Evening Edge

Before you bake

• Pricking the dough with a fork before baking allows steam to be released during cooking and helps the biscuits rise more evenly. It's also traditional, and tradition counts with me.

LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)

For a perfect Easter brunch splurge: Click on the picture for details.

LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)

While it's true that biscuits are best eaten warm, don't worry if you can't always time them to come straight from the oven. Biscuits can be baked up to a few hours in advance and reheated, uncovered, in a 375-degree oven for three to five minutes until hot.

Scott Peacock's Biscuit recipes Crusty Buttermilk Biscuits, the basic recipe  (Biscuit)Strawberry Shortcake  Tomato Gravy, for biscuits  Photo gallery A biscuit feast for the eyes  Biscuits step-by-step Seven easy steps to success  The golden ideal: What makes biscuits great  Ingredients: Good biscuits start with using the good stuff  Equipment to use: On baking pans and biscuit cutters  The baking and the serving, plus some final thoughts  Printer-friendly step-by-step  Biscuits main page  Biscuits therapy Don't say, "I can't." Scott Peacock answers your biscuit-baking fears and questions

• Arrange biscuits on the baking sheet so they almost touch. This will keep the sides from setting too quickly in the hot, hot oven and, as a result, the biscuits are able to rise higher and lighter.

• Bake biscuits in the top third of the oven —the hottest part. They'll bake faster and lighter and develop a better crust.

Serve them hot

One of the first stories Miss Lewis told me was of a gentleman from the North who came south to experience Southern cooking — biscuits in particular. When he returned home and was asked how the biscuits were, he sadly replied: "I don't know, I never got to eat one. Every time someone started to bring them to the table, they'd check them and say, "Oops, sorry, they're not hot enough"— and disappear back into the kitchen."

While it's true that biscuits are best eaten warm, don't worry if you can't always time them to come straight from the oven. Biscuits can be baked up to a few hours in advance and reheated, uncovered, in a 375-degree oven for three to five minutes until hot.

Be fearless

Like a dog, biscuit dough can smell fear. But as far as I know, there are no documented cases of a biscuit ever attacking someone. So what if your first batch or two don't turn out like your father's memory of his grandmother's biscuits, or there aren't angels singing when you take your first bite? Practice makes progress, and that's really what it's all about — the satisfaction and enjoyment of learning as you go.

Just ask my mother, who, after 30 years and a little encouragement from her loving son and second and third husbands, now turns out biscuits anyone would be proud to serve.

And even if she should have a bad biscuit day, she can always save the duds for slingshot season.

PRINTER-FRIENDLY: The full text, from flour to finish