If you’ve ever driven the Highway 20 corridor between Canton and Cumming, you don’t have to look far. When we moved here almost nine years ago, signs promising hot biscuits, nachos and biscuits, and even – wait for it – biscuits and fish dotted the landscape. A melting pot of flavor and culture is available right here in the foothills of the North Georgia mountains. Move over, New York City. Canton, Ga., is coming for you!
Enter Biscuit Quest 2017: Our Search for the Best Biscuit in Cherokee County.
Biskit Barn, Marietta Highway. The Biskit Barn has made a name for itself in Canton by serving up biscuits filled with country ham, chicken and fried bologna, or covered in hot gravy. Bring cash, because this dive doesn’t take plastic.
Amos’ Barbecue and Biscuits, Corner of Highway 369 and Hightower Road. This biscuit came wrapped in parchment. We found it to be fluffy, with a light crumb and nice crown. I usually sop up my barbecue with a thick slice of white bread, but biscuits make sense at this local eatery, which even cures its own bacon.
Shell Station, Corner of Highway 20 and Scott Road. Alfredo makes the biscuits here, a dense, flat cathead biscuit, without the rise you might expect from your grandmother’s. This one was best suited for a breakfast sandwich. Alfredo is not your grandmother.
BP Super A on Highway 20, near Cumming. Bobbie’s been making biscuits since she was in third grade, and at the Super A for more than a decade. You might stop here to fill up your tank, but don’t leave without filling up your belly, too. Bobbie is popular with the regulars who have been singing her praises for years.
Cherokee Ranch Restaurant. Parchment-wrapped and oozing butter, this golden biscuit tasted more like a dinner roll, which makes sense, because the Cherokee Ranch serves up a buffet of assorted meats, veggies and salads every day of the week.
Jill’s Cakes & Bakes in Ball Ground. Our last stop. Jill is known for her delicious and beautiful cakes, and biscuit dough can be temperamental. I didn’t have high hopes, but Jill is a baker, and she knows her stuff. My friend Ginny and I couldn’t stop eating this delicious, melt-in-your-mouth biscuit, cut in half and grilled on both sides. An extra pat of butter or jam would have ruined the perfect bite. It was the ONLY biscuit we actually finished.
For country folk without a taste for adventure or the time to trek across the county, you can whip up a tasty biscuit right in your own kitchen in no time flat — and with ingredients you already have on hand. My friend, Ginny, is a biscuit connoisseur, and, without her, Biscuit Quest 2017 would have simply been My Morning of Eating Too Many Carbs.
By Chantel Adams, contributing writer.
Here’s Ginny’s take on the perfect biscuit. Enjoy!
Sift together
• 1 cup King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ tablespoon sugar
Cut in
• 3 ½ tablespoon salted, chilled butter
With a fork
• Add up to 1 cup heavy cream (do not overwork the dough, as this will result in a tough biscuit).
Turn dough out onto floured parchment. Gently press to about 1 inch height. Fold in half and pat to 1 inch height again. Cover with tea towel for 20 minutes.
Cut biscuits with a floured 2 ½ inch biscuit cutter (DO NOT TWIST). Place biscuits, touching, in a glass pie plate. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Remove biscuits and brush with butter while hot.
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