Baking powder biscuits - flat, flat, flat!

[brie]

I recently made a batch of baking powder biscuits. Unfortunately, they came out looking like one of those horrid bun-things they serve at McDonalds - flat. The only good thing going for me was that they were pleasantly browned on top and nice and mealy on the inside.

Where did I go wrong, and what can I do next time to fix it? Here is the recipe I'm using:

• 2 cups cake flour (not self-rising) or all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 2/3 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Into a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter into bits and with your fingertips or a pastry blender blend butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk and heavy cream, stirring with a wooden spoon until just combined (mixture will be wet).
Transfer dough to a well-floured surface and with floured hands turn dough to coat evenly. Knead dough gently 4 to 6 times, or just until smooth (do not overwork dough). Pat or roll out dough into an 8-inch round (slightly more than 1/2-inch thick).

Using a floured 2 to 2 1/2-inch star-shaped or round cutter cut out biscuits and arrange about 1-inch apart on baking sheets. Gently pat out or roll out dough scraps and cut out more biscuits in same manner.

Bake biscuits, 1 sheet at a time, in middle of oven until pale golden and cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer biscuits as baked to a basket lined with a cloth and cover with cloth to keep warm and moist.

Serve biscuits with butter.

[m brown]

try 1 cup substituted ap flour for 1 cup cake flour, it seems like the dough needs just a teeny bit more gluten to retain the structure and hold in the leavening to make the biscuit rise.

[angrychef]

Or maybe your baking powder was old.

[brie]

Baking powder wasn't old - but the flour was. I did use AP flour - cake flour is hard to find in this cold, hard part of the world. The flour is about two years old - I keep it in the freezer until I need it (can you tell I don't bake much?).

Someone recommended that I use more cream. Would that help?

[m brown]

Try removing 2 Tbl Ap flour and substituting Corn Starch 2Tbl in its place. Could be the flour was too "hard".
Cake flour is very soft and does not have much structure, AP flour is a mid range flour, good for many things but is stronger than cake flour which would keep the biscuits from rising to their true potential.

I am getting really hungry!!!