Dolly Parton Says This Is Key For Baking Unbeatable Biscuits

Dolly Parton often speaks fondly of her childhood memories of cooking in the kitchen with her family at their home in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains. Not only is Dollywood known for its wide variety of dining options featuring classic Southern comfort food, but Parton has regularly shared her favorite foods and recipes with fans and has contributed to multiple cookbooks. Her Baking with Dolly brand features recipes, cookware, and bakeware, and a Duncan Hines collaboration inspired by some of her favorite desserts. So it's safe to say that she knows a few things about baking biscuits. According to Parton, the key to unbeatable biscuits is one simple, no-fuss ingredient: lard. 

Lard is a dense, semi-solid fat that is rendered from pig fat. Its neutral taste and high smoke point make it ideal for deep-frying, sautéing, and baking — and lard can also help your pie crust turn out perfectly flaky. Adding lard to the biscuit dough will guarantee that you achieve that perfect tender, flaky, and moist texture that is hard to get from butter alone.

The lard prevents gluten strands in the dough from bonding by creating a coating that inhibits gluten formation, making your biscuits soft and tender rather than dense and chewy. Lard also retains moisture better than butter and melts at a higher temperature. As it slowly heats up in the oven, it creates steam pockets that lift up the biscuit dough to create flaky layers. To make Parton's famous buttermilk biscuits, you'll substitute five tablespoons of lard for the chilled butter typically used in fluffy Southern biscuit recipes. You'll also need all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, buttermilk, and salt.

One of the best things about a simple, three-ingredient buttermilk biscuit recipe is that you can customize it in so many different ways. If your biscuits will be a side dish to a hearty meat or veggie meal, adding fresh herbs to the dough can brighten the meal while using complementary flavors. Wash, dry, and dice up fresh herbs like parsley, rosemary, or sage. Mix them into your dry ingredients and then cut in your lard before adding the buttermilk.

If you love Red Lobster's famous cheddar biscuits, use Parton's recipe as a jumping-off point to make your own version. After mixing up all the ingredients, add about a cup and a half of freshly grated cheddar or Colby Jack cheese. While the biscuits are baking, make a spring herb compound butter and melt it on top of the biscuits as soon as they come out of the oven.

Buttermilk biscuits are also a great breakfast item to serve with scrambled eggs, sausage or bacon, and hash browns. You can tweak Parton's recipe to create sweet and savory breakfast biscuits by adding onion, bell pepper, and cooked, chopped bacon, sausage, or ham to the dough before baking. Serve the biscuits with homemade hot pepper jelly or sweet preserves for the perfect flavor combination.