Is there anything more comforting in winter than a pot of soup on the stove and bread in the oven? Bakers, by their very nature, possess the perfect antidote to winter’s cold and dark.

As the seasons turn, The Baking Sheet features original recipes to suit. I get lots of emails from readers telling me the arrival of their latest issue is an event that causes them to carve out some time in their favorite chair, hot beverage nearby, to read, enjoy, and plan meals to come.

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“I want these hot biscuits and I want them RIGHT NOW!”

If that’s your reaction, you’re in luck. While immediate instant gratification isn’t likely (unless you already know these biscuits’ cold, dark secret), FUTURE instant gratification is a real possibility.

And the secret is…

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Maple. Bacon. Biscuits.

Salty/chewy. Sweet & gooey. Soft and tender and… WHOO-EE!

Was there ever a marriage more heaven-made than this?

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Biscuits.

Snowy white, high-rising, light-as-air biscuits. Best friend of sausage gravy, ham, fried chicken, and strawberry shortcake.

Well, not always.

The biscuits you see at the top of this post are dense, moist, and nubbly, studded with nuts and darkened with whole wheat  and the foodies’ newest, coolest flour: grape seed flour.

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As any good Southern cook knows, ham biscuits are a must-have on New Year’s Eve. AND New Year’s Day.

Or so I’m told, by friends down South. Me, I’m a New Englander through and through and through (except for the part of my heart that still feels a pull for Wisconsin, the state of my birth).

So what could I possibly know about ham biscuits? Or any kind of biscuit, truth be told… Aren’t Southerners the best biscuit bakers on earth? (more…)

Beautiful biscuits are elusive to many bakers. My first-ever biscuits some 40 years ago were rocks. Phrases like “cut in the shortening” or “stir only until moistened” were not part of my vocabulary or skill set when I was a teenage baker.

How was I to know that my dough, stirred smooth into a batter and dropped on the cookie sheet, would yield biscuit rocks of family legend? Biscuits my dad talks about to this day?

Thankfully, King Arthur Flour has a guaranteed recipe for biscuits. These guaranteed recipes are perfect for beginning bakers, and for those who just need a bit of baking success to yield picture-perfect treats that will boost their confidence.

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Now, isn’t this just the picture of a perfect whole-grain biscuit?

Not only that, it’s a whole-grain, wheat-free, gluten-free biscuit.

Hold on, now. I know we’ve been paying a lot of attention to gluten-free baking lately, but just because you don’t NEED to bake gluten-free, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a try anyway.

Lots of GF baking is pretty darned tasty. And these biscuits, based on five different whole grains, are a prime example. (more…)

Pssst… I’ve never been the world’s best biscuit baker.

But I have an excuse: I’m not from the South, whence all good biscuits come.

Attention, Southern biscuit bakers: I won’t argue with you. You’ve got the biscuit thing down cold. Um, make that hot. (more…)