Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes for Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes

3/15/15 5:10 PM PDT COMMENTS ON “BISCUIT BLISS” BY JAMES VILLAS, A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN CHEF PAR EXCELLENCE: For those who want to become very fluent in fluffy, tasty, melt-in-your mouth biscuit-making, I recommend “Biscuit Bliss” as an excellent, helpful addition to your cooking library. It's a great read on biscuit Americana. There's a cold winter's month of dandy recipes to keep everyone fed and entertained. I am amazed at the variety of biscuits for which Chef Villas supplies recipes. He has included biscuit choices for every occasion imaginable, for different meals and dishes. He supplies breakfast, dessert shortcake, dinner breads and tea. In addition to our classic American biscuits, Chef Villas treats us to Yankee rye biscuits, Jewish yeast biscuits, Indian cornmeal biscuits and Chuck-Wagon sourdough biscuits. This cookbook is an incredibly informative book on what goes into making the ultimate, perfect biscuit. It has a newsworthy, sophisticated section for food chemist experts and home kitchen chefs alike, called "Biscuit Basics" that thoroughly (and I mean thoroughly) discusses the different kinds of flour, fats and fat-containing ingredients, and liquids. Chef Villas does a masterful job of describing how different flours, fats and liquids interact with each other to make a good, better, best or not-so-good biscuit. The recipes are simple one-pagers and use ingredients readily available in every region of the U.S.A., except perhaps lard. The format selected uses print and layouts that are easy to read. The recipes each include a side-bar telling a story about the historical, social and geographic background of the recipe. Chef James Villa's Southern preference in fats is for lard, which I have never cooked with. He believes it gives the best, flakiest, fluffiest, tenderest biscuit. For fats, author Chef Villas has lard, butter, shortening (I take the "shortening" ingredient to refer to Crisco), sweet cream, sour cream and yogurt. Chef Villas provides technique instructions, some enclosed in in-set or side-bar areas, that go well beyond your average incomplete recipe. They give the reader special tips and tricks for getting the recipes to come out delectably perfect. For liquids author Chef Villa has milk, buttermilk, cream, yogurt and sour cream (the later three acting as both fat and liquid). For leavenings, he discusses and supplies recipes for baking powder/baking soda, self-rising flour, yeast, and even "beaten" biscuits (which lack leavening agents). Some recipes add sugar. Apparently, how close to one each other one places the biscuits on the baking sheet, how hot the oven is and whether you use a baking vessel (muffin tin or mini-loaf) (and whether it is pre-heated) affect the texture and how high the biscuits rise. I am looking for a definitive recipe using buttermilk and butter. A recipe using butter and buttermilk is included in the book, but does not quite meet my expectations for the ultimate biscuit using buttermilk and butter. I am looking for answers about which or all of the ingredients should be cold or frozen and when to freeze or chill them. Cooking techniques involving temperatures are for the most part omitted. I am looking for a recipe that could be refrigerated or frozen overnight, or for days, weeks or months. Again, storing the ingredients, combined and uncooked, is for the most part not brought up. I would appreciate knowing what fat substitutes work best in place of lard. I would appreciate knowing what "shortening" or "vegetable shortening" means and what substitutes would be suitable. Must fat be a solid at room temperature in order to be characterized or classified as a "shortening"? Would nut and seed oils, such as almond, pistachio, hazelnut, pecan, walnut, peanut, sesame, and canola, work? What about coconut oil, avocado oil, or corn oil, or oils infused with garlic or other herbs such as thyme or tarragon? Consider other recipes such as: Famous Southern chef Edna Lewis's biscuit recipes at found at two different locations online at: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/the-best-biscuits; http://pearlposts.blogspot.com/2015/01/edna-lewis-southern-country-biscuits.html The Saveur Magazine biscuit recipe is located in the currently published March, 2015, edition, page 40, and online at http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/biscuits-with-pancetta-collard-greens-marbleized-eggs-and-espresso-aioli Kentucky biscuits online at: http://www.food.com/recipeprint.do?rid=860. Overnight refrigerate biscuits recipe online at: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/teenas-overnight-southern-buttermilk-biscuits/?scale=6&ismetric=0 Also, consider making your own self-rising flour and biscuit mix. The formula for the self-rising flour is: Blend well together (one (1) cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon fresh baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt. For pre-made biscuit mix, add in and blend with a cold pastry cutter three (3) tablespoons butter, other shortening or fat or oil into your dry ingredients and refrigerate. I understand the mix will last up to two or three months. To make biscuit dough in order to bake biscuits, for every cup of biscuit mix, simply add 1/2 cup milk or buttermilk just until well-blended. Don't beat the batter to a faretheewell as beating beyond moistening the batter well will toughen the biscuits. Knead 2-3 times. This is a very sticky dough. Bake at pre-heated oven of 400 to 425 degrees F. One cup of dry mix is needed for about three biscuits. Use a standard biscuit or cookie cutter for about 2.5 inch rounds, or use mini-loaf pans for oblong biscuits. I suggest you pre-heat the baking mini-loaf palns. NOTE: For the non-Americans reading my remarks, this book is not about cookie-making, which those speaking English English call a "biscuit".

I purchased this book in the Kindle format (ran out of room on my bookshelves about a decade ago.)The formatting and indexing works very well in the 6" format. Well done. I have Kindle for PC on my roving laptop and keep cookbooks there in the larger format, and to (I pray) avoid Kindle Kitchen Katastrophes. It takes James Villas, one of my favorite food experts, to come up with 101 recipes for biscuits. Who knew? His techniques are right on the money, clearly outlined and explained. I recommend this for volume for: folks who love to eat biscuits; those who love Southern regional food; cookbook collectors; and anyone who wants to master the art of biscuit making from scratch. (You'll never want to mess with canned biscuits again.) Now I admit, I'm prejudiced in Mr. Villas' favor. This makes the fifth cookbook of his I own. I love his writing and enthusiasm for his subject, and at this point would pretty much buy any cookbook he authored. He is thorough here, giving all the information required as far as the why and wherefore of ingredients (including where to obtain them if you're outside the South, but wanting to experience the "real deal"). He'll tell you about equipment, biscuit history, and how to obtain perfection in your biscuits. If he left anything out, I didn't notice. But, even if you never bake a single pan of biscuits, this is a fun read for foodies. FYI I offer this information about my favorite James Villas cookbook, written with and from the recipe collection of his mother, Martha Pearl Villas entitled : "MY MOTHER'S SOUTHERN KITCHEN, Recipes and Reminicences." It is apparently out of print at this time, although I can't imagine why. I have an embarassingly huge collection of Southern cookbooks and many favorites among them. However, if I had to give them all away but one, "My Mother's Southern Kitchen" would be that ultimate "keeper". This is the cooking that I grew up with, that my Gran and her sisters taught me, and that they served up every day of their lives. There are very few recipes in this cookbook which do not have an introduction, a special technique or suggestion, or a little story attached. (I love this kind of stuff.) I have similar cookbooks in my collection, but nothing written with the clarity and charm of this one. Every recipe I've made from Martha Pearl (there are two other volumes as well, one on entertaining and another on desserts) has been totally successful and not only a feast for the belly, but the spirit as well. So, if you run across this Villas collaboration at a used book or trader's store, find it on Ebay, or at a flea market, whereever, just snap it up. You will not regret it.

I didn't grow up with my Mom or Grandma baking biscuits for the family every day. So I never cared much about not knowing how to make a perfect biscuit. (My bad.) So, when my husband took on biscuit-making as his newest hobby, I didn't have any good advice to give him (not that he takes my advice as a matter of course...). So I ordered this little book for him. I was a bit skeptical: Depending on how the recipe directions are portrayed/explained, he is capable of reading things into them or out of them--as in ingredients added in, ingredients left out, amounts read incorrectly. Sound familiar? Well, here I am--a month or so down the road and many, many biscuits in the tummy--to claim that this book turned us into biscuit-making fools. The recipes are easy to read, laid out in such a way as to be easy to interpret and understand, and provide plenty of variety. This is not just a Southern biscuit book; there are representations from all over. The recipes are precise: Down to instructions on whether to use a pastry cutter or a wooden spoon. The results--even when one cannot find beautifully soft Southern flour locally--are successful. We are glad to have this little gem of a cookbook.

I checked this book out in ebook format from my library on a whim. After reading a little bit I was inspired to give this another try. Thought, so if I have to toss, what’s 2 cups of flour... I was so pleased and thrilled at my success! I loved it so much I had to purchase the book to have on my shelf. He makes it a doable and ENJOYABLE process. So glad I tried it.

I really like this book. It's interesting reading, very informative, and the recipe I tried, "Mother's Buttermilk Biscuits" were the best I've ever made. I have paper bookmarks stuck in all of the recipes that I want to try, including his sisters' 7-Up Biscuits. He includes a lot of very good tips as well, and I am learning a lot. I followed his tips instead of doing things in my usual manner, and I'm going to continue with his methods. I can highly recommend "Biscuit Bliss." He knows his biscuits.

I've never understood how to make biscuits from scratch. Now I do. I love every recipe I've tried in this book. Ironically, my favorite (so far) is the Oatmeal Raisin Drop Biscuits. They are my go-to for a quick breakfast bread and keep well for a few days. The author explains the how's and why's of various fats, flours, and methods. The recipes are easy to understand and use common ingredients.

This is a great cookbook, but watch out - if you buy the paperback edition, you're not getting what's in the picture, you're getting this sketchy large-print Verdana edition that looks like it was printed in somebody's garage and is full of very obvious typos. And typos in a cookbook are a very bad thing - there's a big difference between baking for 15 minutes and 45 minutes, or baking at 250 versus 450!

As the daughter of a southern woman I grew up eating biscuits with nearly every meal. My dad had to have them and Mom never let him down. As a fan of James Villas I wanted to try his recipes and he hasn't let me down. Growing up in California few of my friends ever had biscuits until they ended up at my mom's dinner table and then she knew enough to make a good double or triple batch. Oh, the converts she made. Annabelle was the northern California Queen of Biscuits. Anyway ~ if you are not a biscuit fan~ James Villas will convert you if you give his recipes a try. Get out the honey, butter, jam or gravy and prepare your mouth for a real treat.

Just what we were looking for -easy no,hasslemrecipes.