This week: Biscuit recipes, Pride month supporting LGBTQ authors, cookbook previews and giveaways

Biscuits in North America are made with flour, a fat (shortening or butter), a leavening agent, and often buttermilk. They are flaky, tender delights. Outside of North America, biscuits are what North Americans refer to as cookies. This post will focus on the North American biscuit (check back next week for biscuits/cookies).

Lately, I’ve been on a biscuit kick – mainly chicken biscuits with black pepper honey (pictured below, recipe at the bottom of this post). It feeds my current comfort food craving and I’ll save calories all day for a biscuit.

There are over 700 biscuit recipes in our library (online recipes). My favorite version (so far) is King Arthur’s easy self-rising biscuits and more times than not I use butter as the fat. I have good intentions to switch things up with the addition of scallions, chives, blue cheese, etc. but haven’t had the opportunity to do so. When the biscuit urge hits, I turn to my go-to recipe.

There are several different categories of biscuits: rolled, dropped, shortcakes and scones. There are also Angel biscuits which are made with three leaveners: baking powder, baking soda, and yeast. There are over 100 different recipes for angel biscuits in our index at EYB. (online recipes). Cookbook author and blogger, Irvin Lin states “using three leaveners makes angel biscuits so light and fluffy, it’s as if they could float up to heaven, like angels – which, of course, is where the name came from.”

After you have eaten homemade biscuits, you will never pop a can of refrigerated biscuits again. I can’t even look at them at the grocery store. But a batch of homemade biscuits, they call to me from across the room. “Come on Jenny, you know you want us.”

There are many cookbooks devoted to biscuits and below are a few of our members (and my) favorites!

• Southern Biscuits by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart
• Callie’s Biscuits and Southern Traditions: Heirloom Recipes from Our Family Kitchen by Carrie Morey (Callie’s Biscuits also has an online shop where you can order her mixes, biscuits, jams and other delicious items.)
• Muffins and Biscuits: 50 Recipes to Start Your Day with a Smile by Heidi Gibson
• Biscuit Head: New Southern Biscuits, Breakfasts, and Brunch by Jason and Caroline Roy (online shop)
• Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes for Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes by James Villa
• Biscuits: Sweet and Savory Southern Recipes for the All-American Kitchen by Jackie Garvin
• The Big Bottom Biscuit: Specialty Biscuits and Spreads from Sonoma’s Big Bottom Market by Michael Volpatt (online shop)

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Featured Recently Indexed Cookbooks

• Oaxaca: Home Cooking from the Heart of Mexico by Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral
• Always Home: A Daughter’s Recipes & Stories by Fanny Singer
• Leon Happy Fast Food by Rebecca Seal, John Vincent and Jack Burke
• Storecupboard Vegan by Laura Veganpower and Sébastien Kardinal
• Vegan(ish): 100 Simple, Budget Recipes That Don’t Cost the Earth by Jack Monroe
• Chocolate Is Forever: Classic Cakes, Cookies, Pastries, Pies, Puddings, Candies, Confections, and More by Maida Heatter
• Foolproof Fish: Modern Recipes for Everyone, Everywhere by America’s Test Kitchen Editors
• Everyday BBQ: All Year Outdoor Grilling by Andreas Rummel
• Institut Paul Bocuse Gastronomique: The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Culinary Excellence by Institut Paul Bocuse

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This Week on our Blog

Since our last roundup, Darcie has written articles entitled:  the politics of chili powder, this comfort-food cookbook delivers more than recipes, using food in protest has a long history, alfresco dining is all about the vibe and a history that pops. Darcie’s weekly food news antipasto is shared every Sunday #foodnews brings up these information-packed posts).

June is Pride month and I have put together an outline of cookbook authors and food writers to celebrate their work. Last week we featured black food writers and cookbook authors and we will continue to showcase the diverse community that brings their knowledge and expertise to our tables.

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Member Photo of the Week

Luckiest biscuits in America from Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes by Alison Roman submitted by member htrezzo

Have you uploaded any of your own photos yet? Learn more! Please remember to update your profile with your Instagram name if you would like to be tagged in any photos that we share!

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Featured Online Recipe

Mushroom-Parmesan tart from The New York Times Cooking by Klancy Miller

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EYBDigital Previews

Recently we uploaded our 676th EYBDigital Preview where a selection of full sample pages is available for the following cookbooks.

Learn more about EYBDigital Previews.

Note: To learn why you cannot add all EYBDigital Preview recipes to your Bookshelf, please read this Help page.

• 4 recipes from The Turkish Cookbook by Musa Dağdeviren
• 3 recipes from Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes, Through Darkness and Light by Caroline Eden
• 3 recipes from Weeknight Gourmet Dinners: Easy, Exciting Meals for the Busy Weekday Chef by Meseidy Rivera (Pub date 7/21/20)
• 3 recipes from Dinner, Uncomplicated: Fixing a Delicious Meal Every Night of the Week by Claire Tansey (Pub date 9/29/20)

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Cookbook Giveaways

• Enter our US giveaway to win a copy of Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World’s Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes by Joe Yonan with one grand prize winner receiving a Circulon Symmetry 5.5-Qt. Covered Straining Casserole in Merlot Expires June 21st, 2020.
• Enter our US giveaway to win a copy of Beyond the North Wind: Russia in Recipes and Lore by Darra Goldstein Expires June 20th, 2020.
• Enter our US/CA giveaway to win a copy of Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Butter, Sugar, and Women’s Voices by Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford Expires June 30th, 2020.

*Please note due to the pandemic, promotions are extended until publishers are back in their offices, and warehouses are available to resume the shipment of books. The good news is that a few publishers have mentioned that warehouses are opening up soon but they are overwhelmed and backed up. The cookbook giveaway roundup shares all current giveaways.

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View Past Weekly Roundups

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Biscuit

Use King Arthur’s Self Rising Biscuit recipe for the biscuit or you can use any good buttermilk biscuit recipe.

Black pepper honey

1/2 cup of honey
As much coarse ground black pepper as you would like

Add the honey and black pepper to a small saucepan or a microwave bowl and warm until runny. (Sometimes I steep a garlic clove in the honey while it is warming and then remove it before using).

Crispy fried chicken

I am going to write this recipe loosely. I’ll come back and type it up with more details this week.

Take boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs (cut into biscuit size portions and if really thick, pounded until thinner because you want the chicken to fry fairly quickly). Soak the chicken in a mixture of buttermilk (enough to cover the chicken pieces), 2 cloves of peeled garlic, 1/4 of an onion, and a few dashes of hot sauce. Allow the chicken and buttermilk mixture to sit in the fridge for about two hours.

To about two cups of all-purpose flour add a teaspoon of salt, lots of fresh black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon each of onion and garlic powder. Remove the chicken from the buttermilk a few pieces at a time and dredge the chicken in the flour. Then dip the chicken in the buttermilk mixture again and back into the flour.

Heat vegetable oil in a cast-iron pot to 360 degrees (once the chicken goes in – the temp goes down to 350) and fry two pieces at a time for five to eight minutes depending on how thick your chicken pieces are. I check the temperature of the chicken at five minutes and make sure it is near 165 degrees before removing to rest on a rack over a sheet pan. Sprinkle with salt immediately.

You can put your sheet pan in an oven that is on the warming setting or 150 to 200 degrees for a short while finishing up the chicken.

Slice the slightly cooled biscuits in half, sandwich a piece of fried chicken between the biscuit halves and before topping the biscuit – drizzle warm honey pepper over the chicken.

(Sometimes I add pickle brine to the buttermilk soak and a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar to the flour dredge if you would like it to taste a bit like that other famous chicken sandwich.)