With just five ingredients and 10 minutes of prep time, you can have two golden, tender biscuits ready in time for breakfast. These small-batch biscuits are made with cold cream, rather than butter, which ensures they’re as simple as they are satisfying. Trimming the edges helps the biscuits rise high, and the scraps themselves are put to good use: Patted out and tucked under the trimmed dough, they make each biscuit even taller. Small-batch biscuits are perfectly suited for a countertop oven, making them an ideal choice no matter your kitchen or household size.
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In a medium bowl, use a rubber spatula to stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the cream and continue to stir until a cohesive dough forms.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and gently pat out to a 3" x 5 1/2" rectangle, about 1"thick. Make the sides as straight as you can.
With a greased chef’s knife or bench knife, trim about 1/4" off all four edges of the rectangle. You should be left with a rectangle that’s about 2 1/2" x 5".
Gather the dough scraps together and pat them out into a 2 1/2" x 5" rectangle, about 1/4" to 1/2" thick.
Brush the top of the dough-scrap rectangle with cream, then stack the trimmed rectangle on top, pressing gently to adhere. You will now have a double-stacked rectangle that is about 1 1/2" thick.
Place the stacked rectangle on a small baking sheet lined with parchment (a quarter sheet is plenty of room!) and freeze, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 425°F with a rack in the upper third.
Remove the dough from the freezer and cut it in half crosswise to make two 2 1/2" squares. Arrange the biscuits on the baking sheet so there’s about 3" of space between them, then brush the tops with cream.
Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove the small-batch biscuits from the oven and serve warm or at room temperature.
Store any leftovers, covered, at room temperature for several days.
Tips from our Bakers
We do not recommend substituting Gluten-Free Measure for Measure Flour in these biscuits. For a small number of gluten-free biscuits, bake our Gluten-Free Biscuits made with baking mix; the recipe is easily halved to yield 4 biscuits.
