My biscuits were hockey pucks until I read an article written by a woman who was raised in the South. She moved to NY and could not replicate her mother's biscuits, hers turned out like hockey pucks also. She tried and tried and tried and her mama kept saying "it's not that difficult darlin". She did some deep digging and experimenting and discovered that the difference was the flour. In the north (and NW, where I am) you cannot buy soft winter wheat, which is what is prevalent in the south. My husband's cousin lives in South Carolina. I asked her to send me some of the flour from her grocery store. She sent me 3 different 5-lb packages, every single one said it was made with soft winter wheat. The biscuits I made with these flours were FABULOUS - light and super fluffy! We just cannot get soft winter wheat flour here, I wish I knew why. I have to order it online. Bob's Red Mill HQ and manufacturing plant is half an hour from my house and even they don't have it.
Of course, now that I've finally got biscuits figured out, my hubby and I have stopped eating them....
