Angel Yeast Biscuits -- Something Light to Rise Above the Weight of the Season

September. Apple butter in the slow cooker, twenty-four hours, the autumn smell filling the house. Made a big batch this year — doubled the recipe because the family has doubled and the apple butter needs to keep up.

Amber and James announced they're trying to get Nadia on a schedule, which is a sentence that makes me laugh because babies don't care about schedules the same way mountains don't care about maps — the map is a suggestion and the mountain is the reality. But they're young parents and young parents believe in schedules the way young miners believed in safety equipment — hopefully, desperately, with the understanding that the thing they're relying on might not work but the alternative is chaos.

The cough is quiet in the September warmth. Still there but muted. The inhaler handles it. I am fifty-seven and my lungs work imperfectly and the imperfection has become as familiar as the morning itself — something I wake up to, manage, and carry through the day the way I carry my wallet and my phone and my keys. The bronchitis is a pocket item now. Not welcome. Not invited. But present. Carried.

When you’ve got twenty-four hours worth of apple butter cooling on the counter and a house full of people you love — new parents, grandkids on a schedule that won’t hold, your own lungs doing their imperfect morning thing — you need something worthy of spreading it on. Angel yeast biscuits are that thing. Light enough to float, sturdy enough to hold a generous spoonful, and forgiving in the way that good recipes, like good families, tend to be.

Angel Yeast Biscuits

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 32 minutes (plus 1 hour rise) | Servings: 24 biscuits

Ingredients

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (105–115°F)
• 1 cup shortening or cold butter, cut into pieces
• 2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons melted butter, for brushing

Instructions

1. Activate the yeast. Combine the warm water and sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and let sit 5–10 minutes until foamy.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Cut in the fat. Add the shortening or cold butter to the flour mixture and work it in with your fingers or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining.
4. Combine wet ingredients. Stir the activated yeast mixture into the buttermilk, then pour into the flour mixture. Stir gently just until a soft, shaggy dough comes together — do not overmix.
5. First rest. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let the dough rest at room temperature for 1 hour, or refrigerate overnight for a slower, more developed rise.
6. Shape the biscuits. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently 3–4 times. Pat or roll to 3/4-inch thickness. Cut with a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter, pressing straight down without twisting.
7. Arrange and rest again. Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet with sides just touching. Let rest 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 400°F.
8. Bake. Bake 10–12 minutes until the tops are golden and the biscuits are cooked through. Brush immediately with melted butter.
9. Serve. Serve warm, with apple butter if you’ve got it. You should have it.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 210mg