Sour Cream Biscuits! Not Your Grandma's Biscuit!

Today I want to share with you this simple and delicious twist on a good, old fashioned every day biscuit!  This sour cream biscuit is easy to make just like your traditional buttermilk biscuit, but this uses sour cream and milk instead of buttermilk.  This may be something you can make if you don't want to use buttermilk, don't have it available in your area or just don't feel like running to the store for a special ingredient.  

This is a very basic biscuit recipe.  I have developed this based on my traditional buttermilk biscuit recipe and it makes a big pan full.  You can easily cut this recipe in half if you like or you can make the whole think and only bake what you will eat and freeze the rest of the raw biscuits on a sheet for later use.  

As far as biscuits go this is pretty simple.  Flour, butter, leavener, a bit of sugar for a golden brown finish, milk and sour cream.  You could use all sour cream, but that will make this biscuit super heavy.  Adding the milk give this a lightness that you will enjoy.  Mix it up as you would any other biscuit, by cutting the butter into the dry ingredients then I like to mix the milk and sour cream before pouring into the bowl.  Toss with a fork to form a shaggy dough then dump  onto your well flour work surface.

The magic of flaky layers comes in how you handle the dough from here.  First you will want to press everything together.  Don't "knead" the dough.  Fold the dough into itself like you would fold a letter.  This is called laminated.  When you laminate dough you develop layer upon layer of flaky goodness.  When the dough is pressed out like this it will puff kind of like puff pastry, but not as high.  Biscuits are awesome when you prepare the dough like this.  I like to fold the dough into itself at least four times for maximum flakiness.

When you have folded the dough enough times for your liking, be sure not to do it to many times, which will result in a tough biscuit, go ahead and press or roll out into approximately at 10 x 12 inch rectangle.  You will want the dough to be approximately 1/2 inch thick.  Then cut out in the size you like.  This time I used a large, 4 inch biscuit cutter because I will be using these biscuits to serve with creamed chicken for dinner.  You can cut them smaller and my preferred size is the 2 1/2 inch cutter.  It makes perfect size biscuits for biscuits and gravy, serving on the side with eggs or stew or for eating out of hand with butter and jam.  

These bake in a moderate oven at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.  When they come out of the oven, I like to brush the tops with melted butter.  This will add flavor and ensure a soft top to your biscuits.  Allow these to cool for a few minutes before serving, even though they will be very hard to resist!

These biscuits are flaky, buttery, and have an amazing tang from the sour cream.  Different that that of the buttermilk.  These are simply delicious and I may say that I like them just a little more than my traditional recipe for buttermilk biscuits!  This recipe will definitely be showing up more often at my house!

I hope that you will give these sour cream biscuits a try some time soon and I hope you love them!

Happy Eating!

You can see how I made these in my YouTube video:

Noreen's Kitchen

 Sour Cream Biscuits

Ingredients

4 cups all purpose flour 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cold and cubed 2 tablespoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt 1 cup sour cream 1 cup milk Melted butter for brushing on top

Step by Step Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl blend flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Whisk together. 

Add cubed butter to the flour mixture and toss to coat and make sure the butter cubes are separated.  Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, sand or coarse meal.

In a small bowl or jug, mix the sour cream and the milk together until smooth. Pour the liquid mixture into the butter and flour mixture.  Blend with a fork until it just comes together.

Flour your work surface liberally with more all purpose flour.  Pour the dough mixture out onto the flour.  Dust the dough with even more flour on the top.

Work the dough gently by folding into thirds, adding more flour as needed to keep a nice smooth and not sticky dough.  Press down and turn a quarter turn.  Fold into thirds again, press down, turn a quarter turn and flip the dough over, then repeat the folding and turning process twice more.

Roll or pat the dough out into a 12 x 16 inch (approximately) rectangle.  Then cut out using a biscuit cutter in the size desired.  Be sure not to twist your cutter.  That will cause your biscuits to be lopsided and also will inhibit them from rising to their fullest.

Place cut biscuits on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.

You can choose to place the biscuits close together or leave an inch or two between.  This is up to you, depending on whether or not you like your biscuits crispy all around the edges or soft. 

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or just until golden brown on top and around the edges.

Remove from oven and brush with melted butter.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.


Get a printable version of this recipe on my website:  http://bit.ly/2aW06mn