Whether you like your biscuits made with shortening, butter, lard, or some combination of the above, you'll find plenty in here to suit you. There are even a few recipes that use whole-grain flours such as whole wheat. Many of the recipes include historical or personal notes that are fun to read and add interesting background to the process. Helpful hints include tips on freezing biscuits, as well as the all-important note for Northerners that finally saved my biscuit attempts when Alton shared it: if you use hard Northern flour, substitute cake flour for some of it.

The book includes plain raised biscuits, flavored biscuits, drop biscuits, cocktail and tea biscuits, scones, and recipes that allow you to cook with biscuits. There are plenty of hearty recipes in here such as biscuits with bacon and cheese in them (one of my favorites). There are also more subtly-flavored choices such as the parmesan-herb drop biscuits and the sweet potato biscuits (which work surprisingly well with canned pumpkin). The scones are far better than any commercial scones I've had before--not too sweet, not too dry.

Whether you want to go all-out with biscuits fried in lard on the top of the stove or make something out of buttermilk or whole grains; whether you prefer traditional favorites or unusual combinations such as parmesan and chutney--you'll find the perfect never-fail biscuit recipe in here. And that's definitely biscuit bliss!

Full review at ErrantDreams ( )