to cut out biscuits.  If you twist the cutter you won't get those nice looking layers on the side of the biscuit.

Bake until they are golden brown, about 12 - 15 minutes.

Notes:

These are best freshly baked and still warm from the oven.  If you want to make them ahead of time, freeze the unbaked biscuits and then bake them straight from the freezer, adding a few minutes cooking time.

Don't over overwork the dough, it should be just combined and still lumpy before you roll it out.  Overworking the dough will result in tough biscuits.

When measuring the flour, don't just scoop and dump.  This compacts the flour in the measuring cup, resulting in too much flour and hard, dry biscuits.  Instead, fluff the flour with a scoop and add it to the measuring cup scoop by scoop.  Read how to properly measure out a cup of flour here:  King Arthur Flour.

I've gone easy on the salt.  If you prefer a saltier biscuit you could use up to a teaspoon.  Alternately, if you prefer a sweeter biscuit, the sugar can be increased up to one tablespoon.

 Thank you for featuring me!

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