Giddy

I can't make another recipe unless I write about my last recipe. Today I am writing about Shirley Corriher's Touch of Grace Biscuits. Her Cookbook, Cookwise, a winner of a James Beard Award, has amazing recipes. Shirley calls herself a food sleuth and tells how and why things happen in cooking. She has appeared many times on Alton Brown's show, Good Eats. I've met her on more than one occasion in Atlanta and have chatted with her about cooking and her cookbook that she was trying to finish back then. She did finish her book called Bakewise which is the same idea as Cookwise only for baking. It's on my purchase list.



Once, at a wine and food pairing here in Atlanta, Shirley was there and we started chatting about cooking and entertaining. I told how unsure on what to make for dessert for the girls for an afternoon lunch. She suggested that I serve strawberries soaked in balsamic vinegar. The balsamic pulls the color and flavor out and it was perfect for my ladies lunch.



Shirley's Touch of Grace Biscuits are made like her Nannie's. The secret is the very wet dough and tossing them in your hands to shape--not manhandle them. As you've read before, my goal is to make biscuits like Grannie, Brian's grandmother.

So the scenario is that it's Sunday morning and I have everything all planned on how I'm going to whip all of this together. I premixed the dry ingredients before church and when I get home, I'll turn on the oven and whip up the biscuits. The recipe goes pretty smoothly and it is interesting that she uses both heavy cream and buttermilk in these biscuits. If you look at the pictures provided, they are very delicate when you put them together and they take some time and care. My ice cream scoop (that is on my list) would have come in handy to measure out these little balls of fluff. The recipe says that it makes ten but I'm lucky if I get seven. They are too big but it is too late to change the size. I've been told to not handle these puppies too much and I'm not going to ruin it. In the oven they go.

Breakfast is served with fresh eggs we got from Dobbins Farm, homemade fig preserve, Applewood smoked bacon, orange juice that was gourmet pasteurized (it really does taste better) and the biscuits. Brian takes one look at them and said that he thinks that we're almost there. He's giddy with delight as how much they crumble. The butter melts in their spongy like texture and they are very light and airy. Emily can't stop eating them. She's never done this before so I know this recipe is a keeper. She keeps picking at them and can't stop. I will try this recipe again but next time I'll make them smaller and see if I can get away with using just buttermilk.