One of Trisha Yearwood's must-haves on Thanksgiving is her "Grandma’s Sky-High Biscuits."
The singer, chef and best-selling author says the biscuits come from a recipe that's been passed down in her family and she hopes to keep the tradition going for years to come.
"My grandparents, they had a big dairy farm and my grandmother would work in the field in the day and then she would come in for lunch and she would cook for whoever was going to be eating -- it might be four people, it might be 20 people," Yearwood said in an interview with "Good Morning America."
"And my mother was the only daughter so she was the helper -- and these biscuits were huge," she added.
Yearwood said the recipe produces "the perfect combination of a dinner roll and a biscuit all in one" and these biscuits in particular were a favorite of her grandfather's.
"He called them 'cathead biscuits' and I've actually heard other people call biscuits cathead biscuits,'" she said with a laugh. "It must be a thing -- biscuits the size of a cat's head."
"It's a great memory, and so for my sister and I, the whole tradition of taking recipes that have been in our family for generations and making them ours and passing them down to our kids is really what it's all about," she continued. "I hope that in, you know, 20 years when my grandkids are grown and telling their stories to their families that they talk about my grandparents and the big sky-high biscuits."
Yearwood, who released her latest cookbook "Trisha's Kitchen: Easy Comfort Food for Friends and Family" in September, said these will be a hit with everyone at your table this year.
"This is the day everybody saves up for," she said. "And I feel like no matter what you have on the table, there needs to be a biscuit to sop up the gravy, to just kind of pull everything together. The sky-high biscuits are perfect for that because they're big and they hold a lot of gravy."
Here is the full recipe:
Ingredients:
5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Kosher salt
5 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup warm water (90° to 110°F)
2 (¼-ounce) packets active dry yeast (4½ teaspoons)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into small cubes and chilled, plus more for greasing and 4 tablespoons (½ stick), melted
2 cups buttermilk
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, 11/2 teaspoons salt, and 3 tablespoons of the sugar.
3. In a small bowl, combine the warm water, yeast, and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Stir until the yeast has dissolved. Let stand until bubbles appear, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Using your hands, mix the 1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter into the flour, breaking the butter into small pebbles, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk and the yeast mixture. Gently fold the flour into the wet ingredients. Keep mixing until a ball starts to form, then flour your hands and gently knead in the bowl 12 to 15 times, to create a smooth dough. If the mixture is too sticky to easily knead, sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour over the top as you knead. Cover with a clean dish towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.
5. Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface. Flour your hands and press the dough out to 2 inches thick. Fold the dough in half, press it out again to 2 inches thick, then fold and press again into a 2-inch-thick square slab.
6. Grease a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with butter. Cut the dough into 12 equal squares and tuck the corners under to make each biscuit into a ball, trying not to mash down too much, then add to the greased skillet. The biscuits will be snug and puff up together when they bake. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and sprinkle each with a pinch of salt.
7. Bake for 24 to 28 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted between the center biscuits comes out clean. Brush again with melted butter and serve warm.
Reprinted with permission from "TRISHA’S KITCHEN: Easy Comfort Food for Friends and Family" Copyright © 2021 by Trisha Yearwood with Beth Yearwood Bernard. Photography © 2021 by Ben Fink. Reproduced by permission of Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
