Velvet Cream Biscuits

I don't know if all of you have heard me rave about my mother's biscuits, so allow me to do so here.  She makes the best biscuits.  She uses bakewell cream, and, unlike me, does not detest kneading and rolling out dough.  I have tried several biscuit recipes, including her own, and can't get them just right.  I have so  many memories of those biscuits.  She lets kids play in the dough scraps when she is done making them.  My sister and I used to do it, and now our kids do.  She made them faithfully for her grandmother-in-law until she passed in like 1986.  So they are historical biscuits, too.  I request them every year for my birthday.  They taste the best when they are fresh out of the oven, but they taste almost as good as leftovers if you slather the cut sides with butter and then grill them for a few seconds on a hot griddle.  Yummmmmmmm.  Anyway.  This biscuit recipe sounded easy (except for the rolling out part which I usually hate) and they sounded good.  Instead of cutting in shortening or flour, you use whipping cream.  From the SL Christmas cookbook.  We had these with minestrone soup.

Velvet Cream Biscuits
4 cups flour
2 tsbp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 cups whipping cream (I had to add an extra 2 tbsp or so to get the texture right)
2 tbsp butter, melted

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl.  Add whipping cream, stirring with a fork just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead lightly 10-12 times.  Roll dough to 1/2" thickness.  Cut with a 2-inch biscuit cutter.  Place biscuits on lightly greased baking sheets.  Bake at 425 for 12 minutes or until golden.  Brush biscuits with melted butter.  Yield: 2 1/2 dozen

The verdict:  at first bite, I thought "I nailed it!  This is it!"  But then after I chewed for a few seconds, the texture and flavor were slightly different.  So if my mom's are a 10 (and clearly they are), I would say these are a good 8 or 9.  These didn't rise as much as my mom's do.  But I think they were easier to make.  And, my children played with the scraps, and used cookie cutters to make snowman-, apple-, angel-, train-, and gingerbread boy-shaped biscuits.  They had so much fun with it, which definitely made it worth the extra work of rolling out.  I'll keep the recipe, but will still prefer my mom's, which are #1!