Carla Hall's Simple Secret For Avoiding Tough, Dry Biscuits

You may know larger-than-life TV personality Carla Hall from her time on Bravo's "Top Chef" or ABC's "The Chew," and she brings her quirky, infectious personality to everything food. It's clear that food connects her to people, and that couldn't be more evident than in her attachment to her grandmother's homemade biscuits. You can certainly visit a venerated, ideally Southern, biscuit restaurant like Loveless Cafe in Nashville to sample their iconic biscuits, or Hall can help you make your own at home.

Hall is a biscuit expert and has a slew of tips for home bakers hoping to achieve biscuit glory, ranging from using frozen grated butter in the dough to suggesting bakers work quickly so that the dough doesn't become a sticky mess. Perhaps her biggest, and most straightforward, tip is to simply be gentle with the dough. Buttermilk is important for biscuit-making, and in Hall's perfect buttermilk biscuit recipe on her website, she advises, "Don't beat your biscuits to death. They need to be massaged with care. You want to be tender, loving, not aggressive or rough."

There's a humorous bit in Food Network's YouTube video of Carla Hall making fluffy biscuits where she calls out, "What time is it?" The only correct answer is replying, "It's biscuit time." Her passion for biscuits just jumps off the screen, and so does her love for the most-handled biscuit — the one that may not be as picture-perfect as the others, but uses the last of the dough. This final hand-formed biscuit is the one her grandmother spent the most time with, and it's the one she calls "the granny biscuit." Perhaps this moniker can become a tradition in your own house.

Forming the biscuits with a gentle touch seems to be just the ticket to achieving delicate, flaky results. Roughness equals toughness, so it's best to pat and roll the dough with your hands rather than use a rolling pin. Rolling, punching, and kneading can squeeze out the air, leading to a less fluffy biscuit. If you're craving a homemade biscuit, but don't have the time or ingredients to lavish on biscuit-making, try this three-ingredient approach to get your fix. Just remember to follow Hall's lead by kneading with care.