Shirley Corriher's Touch-of-Grace Biscuits Recipe on Food52 (2024)

When I die I want this biscuit in my casket with me.

OMG. I remember watching Shirley’s cooking show on tv when I was a little boy. (Before cooking shows became a dime a dozen.) I began cooking meals for my family when I was 7 years old but I’ve never felt I made a very good biscuit so I recently Googled Shirley bc I knew she would have the perfect recipe. And indeed, this is the PERFECT biscuit. Fortunately, I live in the south and have never bought any other flour than White Lily. I must admit I was skeptical about the unorthodox method and it was a bit daunting but they are actually very simple and gratifying to make. I will NEVER use another recipe and will ALWAYS have self rising flour on hand. TY, Shirley. Finally, at 70 years old, I can make a GREAT biscuit.

This is a crazy recipe that works so incredibly well. I do not add any sugar, and I use butter instead of shortening. It works with milk and with half and half, but heavy cream does work the best. Leftovers reheat beautifully in the oven or split in a skillet. I've even made a batch of these in the afternoon and reheated in the morning for breakfast and they were still amazing.

I’m writing this review in a state of disbelief, how can something that’s laced with heavy cream and shortening, be as light and fluffy as a cloud? I’m not American, I never really got the whole biscuit thing, until now that is! I will definitely be making these again.

This recipe is fantastic! I followed the recommendations to use use less sugar and I smothered them with Shirley Corriher’s recipe for Cherry Chambord butter.

This is such an unusual way of making biscuits. They come out super soft, almost like cake. Luckily I reduced the sugar level based on the comments below and "only" added 2TB of sugar rather than 1/4 cup. My 11 year old said that I could have reduced the sugar further down to 1TB because this seriously tastes like dessert with 2TB. I didn't have white lily self-rising flour, but the substitution of 1 tsp of salt instead of 1/2 tsp and 2 3/4 tsp of baking powder did the trick. No, these are not your high flaky type of biscuit, but they are so incredibly soft and delicious. I highly recommend giving these a try.

I only added a heaping tablespoon of sugar, these were lovely to go alongside bacon and eggs. My daughter's new favorite biscuit. My happy liked them, but he prefers the flakier traditional biscuits. These are special though, tender and delicate. I used all butter, and 1/2 and 1/2 (no cream in the house) along with buttermilk.

I've made these biscuits twice in one week. New favorite recipe! Thank you for including the weights for ingredients. I made them a little too wet the first time but they still turned out great! Cut the sugar a bit. I find they store well at room temperature lightly covered (not tightly wrapped). Can't wait for summer to try them with the corn butter!

Scones have sugar, biscuits don't. Angel biscuits may, but they are a cross between a biscuit and a roll. BISCUITS DON'T HAVE SUGAR IN THEM, UNLESS BEING USED FOR SHORTCAKE.

T November 13, 2016

I'm always in search of a good biscuit. This one is the best I've come across so far. I didn't have the good self rising flour, I just used Washington. I had to add more buttermilk to get the right consistency. But they were across bit tangy. Next time I'll use a little more half and half/whole milk so I can use less buttermilk. I also did 1/8th sugar and had cooked them for 30 minutes. Deliscious.

Jane October 4, 2016

Good thing you mentioned the "cottage cheese" point because honestly this looked like the craziest mixture! Turns out these are the most delicious and easiest biscuits ever. I made them with butter, not shortening and they were absolutely the moistest and tastiest biscuits ever! Served them with butter and maple syrup and they were heavenly!!

I don't have self rising flour. Can I use all purpose with the addition of baking soda and or powder?

These biscuits turned out great. I ended up using half the amount of sugar and double the buttermilk probably due to the brand of self-rising flour I used. I froze the dough in the pan earlier in the week and thawed in the refrigerator for a few hours before putting them in the oven. I then brushed the top with a garlic mixture I made (room temp butter, garlic, italian parsley, etc). They came out amazing. Putting a parchment round at the of the pan really made a huge difference when baking from frozen. The only issue I had was the overpowering buttermilk flavor because I had to add so much extra to bring it to the proper consistency. Regardless, this is a keeper recipe!

This was my first time making biscuits. These were incredibly easy and delicious! My partner and I were both very impressed. The biscuits are, as others have mentioned, very sweet. If you know you like to slather on jam or honey reduce the sugar. If you enjoy being able to eat a biscuit without having to put anything on it keep the sugar as is. Either way, do yourself a favor and make this quick!

I must try these soon-they are guaranteed to work! If you are not familiar with Shirley, she is a biochemist specializing in all things food. She is fascinating in her explanations of how cooking and baking works. She authored 2 genius books on the how's and whys of cooking. They are good reads.

I'm excited to try these! I was just wondering if I could make the dough and then freeze the biscuits, shaped in the cake pan? Thanks!

EFF April 13, 2014

Can this be made with any of the non-gluten flours?

I agree with Elaine, these ain't my Granny's biscuits, but they are tender, light and quite delicious. Shortcake is a good call with fresh berries.

These are the most insane, heavenly biscuits I have EVER tried. I made them to bring to a dinner party. I did all of the steps up to the baking ahead of time, then brought them to my friends' house and baked them there. Perfect, melt-in-your-mouth, light as air biscuits.

These are my new go-to biscuits. I've made them three times in the past few weeks and still can't get enough. Genius, indeed.