Shirley Corriher?s Touch of Grace Biscuits

If you?re a baking fan, you?re a Shirley Corriher fan. Renowned food scientist, writer and frequent guest on Alton Brown?s Good Eats show, Shirley delivers all that?s good about Southern cooking. And, of course, she is the author of my favorite food science book, CookWise. Shirley is a what we home economists love ? a scientific culinary perfectionist, a food sleuth.

Each of the past 23 years that I have attended the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) annual conference ? oops, I missed one, Chicago ? Shirley has probably been there, most often in ?The Doctor Is In? sessions helping recipe developers and cookbook authors with scary food issues. Yet, the best place to get your hands on her is at the Info Fair, when she is slinging flour in all directions as she bakes up batch after batch of fluffy, tender, perfect biscuits.

The reason I wanted to share her recipe with you is its perfection, the very best. Obviously (see photo) it isn?t a delicate process. In fact, it?s quite robust.  And this year, there she was for her OWN baking flour brand: Tenda-Bake® (which had a 75th anniversary ribbon on it). The Gourmet Grade Self-Rising Flour had Shirley on the label, with ?Developed in Partnership With? right under her really cute face.  So, get out your baking gear and whip up a PERFECT batch of:

Shirley Corriher?s ?Touch of Grace? Biscuits

Recipe by Shirley Corriher, author of BakeWise and CookWise

2 cups Tenda-Bake® Self-Rising Flour (her recipe, her recommended brand but I?ve seen her bake these with other high quality baking flours, too)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons shortening
2/3 cup cream
About 3/4 cup buttermilk or more as needed
1 cup Tenda-Bake® All Purpose Flour, for shaping
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine self-rising flour, sugar and salt. Work shortening in with your fingers until there are no large lumps. Stir in cream, then buttermilk, until it resembles cottage cheese. (Very sticky) Add more buttermilk, if needed.

Spread all-purpose flour in shallow pan. Scoop dough (use a #30) into flour, leaving space between each. Coat with flour, gently shape into a round, shaking off excess flour. Place biscuit into prepared pan, smooched up against its neighbor. Continue scooping and shaping.

Bake until lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Brush with melted butter, invert onto plate, then back onto another. Cut biscuits to serve. Makes 12 to 14 biscuits.

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I found these Gluten-Free Biscuits on charming blog Four Chickens.
And a beautiful Texan approach to biscuits on Homesick Texan blog.
The lovely Pinch My Salt blog had a biscuit roundup, too.