Easy Sour Cream Biscuits for Two
I love biscuits for breakfast but most of the time I don’t feel like going to the trouble of cutting in butter, and rolling out and cutting the dough, especially before coffee! I just want a hassle free breakfast. These biscuits are light, tender and buttery with a nice tang from the sour cream and a golden-brown exterior. I like that they make such a small batch and that’s another reason I want a simple recipe. It just doesn’t seem worth it to go to a lot of trouble for 4 biscuits. I need a recipe that’s quick and easy and this one is just that! Just stir, scoop, and bake!
Go ahead and adjust your oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
Add the sour cream and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter into the dry ingredients.
Stir everything until just combined.
Using a quarter cup spring-loaded ice cream scoop, or a greased 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop out and drop the dough onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet spacing them out about 2 inches apart. Brush them with the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons melted butter and bake until golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet halfway through baking. Let the biscuits cool for 10 minutes.
I ate mine with butter and mango-peach preserves!
The Ultimate Banana Bread
If you’re looking for the best banana bread but don’t want to make a dozen recipes trying to find it, rest easy, I’ve done it for you! This recipe from Cooks Illustrated has a little science behind it in extracting the most banana flavor possible from bananas for a moist, tender loaf with over-the-top banana flavor!
Most banana bread recipes use just 3 bananas but this one uses 6! How do you add that many bananas without getting pudding you ask? There’s a secret to it….we’ll extract the juice from the bananas!
Who Knew Bananas had Juice?
We’ll add banana flavor without adding too much moisture to our banana bread by microwaving the fruit and draining it. Then we’ll simmer the banana liquid in a saucepan until it’s reduced and then incorporate it into the batter. We’ll use brown sugar instead of granulated and swap out oil for the nutty richness of butter. Toasted pecans give our banana bread a nice crunch, and a sixth banana sliced thin and caramelized on top of the loaf gives this banana bread an enticingly crisp, crunchy top.
Do it Ripe!
As bananas ripen, their starch converts to sugar so be sure to use very ripe, heavily speckled (or even black) bananas in this recipe. If you use anything less than very ripe bananas, you’ll end up with a very bland loaf.
EXTRACT JUICE
Microwaving ripe bananas for 5 minutes causes them to release “juice.”
STRAIN IT OUT
After straining the bananas, you should have 1/2 to 3/4 cup of liquid to work with.
REDUCE THE JUICE
Reducing the banana liquid yields a concentrated liquor, intensifying flavor without making the loaf wet.
Pour the reduced banana juice back into the bananas, mash and add the butter, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla. Pour banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined with some streaks of flour remaining. Gently fold in the pecans. Pour the batter into a pan sprayed with cooking spray. Add the 6th banana to the top, layering the banana slices on either side of the loaf. This will add more banana flavor and it looks pretty! Make sure to leave a 1 1/2 inch wide space down the center so the loaf will rise evenly.
It really is best after it’s been cooled a bit and fresh from the oven. That’s when the crust is the crunchiest! Okay enough talking, the banana bread is calling me! 
