Cinnamon Biscuits

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make sure the oven rack is in the middle position.

Make the cinnamon topping: In a small bowl, combine the white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Set aside. You will not need all of the topping for this recipe. You can save what’s left and use it to top almost anything, from toast to biscuit doughnut holes.

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour and the 4 tbsp. of cubed butter. Incorporate the butter into the flour, working the dough between your thumb and middle and pointer fingers to “snap” the dough together, until the mixture resembles cottage cheese. It will be chunky with some loose flour.

Add the cream cheese and mix it into the flour with your fingers, leaving a few larger pieces.

Add the white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir to combine.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in the buttermilk a little bit at a time, using your hands or a small rubber spatula to mix the flour into the buttermilk until the texture is “wetty,” tacky, and sticky. You may not need all of the buttermilk, or you may even need to use a little more. You want the dough to be wet and messy but not sloppy.

Sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Run a rubber spatula around the inside of the bowl, creating a separation between the dough and the bowl. Sprinkle a bit more flour in this crease.

Generously flour a work surface or flexible baking mat. With force, dump the dough from the bowl onto the surface. Flour the top of the dough and the rolling pin. Roll out the dough into an oval shape 2 inches thick.

Flour a 2-inch biscuit cutter. Start from the edge of the rolled-out dough and cut straight through the dough with the cutter, trying to maximize the number of biscuits cut from this first roll-out.

Roll out the excess dough after the first biscuits are cut, and cut more biscuits. As long as the dough stays wet inside, you can use as much flour on the outside as you need to handle the dough.

Place the biscuits on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper with the biscuit sides touching. (It doesn’t matter what size pan you use as long as it has a lip or sides and the biscuits are touching.)

Brush the tops with the 2 tbsp. of melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon topping and turbinado sugar, about 1 tsp. of each per biscuit.

Bake for sixteen to eighteen minutes, or until the biscuit tops are golden brown, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time.

Sprinkle a little more turbinado sugar on the biscuits, then let them cool slightly. Split the biscuits in half and spread with cinnamon butter (steps below). Serve warm.

For the cinnamon butter: In a medium bowl, combine the butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and white sugar with a rubber spatula or whip with a hand mixer.

STORING: Transfer to a ramekin, cover with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge, or roll into a log on plastic wrap and freeze for up to five months until ready to use.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Hot Little Suppers by Carrie Morey, published by Harper Horizon.