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

by James Villas

The author of Crazy for Casseroles introduces 101 delicious, fully tested recipes for a variety of different biscuits, including such classics as Cloud Biscuits, Buttermilk Biscuits, and Indian Cornmeal Biscuits, as well as regional favorites, flavored biscuits, drop biscuits, and biscuits that can be used in main courses and desserts. Good Cook.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

James Villas was the food and wine editor of Town & Country magazine for twenty-seven years. His work has also appeared in Esquire, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Saveur, The New York Times, and the Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. Two of his cookbooks have been nominated for a James Beard Award. He has also won a James Beard Award twice for journalism and received Bon Appetit's Food Writer of the Year Award in 2003. James Villas is the author of more than a dozen cookbooks and books on food, including My Mother’s Southern Kitchen and The Glory of Southern Cooking. He lives in East Hampton, New York.

Reviews

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until this book, I would not have put the words, biscuit and bliss. together. I did not grow up with biscuits being served at meals. Eventually, I had Baking Powder biscuits in home ec and then the biscuits at Kentucky Fried Chicken, both of which were ok, nothing to rave about. So the associated hoopla over biscuits from my husband never registered with me. I figured it was one of those acquired tastes.

Then came the Cheddar Bay Biscuits at Red Lobster. Now, we're talking. But, other than that, biscuits were out there in the food world and certainly not calling me.

Now many, many years later, this book comes along. It's getting good reviews. The biscuits on both the front and back covers look tempting. And I pick up the book, it's interesting & since I happen to have all the necessary ingredients on hand for the Spiced Peach Shortcake, I give it a try.

Well, it took less than 5 minutes to whip up, 15 minutes to bake and the biscuits came out of the oven looking just like those on the cover. With a little butter, they were quite good, well really good -- light and tender, not too sweet. There's real potential here. I'm not sure of biscuits used in strawberry, or in this case peach shortcake, but the biscuits themselves are worth making again and certainly more exploring of this book is in order.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on biscuits, scones, drop biscuits etc. Great regional awareness and nice span of biscuit recipes. Enlarged my scope. Worthwhile.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Villas knows his biscuits. He is a Southerner and Southerners know their biscuits. His 27 years as food and wine editor for Town and Country magazine did not deprive him of his love for and appreciation of down-home biscuits. In a brief introduction, he traces the lineage of the modern biscuit back to a simple First Century Roman bread, through English bysquytes of the Middle Ages, down to the Pillsbury "popping" biscuit dough in the exploding cardboard can of 1953. The recipes in this book include sweet and savoury, plain biscuits and biscuits with interesting things in them, Southern biscuits and New England biscuits. He is something of an evangel for the use of Southern soft-wheat flour but concedes how to mix other flowers to approximate it. In addition to recipes for biscuits, Villas offers recipes for scones, for how to use biscuit dough a topping (e.g. in cobblers and meat pies), and even how to make true shortbread instead of using those angelfood drain-stoppers sold next to the strawberries at the grocer's. Reading this book is like taking an intense class in everything there is to know about biscuitmaking.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a very informative cookbook all about biscuits. I had no idea that the type of fat and even the variety of flour can greatly affect the texture/taste of biscuits. He recommends soft wheat flour from the south. Namely Martha White or White Lily flour. Or King Arthur brand soft wheat pastry flour.

The author has recipes for basic biscuits as well as fancier biscuits and even scones. He includes basic, savory and sweet biscuits. He also has a chapter with recipes for using biscuits in recipes which I like.

Chapters:

Introduction: The Romance of Biscuits
Biscuit Basics
Pain Raised Biscuits
Drop Biscuits
Cocktail and Tea Biscuits
Scones
Cooking with Biscuits

He also includes mail order sources for soft wheat flour, which I've found can be ordered online.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my quest for decent homeade biscuits I am learning about not twisting the biscuit cutter. Who knew?

I can make a passable biscuit now. I still cant make one that doesnt fall apart when you eat it. damnit. There is a conspiracy of biscuit makers out there like the knights Templar. Very secretive and mysterious.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like biscuits, for heaven's sake, check out this book. There are enough biscuit and scone recipes to keep you carb-happy for a month or so, and good info about what makes the recipes work. The spicy pecan scones brought my scone-hating daughter into the light.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. I've tried a handful of biscuit