My own biscuits are not the best either, Hang on to that bowl :) I'm sure it was a little of both - your mother guiding you and her special biscuit bowl.

We do miss our lost loved ones, especially this time of year. I'm glad you had the experience of using her kitchen bowl, bringing back the good memories with it today.

I'm sorry to hear that your losses are troubling you at the holiday. I guess its something we all must face eventually. My father died right after New Years in 1999 at the age of 73, 28 days to the day he was diagnosed with advanced metastatic lung cancer, which was about 10 days after he came down with what at first appeared to be "garden variety" pneumonia, before which he was going out in his boat and fishing 5-7 days a week. I still think about this from time to time at the holidays even though it will be 13 years now. Then, 2 years later on Christmas day, his mother died at the age of 98. It does get better with time, one can only try to think of the good times and funny things that happened while they were here.

And, so this isn't just a thread of melancholy, I'll share with you my secret for making two things I really struggle with from scratch, pie crust and baking powder biscuits -- but, don't spread this around, please, as this tip is foolproof and I wouldn't want the general populace to know this secret -- buy Pillsbury Ready Crust and Pillsbury Grands Biscuits. Works every time for me. Almost everything else I do from scratch, but those two things just hate me, never turn out quite right, so I'm happy to just fake it and use store bought.

Merry Christmas.

Don't believe anyone, your mom is watching and helping you. She is always with you! Ok maybe you had a little to do with it, and keep that recipe.

Made biscuits again this morning, with sausage gravy, for my brothers and their wives. They said they tasted like Moms and they want to borrow the bowl now! LOL

Nice -- glad you can do it without saying a prayer to St. Pillsbury. It indeed must be your mother guiding you, one way or another.

I think the mistake people make with biscuits is not having a wet enough dough, not using soft enough wheat and not preheating their oven hot enough. I preheat to 450 and make a very sticky dough using Lily White Flour and a mixture of butter and lard. A dough scraper helps to "pour" it out onto a moderately floured plastic flexible cutting board. I sprinkle a little more flour on the top of the dough and use a bench scraper and the cutting board to fold the dough onto itself. I rotate, and fold it several more times, adding a little flour as I go. The folding creates layers, similar to the process of making puff pastry.

After a few turns it should be stable enough to handle. I cut straight through with a very sharp biscuit cutter. If you twist you risk screwing up the rise. I like to have my biscuits touching because I think it gives a better rise in the oven.

Anyway, if your dough is wet enough on the inside and your oven hot enough all of that excess moisture should lift the biscuits right up.