I love biscuits and gravy, and this recipe is super simple. First you make biscuits with this recipe, then you make the gravy with some of the leftover fat from cooking the sausages. Then you eat.
Biscuits and Gravy Recipe:
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ stick of *cold* butter - 4 tablespoons
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup buttermilk, or put 1 tablespoon white vinegar into ¾ cup milk and let sit for 5 minutes for a quickie buttermilk substitute. you can also use yogurt, but you may need to add a bit of water when mixing the dough in the processor.
* to make your own baking powder, combine Cream of Tartar to Baking Soda in a 2:1 ratio. mix well and only mix what you'll use in a few weeks.
Preheat oven to 450
Add all the dry ingredients to the food processor, pulse to mix.
Cut the cold butter into small pieces and drop in.
Pulse food processor until the flour looks grainy like cornmeal. do not over-pulse this mixture.
Slowly pour the buttermilk into the food processor while the unit is turned on.
Mix until the dough balls up.
Turn dough out onto a floured board, and press out to ½" thickness
Use a muffin cutter to cut out round biscuits, and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake about 11 minutes, until the biscuits rise and brown a bit. Cool on a wire rack.
Gravy Recipe
After cooking the sausage, leave about 2 teaspoon of the fat in the pan. Dust in the ½ the flour, and mix it around until the flour starts to brown. Slowly add 1 cup of the milk. The gravy should thicken nicely slowly stir in the remaining 1 cup of milk and stir to thicken.
To plate the biscuits and gravy recipe:
split open 2 biscuits and place the sausage gravy over them. Season with plenty of pepper and enjoy.
©2010 Eric Rochow
Steven
Just made these biscuits for breakfast. They're so easy!!! (and good) I had to half the recipe to make it fit in my small food processor but they were still yummy. Thanks Eric!
Patricia
I loved this - and will definitely be making my own baking powder.
Just thought you may be interested in this tip for making gravy or any type of white sauce. After gently cooking the flour in the fat/oil for a couple of minutes, remove the pan from the heat and gradually add the liquid. Then return the pan to the heat and stir continually until the gravy thickens. Using a wire whisk when stirring helps as tends not to splosh around so much.
Since being told about this tip, I have managed to avoid lumpy sauces and gravy, which used to be one of my specialties!!!
Asa
One trick to great gravy is Potato flower. Also every one should check out some recipes for cream less creamy soups, simple and delish. P.S The cast iron skillet works great as a substitute for a baling stone without the risk of breaking for making artisan breads.
Asa
I forgot to mention that you could make your own potato flower at home on your own with boiled or baked potatoes and save a lot of $.
admin
hi asa, thanks for that info. have to check out potato flour. thx, eri c
Tim
A guy I game with makes melt in your mouth biscuits and his secret is to use cake flour-
pre-heat to 450*
2 cups cake flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter flavor Crisco shortning
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 cup butter milk
optional: 3 tbsp of sugar
barely mix it, maybe a dozen turns of the spatula. you just want bring it together
bake until the tops are golden
Margie
Man, this totally makes me want to go to MaryLou's in C-dale; can't wait to try the recipe!
Eric Gunnar Rochow
yes. its flashback comfort food.
Lauren
Just listening to the podcast from 3/23/10...
With biscuits, it's important to never knead the batter, the more you mess with it, the more the biscuits harden.
Why your bread might burn on the bottom (for another post)? The oven is too hot and the shelf is too low. It is necessary to test the temperature in the oven occasionally to make sure that when you set the temperature to 450 degrees, you actually get 450 degrees.
I have more to say about lawns but I'll find the post first.
Eric Gunnar Rochow
thanks for that info. i'll try to raise up the dutch oven in my oven. eric.
Laurel
I love Garden Fork, and I have a deep reverence for B&G. Your gravy kinda made me want to cry. Here's a couple suggestions for easy fixes:
switching from a wooden spoon to a whisk will eliminate the lump problem
your flower looked really dry- a lot of times, especially if you use a leaner sausage, you'll need to add some grease. Honestly, a pat or two of butter will do wonders, and who doesn't love the flavor of butter? anyway, more oil to the oil/flour ration will also help with the lump problem.
Don't over cook your flour or your gravy will get a really nutty flavor... or burnt if you go WAAAY too far. but, if you go that far, chuck it and start over before adding your milk. no point wasting perfectly good milk.
for the love of God don't make gravy with skim milk (I honestly can't remember if you did or not, but it's one of those cardinal rules of life, like don't buy cheap toilet paper-- life's too short, you know?). you don't have to go with whole milk, but if you're on a low fat diet, really, don't eat B&G.
don't be too stingy with the milk. Make it thinner than you think it needs to be (just a bit) while it's on the fire, because it will thicken considerably as it cools. and you need to simmer the flour in the milk to get it to thicken properly, but don't boil the milk (other than that initial sizzle when you add it, which is fine). Boiling milk makes it curdle which does not good gravy make.
Hope this helps.
admin
hey thanks for those ideas. i will try that!.. eric.
RBQueMan
Eric, also, one may want to fry up about 1/2# hamburger in an iron skillet, once meat is browned, blend in a proportionate amount of flour, stir, then mix in a proportionate amt of milk, stirring until thickened, apply to your open-faced scrumptious biscuits and there you have it, Biscuits & Hamburger Milk Gravy!
Janean Easley
Hi Eric, I love what you do here. I have been making biscuits and gravy since I was a child. One problem that you had with your gravy that I noticed was your proportion of fat to flour. A good rule of thumb for gravy is: 2 TBS of fat (butter or grease from the meat) to 2 TBS flour for every 1 1/2 cups (1 cup for thick) of liquid. I also switch to a fork (flat side down) when I stir in the milk or broth so that I get it smooth. I also like to fry cut up or torn dried beef and use that instead for chipped beef gravy. I am going to make my own baking powder as well and see how that goes. Thanks for all you do.
Janean
Eric Gunnar Rochow
hi janean, thanks for the info here, i'll work on this and see how i do. thx, eric.
Jacquelyn Phelps
From a southern recipe, you use self-rising flour (equal to all purpose flour, baking soda and baking powder), lard and buttermilk. You mix it all together to form a dough (don't over mix) and form it into a long roll. Pinch off a handful of dough and roll the biscuit in your hand and indent the center with the palm of your hand. Place on cookie sheet and bake.
For a variety of sausage---Take 1 lb ground sausage and cook in fry pan until almost cooked. Add cut up 2 large tomatoes (seeds and all), dice an onion, add salt and pepper. Cook sausage, tomatoes and onion until mixture is cooked down and most of the water is gone. Scoop over biscuits and eat!
Eric Gunnar Rochow
thanks for the recipe here. that's great.. eric.