2-Ingredient Whipped Cream Biscuits Are Easier than Popping Open a Can

Opening a can of pre-made refrigerated Pillsbury biscuits revolutionized the biscuit-baking process for economical cooks—and there’s the excitement of the “pop” when you whack the can with a spoon to open it. But nothing beats a homemade biscuit, warm from the oven. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to whip them up with a fraction of the ingredients a scratch-made biscuit typically requires.

The secret is a carton of heavy whipping cream, which you can find in the refrigerated dairy section next to the milk and half-and-half.

How Do 2-Ingredient Biscuits Work?

Before biscuits were easily leavened with baking powder and soda, bakers beat the dough to develop the gluten and help it rise. Then, baking powder was developed in the mid-19th century by a Harvard University chemist. Suddenly, all you needed was acid in buttermilk or baking soda to activate the flour and fat in the oven—biscuit dough was rising naturally into the classic flaky confections we know today. Since then, a world of biscuit recipes has opened and evolved to cut all sorts of corners. There have been all sorts of offerings in the way of self-rising flour and even bespoke biscuit mixes, which work much like boxes of cake mix when paired with milk or even water.

This two-ingredient recipe works because it takes advantage of self-rising flour, which includes just the right ratio of flour, baking powder, and salt—the same ingredients you’d use anyway—and the inherently high percentage of milk fat in heavy whipping cream, which stands in for the butter or shortening. Butter comes from heavy cream, after all, so why not get ahead of the process?

There you have it—self-rising flour and thick, creamy heavy whipping cream make biscuits that are dead simple to whip up and great for bonding with little cooks in the kitchen.

How To Make Whipped Cream Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups self-rising flour, plus more for the surface
• 1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream, plus more for brushing overtop

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Most recipes for biscuits call for a hot oven, because the higher temperature creates steam within the biscuit, allowing it to puff up rapidly in a short amount of time. This is especially important for two-ingredient biscuits, because it’s at these higher temperatures that the activating ingredients in self-rising flour kick into gear.
2. Prepare the dough. Place self-rising flour in a bowl, add whipping cream, and stir just to combine. Turn dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Knead a few times to pick up any loose pieces of flour. Roll dough out to 1/2-inch thickness and up to 3/4-inch thickness or up to 3/4-inch. Re-roll dough if needed.
3. Cut and bake. Cut biscuits, brush them with cream, and bake them in the hot oven for at least 10 minutes or until golden brown on the top.

Recipe makes about a dozen biscuits.

Tips and Tricks for Making 2-Ingredient Biscuits

• Don’t overmix. While it’s important for the dough to be combined, overmixing leads to tough biscuits. If you suspect you overmixed, that’s OK! Just pop the dough in the fridge or freezer for about 15 minutes, and that will counteract the problem.
• Chill the biscuits in the freezer. After shaping, chilling the biscuits in the freezer helps to relax the gluten in the chance that you did accidentally overwork the dough. This also helps to create steam in the oven, which is what makes the biscuits rise!
• Place biscuits close together. Baking biscuits in close proximity—even touching—encourages them to rise vertically. Quite literally, biscuits only rise when they’re close together and supporting each other spacially. This prevents them from spread, flatness, and even burning. Don’t worry if they end up touching, they’ll be easily pulled apart.
• Invite little cooks into the kitchen. This is a forgiving recipe—add too much heavy whipping cream? You can always add more flour. Add too much flour? Tip in a few extra splashes of heavy whipping cream. The fact that it’s two ingredients makes it a great beginner recipe for little chefs.