I LOVE biscuits. I love almost any bread product, but I haven’t had much luck making them because most of them require yeast which I always have trouble with, or difficult instructions that call for cutting in butter and things like that. Well, if you like biscuits like I do and want the easiest recipe in the world, this is it. There’s nothing much to it other than mixing the dough with a wooden spoon and then cutting it into biscuits. The ingredient list is short and sweet too, and you’ll probably have most of the ingredients on hand. I found a video describing how to do it on the America’s Test Kitchen site. One of my sons now asks me to make them every day. I’m going to teach him how to make them this weekend.
I read a lot of other food blogs and often they have giveaways. I thought it would be fun to try one myself so I’m giving away a beautiful handmade basket that would be perfect for serving these biscuits. I bought it after Mass one Sunday when a group called Handcrafting Justice came to show their products. HandCrafting Justice is a project of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. They work in cooperation with women struggling for economic justice and independence in the developing world. They support the women and assist them in their efforts to create employment for themselves in order to provide for their families and better their lives. The products are beautiful and I really love the basket I picked out. It’s nice to know that my purchase helped another woman somewhere in the world.
Giveaway Rules **The contest is over and the winner is Melissa!**
IN ORDER TO WIN YOU MUST ENTER AN EMAIL ADDRESS (IT WON’T BE PUBLISHED) SO I CAN CONTACT YOU.
1. The contest ends on Saturday, November 21st at midnight EST.
2. Winning entries will be chosen by a random number generator.
3. In order to claim your prize, you must respond to the notification email within three days.
4. To enter, please leave a comment below that includes the name of your favorite cookbook. I’m always on the lookout for new ones. Please don’t forget to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win.
Good luck!
**The contest is over and the winner is Melissa!**
Cream Biscuits
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons. sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy creamPreheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the cream and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. This doesn’t take longer than a minute or so.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (I used my granite countertop), and knead for about 30 seconds. Pat the dough down until it’s about 3/4″ in thickness. Use either a biscuit cutter or a glass to cut biscuits out of the dough. Place them on the parchment-lined baking sheet. If there is any dough left after you cut out all of your biscuits, mash it together and pat it down again until it’s 3/4″ in thickness. Keep cutting until all of the dough is used.
Bake the biscuits for ~15 minutes or until they’re golden brown on top.
Yield: ~9 biscuits
I have 2 cookbooks turn to: Family Style by Ina Garten and Incredible Edibles (SHA limited edition). 😉
I often use or am inspired by Pam Anderson’s “Perfect Recipes for Having People Over”. There are recipes that work for just my family and also for guests. I love stress-free entertaining!
I have to go with ChocolateChocolate by Lisa Yockelson
I really like “How To Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman. He really does mean EVERYTHING. 🙂
I don’t use any of the cookbooks I have, because I don’t really like them. I do want all of Alton Brown’s cookbooks, though. 🙂
I don’t use any coobooks either! If I need a recipe, I search the internet or try one of many recipes I’ve cut out of magazines.
I have been looking for an easy biscuit recipe. My favorite is “The Best Make-Ahead Recipe” from Cooks Illustrated.
I love the cookbooks that churches sell. The recipes are usually tried and true family recipes that the church ladies submit for the cookbook. But I just received my current favorite in the mail this week: The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
I can’t wait to make your biscuits!
The “Joy of Cooking” will answer all your questions about how to make practically anything. It is really basic but dependable and should be in every cookbook collection.
I love organizations like that, that’s why I’m such a fan of Fair Trade too. They are able to help so many people all over the world.
As for the cookbook… I love Sky High Cakes, but I rarely use it since I have no need for a 3 layer cake very often, so instead I’m choosing Elinor Klivans’ book – cupcakes! I love it and it’s a go-to place for excellent recipes.
My favorite cookbook is Artisan Bread in 5 minutes A Day. I just received their new book: Healthy Bread in 5 mintues a day. If you have had a difficult time with yeast – or are intimidated by it – you’ve GOT to get one (or both!) of these books!!
MMMM. Those biscuits look yummy. My favorite cookbook is the Joy of cooking. It is a basic cookbook, so it is great for everyday use when I want to cook something different but have no ideas. shopgurl101 AT gmail DOT com
My favorite cookbook is one that was made for me by my co-workers for a retirement gift. Everyone submitted their fav recipes with a picture of themself. I came with a KitchenAid mixer – how awesome is that !!!!
A couple of years ago I picked up a cookbook called ‘Toast to Tidewater’ and fell in love it. It features recipes of the Hampton Roads, Virgina region. What I love most is the gourmet results without using a million ingredients. (And I love the suggested wine pairings to go along with them!)
I love the Moosewood cookbooks, but I am a complete nerd who likes to understand the science behind cooking so some of the more theory based books have started topping my list recently. I can’t recommend enough Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice”; the first 100 or so pages explain everything that happens to bread during the process of baking and I guarantee that your problems with yeast will be gone forever after you read through the lengthy intro. And then, of course, the recipes (he calls them formulas) are absolutely amazing, too!
Growing up my mother cooked meals every night. She made a full course meal with desert! Since I am in college now, whenever I am stressed, I sit down and decide what to cook and bake and I use my mother’s homemade cookbook. It was handed down from her mother, and generations back. Every child is blessed with amazing recipes from the past and we are always adding to the cookbook. If I had to choose a published cookbook, it would be The farm chicks in the Kitchen: live well, laugh often, cook much.
Hi Diane,
I am enjoying your recipes. Stylish Cuisine is a great site to visit and learn some very tasty, easy to make recipes. Bravo!!!!!!
Two cookbooks
1. William Sonoma——Soups. They suggest a garnish of sharp cheddar on the broccoli soup(just a variation that adds a touch of color to the green.
2.Barefoot Contessa
a. B.C. Cookbook
b. Barefoot in Paris
C. B.C. Back to Basics
Your biscuits are light and oh, so yummy!
Looking forward to trying other recipes. One question, The sour cream in the pound cake is this regular sour cream( light probably would not work as well).
The Bundt pan illustrated numerous fine grooves that add to the eye appeal. I have found that a Bundt pan with larger round areas allows for ease of release!
Karen
Joy of cooking. It was hard to decide since I have a few I frequently cook from.
But I’ll say Joy of Cooking is the most “well-used” book I Have
Hi Karen,
Thanks for the kind words about my blog. I’ll have to pick up the Williams Sonoma cookbook – I love to make soup.
You ask about the pound cake. I used regular sour cream. I’ve never tried the recipe with light sour cream, so I can’t comment on how it would turn out.
Thanks for the tip about the Bundt pan. I think I definitely need one with fewer grooves.
Diane
My go-to cookbook for anything and everything is Fannie Farmer. The cookbook I most love flipping through and drooling over is eat. drink. live by Fran Warde.
Cheers,
*Heather*
I don’t have any real cookbooks! I have a lot of the Company’s Coming books and have a huge list of cookbooks I want .. I’m going through your comments and adding to my list now! 🙂
My favorite cookbook is one that my great-grandmother’s church compiled in 1988. I know that won’t help, but my next go-to cookbook is either the foodgawker website of Texas Longhorn Cookbook and Campfire Tales. I adapted the jalapeno potato soup recipe to my family’s liking and get requests for it as soon as the weather turns cool.
Love your site! Keep it coming. I read a lot of cookbooks, but I usually cook from the web these days. The cookbook dujour happens to be “The Six O’Clock Scramble – Quick, Healthy and Delicious Dinner Recipes for Busy Families”, by Aviva Goldfarb. It’s my favorite book from the genre, and I’ve read quite a few.
My favorite cookbook is the Settlement House Cookbook. My mom has an old one from the late 50s/early 60s.
Hands down, the Joy of Cooking… I go to it for any question I have… and if at least to supplement any recipes I might have picked up anywhere else like online… It’s great, informative, and loaded with tons of recipe and information…
My husband recently tried the recipe for these biscuits. I’m not a big biscuit fan like he is – but I thought these were really good!
My fav cookbooks are Spirit House Thai Cooking by Helen Brierty and Annette Fear. The complete book of sushi by H Dekura, B Treloar and R Yoshii.
In Australia these are scones (funny that) and are very popular and the recipe is about the same well done yours look very light. Cheers from Audax
I have a very large collection of cookbooks. My two latest additions are The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond and Pastry Queen Parties by Rebecca Rather. I love both of them as I do most of my books but……
I usually cook from recipes I find on the internet. I love Recipezaar and love to use Stumbleupon to find recipes.
One of my favorite cookbooks is Favorite Restaurant Recipes from Bon Appetit. It contains recipes from restaurants that people visited, had a great meal and wrote in and asked for the recipe. They are all published in this book with a comment on the restaurant. I love the Hot and Gooey chocolate cake with hot fudge sauce. I make the sauce often and use it for ice cream.
My favorite cookbook is Giada’s Family Dinners by Giada De Laurentiis. I actually met her at a signing when I bought this book. Great food for the whole family.
I love biscuits so I’m hoping I get the basket. Great idea – thanks!
A favorite cookbook is hard to choose, I love so many. But i think one of the best I have is “the chefs of the times” which is a compilation of a bunch of recipes with stories from a New York times column.
My favorite cookbook is one that my family and friends put together for my bridal shower. I also like the magazines Fine Cooking & Cooks Illustrated.
One of my lesser-known favorites is “Extending the Table.” It’s a wonderful book commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee and a “church cookbook” in the widest possible sense. The recipes come from all over the world: there is a groundnut stew from Ghana, a spiced tea from Nepal, and an herbed yogurt soup from Iran, to name a very few. What makes this book special is the stories that go along with the recipes, explaining their cultural significance. I love to read, and knowing the “story” of a recipe really deepens my experience of the food.
my favorite cookbook hands down is the one my mother in law left me before she died. It was all her favorite recipes. I cherish it.
I just got The Pioneer Woman Cooks (Ree Drummond). I am loving it, great recipes, photographs and she has a wonderful sense of humor!
Hi Diane! Love your website! I would have to say that my favorite “cookbook” these days is a blog http://www.fortheloveofcooking.net. I haven’t made anything yet, but was given Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious…have you looked through that at all? Might be good for the boys 🙂
I have many cookbooks that I’ve collected over the years and have lots of favorites, but one cookbook that stands out is the “St. Paul Farmers Market Cookbook.” Recipes are based on using fresh ingredients that you can get at the market; they are simple, yet delicious!
I like “The Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics”
tmc480(at)yahoo(dot)com
I recently bought a cookbook titled..”down home with the neelys” that has some very good recipes in it
zachsgran1 at yahoo dot com
I like the cookbooks that the local Churches around here sell. Most of the recipes are foods that I have grown up eating.
rjs682 at yahoo dot com
Hi Diane, I remember you from Seer… particularly those vodka Jello shots at a Super Bowl Sales gathering at Holiday Inn in RTP, NC. I was there because I worked for Gig Graham at the time. I learned of your triplets on the Seer Alumni Group; I know twins are hard, but I’ve never known someone with triplets + another son! I love your blog & the recipes photos & recipes are terrific! I make scones with this same recipe: I double the recipe, add sugar, orange zest & extract, vanilla-butter-nut extract, & freshly grated nutmeg. I use a fluted round cutter, brush with cream & sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar. I use a silicone mat on a large baking sheet, so they all fit on it. We serve them with sliced strawberries & whipped topping…like a wonderful shortcake. But they’re wonderful plain, fresh but cooled. -Robin Keller in Cary, NC
Hi Robin,
So nice to hear from you! Wow – vodka jello shots- I haven’t made those in a while, but I think I’ll make some and post the recipe. I used to make it all the time for parties.
Thanks for the tweaks to the recipe to make scones. I’ll definitely give them a shot They sound delicious as shortcake too.
Take care and thanks for the nice comments about the blog.
Diane