Cream Cheese Biscuits

By lorik

If we eliminated butter completely from our Cream Cheese Biscuits recipe, the resulting biscuits were inedible bricks. Just a few tablespoons of butter imparted a strong flavor and light, airy texture. Most recipes that we found called for softened butter and softened cream cheese—a fact that ran contrary to our findings that cold fat produces lighter biscuits. We found that our method yielded better biscuits, so we opted to freeze our butter and cream cheese.

Cutting the biscuits into rounds and rerolling the dough created too much gluten and meant that the rerolled biscuits came out tough and leathery. To avoid rerolling, we cut the biscuits into squares instead of rounds.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 ounces cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and frozen 30 minutes
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and frozen 30 minutes
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk

Preparation

Step 1

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Pulse all-purpose flour, cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cream cheese, and butter in food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer flour mixture to large bowl. Stir in buttermilk until combined (dough may appear slightly dry).

2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead briefly until dough comes together. Roll dough into 8 by 6-inch rectangle, about ¾ inch thick. Cut into twelve 2-inch squares and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake until light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes. Serve warm.

MAKE AHEAD: Unbaked cut biscuits can be refrigerated on baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap, for 1 day. To finish, heat oven to 450 degrees and bake as directed.