I wanted the headline of this article to be "The Secret to the BEST, FLUFFIEST, MOST INCREDIBLE, STRAIGHT-FROM-HEAVEN-ABOVE, YOU-WON'T-BELIEVE YOUR TASTE BUDS Biscuits You'll Ever Make... Ever."
I wanted that badly.
So badly, in fact, that I made six (maybe more) batches of biscuits in a number of days, convinced I was doing something wrong. I must be doing something wrong!
Because the can—cerulean and old-timey, with instructions to send away $6.00 to Hampden, Maine in exchange for a cookbook—promises "better baking!" and the King Arthur Flour website, where you can purchase Bakewell Cream, claims that "New Englanders swear by it for unforgettably light, fluffy biscuits."
The New England Cupboard, producer of the Original Bakewell Cream, furthers that assertion: Not only does Bakewell Cream produce biscuits that are superior in texture, but it also makes for "better tasting baked goods," too: "Those who try it have become loyal customers for life" (and there's a six-pound, $47 tub of the cream for those who do!).
Bakewell Cream is not a cream, confusingly enough, but a powder: According to King Arthur Flour, it's "the Maine equivalent of cream of tartar," invented in Bangor by the chemist Byron H. Smith in response to shortages of the ingredient during World War II. (For the science inclined, cream of tartar is potassium bitartrate; Bakewell Cream is acid sodium pyrophosphate.) Since cream of tartar, when mixed with baking soda, gives us baking powder, and Bakewell Cream is a cream of tartar equivalent, you can use a combination of Bakewell Cream and baking soda as a baking powder substitute (just swap 1 teaspoon of baking powder for 2/3 teaspoon of Bakewell Cream plus 1/3 teaspoon baking soda).
Scroll through the comments on the King Arthur website and you'll see that Bakewell Cream really does have a legion of devoted fans: Debby from Chelsea, Maine credits it for her blue ribbon in the Girl Scouts forty-five years ago; SuzSouthern uses it for biscuits that are (unbelievably!) even better than her mother's 4H winners; and countless others testify that Bakewell Cream has produced the loftiest biscuits they've ever made (and some darn good pancakes, too).
As Posie Harwood, a writer at King Arthur and a regular contributor to Food52, told me: "The reason most people seem to love it is that it works beautifully as a leavener but doesn't have any taste, so your biscuits are super fluffy but just taste really like the biscuit ingredients... no metallic or noticeable taste like the one cream of tartar can give snickerdoodles, say."
I didn't need any more convincing. With all of this in mind, I set out to put Bakewell Cream to the test. First, I made a run-of-the-mill buttermilk variety—and the Bakewell Cream did seem to produce taller, cakier biscuits.
But both biscuits, however, were kind of strange—sort of undercooked—so I called the test a draw and decided to try again, this time using a well-trusted, time-tested recipe: Merrill's cream biscuits.
| 2 cups all purpose flour | |
| 1 teaspoon kosher salt | |
| 1 tablespoon baking powder | |
| 1 teaspoon sugar | |
| 1 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream | |
| Melted butter |
| 2 cups all purpose flour | |
| 1 teaspoon kosher salt | |
| 1 tablespoon baking powder |
| 1 teaspoon sugar | |
| 1 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream | |
| Melted butter |
The biscuits made with Bakewell Cream were the slightest bit taller than those made with baking powder (they also had a yellowish hue, oddly enough). And the crumb was a tad more open, which meant they dissolved on the tongue more quickly.
But there was still no consensus on which batch was superior: Some tasters said the Bakewell biscuits were saltier; others said they were less flavorful—that you couldn't taste the cream at all. Some said they had a chemical-y, soda flavor; some described them as chalky and powdery. I, for one, could hardly tell the difference. Bakewell Cream made good biscuits, but were they superior to the standard variety?
I gave the biscuits a break and instead, used the Bakewell Cream to make muffins—because "Its not just biscuits any more [sic]," the can reminds bakers. I made Mom's Coconut-Blueberry Muffins, using the same standard formula to convert baking powder to a Bakewell Cream-plus-baking-soda combination.
This time, the difference was even less noticeable. The muffins made with Bakewell Cream neither tasted different nor had a noticeably lighter texture (though, in the picture below, it does appear that the crumb structure is a little airier—but, considering the number of blueberries in the mix, it was almost impossible to judge).
So I had concluded that Bakewell Cream makes a perfectly good biscuit—and a perfectly good muffin, too—but it didn't seem worth a special mail order.
But surely, if this product was what so many bakers claim as their "new secret ingredient" to "glorious biscuits," there was something I was missing. More testing was necessary. I decided to give the biscuit recipe on the can a fair shot. After all, when I called for Bakewell Cream experience on the Hotline, I got one lonely response, from BakerRB, who said:
The biscuit recipe on the can is the closest to foolproof I've ever used: mile high and golden brown; neither too dry nor too moist; neither tough nor crumbly. I haven't made anything else with it or tested out the baking powder or cream of tartar substitutions in any of my recipes.
What was I doing messing around with other biscuits recipes? I needed to beeline straight to the source! So I made the Bakewell Cream Biscuits, exactly as written on the can.
And they were real lookers: the most perfect biscuit specimens I'd ever made myself.
But the taste? Non-existent. The texture was airy, sure, and they were quick to melt on the tongue, with little chewing necessary, but they were a little... papery.
Maybe I was not doing the recipe justice. Maybe I should employ my culinary license and make the recipe the best it could be. So I made it again, this time following King Arthur Flour's version—using the more flavorful butter in place of vegetable shortening—and swiping the biscuits with a generous coat of melted butter (and a sprinkle of flaky salt) before baking.
These biscuits were high and lofty and tasted more like something (though they still benefitted from a smear of jam and butter).
Would I make them again, if I happened to have Bakewell Cream on hand? Yes. But would I buy Bakewell Cream just to make these? Probably not. As Posie put it, "I wouldn't buy it OVER cream of tartar or baking powder but when I've used it, I loved it. I think if I were say, making biscuits for a living, maybe I would?"
Maybe I needed to do more testing: to make the King Arthur Flour version of Bakewell Cream Biscuits but with high-quality buttermilk instead of whole milk; to make plainer muffins without pesky blueberries interrupting the crumb structure; to make cakes and cookies and scones and... Or maybe I just had to accept that I wasn't going to be making my fortune by publishing a book called The Life-Changing Magic of a Little-Known New England Ingredient.
But maybe I'll find my jackpot-secret-miraculous-yet-to-be-discovered elixir somewhere else?
Or maybe it just goes to show that if there's a "magic" ingredient that's still little-known, perhaps there's a reason for it.
Written by: Sarah Jampel
Popular on Food52
68 Comments
Not for biscuits though, or scones, I am partial to Odlum's Self-Raising flour and use that with heavy cream. That's the full ingredient list for biscuits.
However, I do have a vanilla cookie recipe - vanilla wafers that are very versatile, for which Bakewell Cream works better than other leaveners. This is a very old recipe and when I learned it some 60+ years ago the leavening was "Baking Ammonia powder" - or Ammoniun Carbonate, which I still use for some things (crackers) because it produces a very crisp result.
I don't know how old this recipe actually is, it came from my great grandmother and called for "pounding the sugar" because back then sugar was sold in "loaves"...
In any even, my grandmother did some modernizing and I did more. Here's the recipe:
Delicate vanilla wafers
1 1/2 cups flour - I use Odium’s Cream flour
2/3 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon BAKEWELL CREAM (You can use other leaveners but this product works best with this recipe)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vanilla sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs, large.
Sift the first three ingredients into a medium bowl.
In a mixer bowl beat the butter until fluffy
add the sugars and continue beating, add the vanilla extract.
Add the eggs, one at a time until blended into the mix.
With the mixer running on low speed, add the flour mixture 1/4 cup at a time make sure the mixture remains smooth with no lumps.
As soon as all the dry mixture is incorporated stop mixing.
Remove the beaters, cover the bowl and refrigerate for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Line two baking sheets with bakers parchment.
Use a #40 disher (ice cream scoop) which is a bit more than 1 1/2 tablespoons when level - rounded is 2 tablespoons which is perfect for this cookie
Place on baking sheet about 3 inches apart (they spread)
You can bake two sheets at a time with the shelfs as near as possible to the center of the oven.
If you have an oven without convection, half-way through the baking time, switch the pans and rotate them back to front.
Bake for about 12 minutes, the edges should be just slightly browned.
Remove from oven and place pans on cooling racks for 5 minutes or so and then slide the parchment with the cookies off the pans and onto the racks.
Allow the baking sheets to cool before placing the next batch on them.
You can dish out all the cookies at one time ONTO THE SHEETS OF PARCHMENT PAPER and then just slide the paper onto the baking sheets before putting them into the oven.
This saves a lot of time.
These are great sandwich cookies. They can also substitute for LADY FINGERS in trifles, in puddings
(like the classic banana pudding that goes into a “shell” of vanilla cookies.)
Bake @ 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes, according to how your oven works.
2 Cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
51/2 Tablespoons of butter. I use a generous 6-7 Tablespoons
¾ Cup of buttermilk or more if dough is too dry
Milk for brushing – optional
Sift dry ingredients. Cut in butter until in pea-shaped pieces or smaller. Add buttermilk (use more if needed) and stir with a fork until it forms a ball of dough. Scrape bowl as you go. Turn onto a floured board and knead 10-15 times until more incorporated. Pat or roll out ½ inch thick. Cut into whatever size biscuit you like. Brush with milk if desired. Bake. I usually make a double recipe and freeze some for later, if they last that long. Cook’s note. I have sometimes added some dried buttermilk powder, like a heaping tablespoon to the buttermilk to make the
Recipe #2 from Cuisine Magazine from an old lady’s southern restaurant that gave up the recipe. These are incredible super-duper buttery and only make NINE biscuits. Bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes.
4 cups of flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of sugar (I sometimes omit the sugar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chilled unsalted butter
1½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup melted butter for brushing on top.
Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, soda and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Cut in the chilled butter until you have coarse crumbs. Stir in the buttermilk. Turn dough onto floured board. Knead about 10 times. Roll out into a thick shape (I didn’t write down how thick, but only makes 9 biscuits) and cut up into biscuits. Butter pan and put in pan with sides of the biscuits touching. Brush the tops with the ¼ of melted butter. Bake for 25 minutes.
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