This recipe is totally inspired by Dorie Greenspan's wonderful cookbook, Baking with Dorie.

One little housekeeping note—if you bake a lot or plan to bake a lot, I strongly suggest you invest in a good baker’s scale.

Who’s your Mama, are you Catholic, and Can you Make a Roux? This is the name of a 2-collection set of cookbooks that are considered Louisiana classics and written by Marcelle Bienvenu. Marcelle is a friend - she is an amazing chef and food writer. You may remember her column in the Times Picayune called, Cooking Creole!

Several years ago, Marcelle wrote an article about a cake — a simple cake called Gateau de Sirop. This cake is a very simple cake to make, but Marcelle quoted her mom in her article regarding the secret to the success of this cake, and that secret is boiling water, and I repeat — boiling water. Now, by now you’re probably wondering what is a Gateau de Sirop. It is just a Syrup cake that is highly praised in South Louisiana. So every good Catholic should have this cake in their recipe repertoire!

A good buttered biscuit will do you well!

One of the wonderful things about spending summers on my grandparents' farm (in central Louisiana, Natchitoches) was my grandmother's cooking, things cooked fresh from my grandfather's garden on a daily basis. Family members to this day still tease and joke about me and my cousins and how much milk we could drink on a daily basis. And it didn't help that each morning my grandmother would make from scratch biscuits that were so amazingly delicious!

Now one of the things that I am blessed with is to have my grandmother's crockery bowl that she used to make her biscuits in. She would use this bowl on a daily basis every morning to mix her biscuits from scratch. I am happy to share this recipe for biscuits, and I hope you will find it delicious.

Preheat oven to 450°. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or a fork until crumbles are the size of peas. Blend in the milk with a fork or spoon—it should form into a ball and pull away from the bowl.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead gently. I do not roll out my biscuit dough; I patted it out by gently pressing on top of the dough. Use a 2-inch biscuit cutter or cookie-cutter and cut out biscuits.

Place on a lightly greased baking pan. Bake until golden brown—about 8 to 10 minutes.