The secrets to delicious, make-ahead biscuits

Last Updated on June 20, 2024 by Michelle

“Easy” and “homemade biscuits”? In the same sentence? Yes. And you can even throw in a few more adjectives, like delicious, wholesome, and cost effective. But, first, let me explain…

A few decades, and three kitchens, ago my mom had a step stool custom made for the girls. It fit perfectly at the end of our kitchen peninsula, so their eager little hands could reach the dough when they helped me mix cookie batter or make biscuits.

Magic, crafted in our farmhouse kitchen

One daughter, who wasn’t even born when that white oak stool was crafted in a Mennonite woodworking shop in Pennsylvania, now crafts something magical in our New England colonial kitchen every day. She hasn’t needed that worn, scratched up stool in over a dozen years, and I even allow her to play with fire these days. Especially when she’s creating a masterpiece of hearth-baked pizza in our beehive oven, or teaching her older sister.

(Don’t worry, her older sister teaches her to machine quilt–see what I mean here–so it’s all good.)

And she’s fascinated with perfecting cooking over the open fire.

She also loves the joy of wholesome cooking and pours over research on homesteading, now that we have set down roots on 14 rural acres. Fresh, from-scratch recipes are continually cascading out from under the well-worn, stained cover of her recipe notebook. Oil- and butter-scarred handwritten scrap papers are piled on kitchen shelves and layered in our little junk drawer. Some with recipes, some with cost analysis lists, tracking individual ingredient prices so she knows if she’s saving money with each recipe.

Her favorites are the ones that are delicious, wholesome, and cost effective. These prized recipes are housed in plastic page protectors and filed in her notebook.

Of course, it’s an added bonus if the recipe efficiently uses something we’re drowning in on any given season on the farm… from ocher-brown and faintly-blue shelled treasures from the coop to foamy ivory cream we skimmed off of yesterday’s milking rewards.

If you wanna make the amazing biscuit recipe below and don’t have any heavy cream on hand, no problem. Simply substitute ¾ cup milk and ¼ melted butter–thoroughly mixed–for every one cup of cream.

---

---

Every spring, when we’re drowning in eggs on the farm, we often enjoy my grandma’s recipe for cheesy egg souffle.

---

---

How to make a good biscuit perfect

To make these (or any) biscuits extra yummy, I brush a sweet coating of maple syrup on top before putting them in the oven and then a second coating a minute before they’re done. I also love making a maple version of this biscuit recipe, which you can download in my subscriber library, just sign up right here. Mmmmmm. Seriously.

Sit down with a warm biscuit and cup of hot tea, and you just made yourself a perfect bit of heavenly minutes in your day, no? Then tomorrow enjoy a Maple Chocolate Chip Cookie with your tea and that just might get you through the week. Cause, well, maple and chocolate, need I say more? Subscribe here for immediate access to maple-infused recipes like that heavenly cookie and more.

Need a good source to purchase maple syrup? If I didn’t have my own sugarbush this is where I would be buying my syrup. (affiliate link) This sugar shack, run by the Plante family, makes some amazing all-natural, wood-fired syrup, right here in New Hampshire. As if the sheer deliciousness wasn’t enough, the owners are some of the nicest guys I know.

 

---

---

 

---

Wanna know the bitter truths (and joys) of owning an old farmhouse? I wrote about those here.

Wanna know where you can unearth some rustic farmhouse treasures of your own? You will LOVE this site I just discovered–Antique Farmhouse.

---

A gift that helped her reach her potential

Looking back almost 2 decades, I’m thankful her NaNa gave her sisters that sweet stool… it was a gift that helped one daughter reach her potential, literally, long before she even needed it. And I’m thankful that, by the grace of God, I’ve weathered very messy kitchens, grave experimentation, and oh-so-many piles of chicken-scratched, soiled recipes over the years.

It’s never easy–come to think of it, the process called “parenting” is always rather messy– but I’m going to keep encouraging all my daughters to discover what they’re passionate about, provide what they need to reach their goals, and be willing to help them clean up the messes they make along the way.

Certainly, it’s a hard journey, but there are many moments to savor on this safari. Delicious tastes on the trek. We might even enjoy easy freezer biscuits and pies on the pilgrimage (yeah, I know I’m pushing it with the corny alliteration).

---

---

See this post for the most amazingly delicious strawberry pie you’ll ever make.

And check out her beautiful fire-baked pizza in this post.

---

---

 

 

---

“Let’s not become weary… for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

 

Pin this for later!

Just click on an image below to pin this post.

If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password. (Psssst, we always include a personalized password reminder in every Thursday email, “Hard Work, Simple Joys.”)

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below: