Makes 20 biscuits, more or less (depending on size)

NOTES:  This dough needs to rise overnight, or at least for a couple of hours before baking the biscuits!  You will also need parchment paper for baking and preferably an insulated baking pan.

I found a biscuit recipe in the Food Goddess column of the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper a few years ago. It was named “Never-Fail Biscuits”. The column was in response to a request for a yeast biscuit/roll that was originally published in the Ford Times magazine around 1974. The original recipe had the cook drop spoon fulls of batter into a round cake pan and produced a pull-apart type roll. I have modified the list of ingredients as the original recipe called for self-rising flour and buttermilk, two ingredients that I don’t keep on hand. And I like to use a biscuit cutter to make traditional type biscuits.

Ingredients 

• 1 (1/4 ounce) packet active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup, minus 1 tablespoon, milk
• 3/8 cup canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 3/4 cups white flour, divided, plus more for dusting the work surface and your hands
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 3 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

Instructions 

1. Put the yeast and sugar in a large bowl and add the warm water. Stir to combine. Let it stand for about five minutes.
2. Put 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a 1-cup measuring cup. Add milk to the 1 cup line and stir. Let stand until next step.
3. To the large bowl, add the milk, oil, baking soda, 2 1/2 cups of the flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir well to combine. The dough will be loose.
4. Now the dough needs to rise.  (Remember adding that yeast?)  Cover and store overnight in the refrigerator, or at least for a couple of hours. (The original recipe noted that the dough can be kept covered in the refrigerator for 1 week).
5. When ready to bake biscuits, preheat the oven to 450°.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. An insulated baking sheet is preferable as the bottoms of these biscuits will brown quickly.
7. Add 1/4 cup flour to the dough and stir to combine.
8. Flour a cutting board or other work surface. Flour your hands. This will keep the dough from sticking to you or the work surface.
9. Spoon the dough out onto your work surface. Either just pat it flat with your hands or roll with a (floured) rolling pin. I like my biscuits kind of thin, so I pat my dough out to about 1/4-inch or less.
10. Cut into biscuits with biscuit cutters and transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. I use a metal spatula to transfer them as it helps them hold together better.
11. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden on top.

© Cindy Farrar Bryan, The Arrowhead Club, and The Arrowhead Club Kitchen, 2016