Ingredients

• • 2 (¼-ounce) packages active dry yeast
• • ½ cup sugar
• • ¼ cup warm water
• • 5 cups all-purpose flour (White Lily preferred), plus more for dusting
• • 1 tablespoon baking powder (aluminum-free preferred)
• • 1 teaspoon baking soda
• • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• • 1 cup vegetable shortening or butter
• • 1 to 1½ cups buttermilk

While my mother’s biscuits were elegant special-occasion delights destined for wedding receptions and cocktail parties, my grandmother Mama’s biscuits were an everyday pleasure, always on hand to accompany any meal, any conversation, or any call for celebration, comfort, or bucking-up. Staying over at her house as a child, if I ate all my supper I got to punch a hole in one of her yeast biscuits with my thumb and fill it with pancake syrup as a special treat. That motivation worked every time!

This dough lasts in the refrigerator for a few days, so you can follow Mama’s lead and keep the dough on hand to pull out and bake as needed. Hot biscuits on demand—a tradition well worth keeping. Do yourself a favor and never eat a biscuit again unless it’s hot! This recipe is an easy way to do just that.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Make sure the oven rack is in the middle position. You do not need to grease the cast-iron skillet. You will need to bake in batches or save remaining cut biscuits to bake at a later time.
2. Combine the yeast, 1 teaspoon of the sugar, and the water in a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, stirring to dissolve the yeast.
3. Whisk together the flour, the remaining sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Use your fingers to “cut in” the shortening into the flour until the mixture resembles Parmesan cheese.
4. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture and 1 cup of the buttermilk. Using your hands, mix the flour into the liquids. The dough should be wet. Work in more buttermilk if the dough is dry.
5. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Run a rubber spatula around the inside of the bowl, creating a separation between the dough and the bowl. Sprinkle a bit more flour in this crease.
6. Flour a work surface or flexible baking mat very well. With force, dump the dough from the bowl onto the surface. Flour your hands and press out the dough into a rectangle until the dough gets to ½-inch thickness.
7. Flour a 2½-inch round metal biscuit cutter. Start from the edge of the rolled-out dough and cut straight through the dough with the cutter. Place the biscuits in a 9-inch cast-iron skillet with their sides touching. (Any size skillet is fine as long as the sides of the biscuits are touching.) Let rest 15 minutes while the dough rises.
8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.