Does White Lily flour make a difference in baking? I put it to the biscuit test, and yes, biscuits made with White Lily are much more tender.

White Lily is an all-purpose flour made from soft (not hard) winter wheat that Southern bakers have raved about for generations. The soft wheat is much lower in protein (as opposed to the hard wheat used to make pasta dough). Just like pie crusts, the best biscuits are both tender and flaky. Regular all-purpose flour makes a fine biscuit, but the White Lily biscuits melt in the mouth.

To achieve flakiness in my favorite biscuit recipe, the fat is cut into larger, dime-size chunks instead of being thoroughly mixed into the flour. The result is a coarse dough that has dramatic flakiness after baking.

Biscuits

• 2 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 12 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 eggs
• egg wash: 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tablespoon water

Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the butter is the size of dimes. Whisk together the cream and eggs and stir into the dough. Pull together the dough into a ball and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Pat the dough out to one-inch thick on a lightly floured rollpat mat. Using a floured biscuit cutter, cut the dough into rounds and place on a lined sheet pan. Brush the tops (not the sides) of the biscuits with the egg wash. Bake at 425 degrees until browned and puffed, about 10 minutes.