Building a better biscuit

There are a few food items that Alton Brown has just completely, flat out, totally taught me how to make. I mean, as in until watching it on Good Eats I had never attempted but after watching I felt that I thoroughly understood what to do and could easily make the item. Good biscuits is one such food. And Wednesday night at 8 p.m. one of my favorite Good Eats episodes, because of that reason, "The Dough Also Rises" is on again.

I may live below the Mason-Dixon Line, in the heart of Appalachia but making real biscuits eluded me. Growing up, my mom was a box biscuit mix user or she would made refrigerated dough biscuits. I never cared for either. Occasionally, I would experience what a real biscuit was supposed to taste like. But I never attempted to recreate them in my own kitchen.

Then I saw AB make biscuits. I learned things I didn't know about biscuits. I saw how to make real, honest to goodness Southern biscuits. And like with so much of his lessons, he made it easy to understand and gave me the confidence to attempt recreating the magic for myself.

The most important lesson in biscuit making it the type of flour to use. Soft wheat flour is better for biscuits, I did not know this before. The biscuits I finally turned out, thanks to Alton, were light, fluffy, golden brown and delicious.

One thing I did after notching a few pans was making garlic cheddar biscuits. I added a few cups of sharp cheddar made a garlic butter topping. Mmm... good eats

Alton's Southern Biscuits

PS:
This is also a cute episode because of the interaction between AB and his grandma. Its so funny and sweet.