Cream biscuits go back to the founding of our country and are truly a historical food icon. One reason for their existence was that the variety of food available in those days was extremely limited compared to what we have today. People had to do many different things with what they had and they always had milk and cream from their family cow.
These are especially good as a topping for Chicken Pot Pie and, if you take the time to prepare a really good sausage gravy, will elevate biscuits and gravy to a new plateau.This recipe makes about 18 biscuits, depending on how many scraps you save to make more biscuits.
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons baking powder
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons heavy cream
Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add the two cups of cream all at once and stir with a large spoon until a smooth dough is formed. Scrape out onto a well floured surface, flour your hands and knead for one minute. Pat out the dough to about a 1/2 inch thickness.
Using a two and one half inch cookie cutter (a glass with a similar measurement will do), cut out the biscuit rounds and arrange them on a baking sheet. If the sheet is non-stick, cover it with aluminum foil first. You will have dough scraps left so gather them together, roll them into a ball, pat them down and start all over again.
Brush the tops of the biscuits with the remaining 3 tablespoons of cream and bake in a 375 degree oven for about twenty minutes, or until they are nicely risen and golden brown. Since over temperatures vary widely it's a good idea to keep and eye on them after about 15 minutes.
It is a custom, dating back over 200 years, that the cook gets the first biscuit loaded with butter as soon as they are taken out of the oven. For a critical taste test of course.
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