Biscuits: Autumn's Ultimate Comfort Food

I've been making a lot of soup lately and love doing it, but for a long while I've wanted to make my own biscuits as an accompaniment but put it off until today. My mother used to make biscuits regularly and I always remember how pleasing they were,  warm and fragrant from the oven. Why did I never make them for my family?

I came across an article in a magazine with several recipes for biscuits and I suppose that that and the cold, nasty weather we had in New York today, was all the impetus I needed to start baking. Biscuits are not only used for soup or other dinner entrees but can also be used for breakfast with egg and bacon, butter or jam. Yum!


Biscuits are really quite easy and can be changed up in a variety of ways. I'm posting a basic recipe that was seriously delicious but will list some other variations hat you might want to try.


Basic Biscuits
Makes 6-8


Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream (variation: buttermilk or 2% milk)


Directions: 

• Preheat over to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar)
• Add butter (cut into small pieces) and using pastry blender, cut butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• Add the cream (or other variations) until dough comes together.
• Place on lightly floured surface knead and roll out to a one inch thickness.
• Use a 2.5 inch round biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits

Bake for 20 minutes until tops turn light brown.

My optional topping: 

I added 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, 1.2 tablespoon parsley.

Brush tops of biscuits with oil mixture