Jack's Biscuits and Gravy






Biscuits and Gravy
Recipes Courtesy of Alton Brown


Southern Biscuits

Ingredients
  • 2 cups flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons shortening
  • 1 cup cold buttermilk

Method
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
  2. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. Add the butter and shortening by hand, cutting the fat into the flour using the tips of your fingers to rub and mix until your fat bits are around the size of large crumbs and well incorporated. Be sure to work quickly or the fat will begin to melt!
  4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the buttermilk. Work together until the dough just comes together. The dough will be pretty sticky and wet.
  5. Turn your dough out on a heavily floured surface and fold it onto itself 5 times.
  6. Press into a 1-inch thick layer for cutting. Make sure you cut down evenly and quickly before adding to your baking tray (lined with parchment or silicone baking mat). Place the biscuits close together, almost touching. Reform your scrap dough until you have cut all the biscuits you can.
  7. Bake until your biscuits are nice and tall and golden brown and delicious, roughly 15-20 minutes.

Sawmill Gravy

Ingredients
  • 1 pound loose breakfast sausage
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups milk
  • salt and pepper to taste

Method
  1. Cook your sausage in a skillet or pan with higher sides until nice and brown. 
  2. Remove sausage and set aside. Drain fat until there is only 2 tablespoons in the pan. If your sausage is on the leaner side you might need to add oil to your pan. 
  3. Add the flour and cook over a low heat for approximately 5 minutes while constantly stirring.
  4. Slowly add your milk while whisking continuously to prevent lumps. 
  5. Heat over medium-high heat until gravy has begun bubbling and thickening.
  6. Add the sausage back to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Serve over fresh biscuits and enjoy.


Happy Sunday y'all! Sunday means late wake ups, pj lounging, tv watching, and BRUNCH. One of Jack's absolute favorite meals is biscuits and gravy and I have been promising to make him some for months now. Well today was the day! Honestly I can't think of a better way to start the morning than some biscuits and gravy, pjs, and episodes of The Office.

I started the morning with some French press coffee, then quickly whipped up the biscuit dough with a helpful assist from my friend and Southern food expert Amber who provided me with her lovely biscuit cutter. Jack and I looked all over town yesterday for a proper biscuit cutter but I guess us Northern Yanks don't use them like those down South because we ended up completely empty handed. Until I can get my paws on one (likely from Amazon) Amber's cutter worked in a pinch (THANK YOU!!)

The key to the biscuit dough is to try and work the dough as little as possible, and to get as many biscuits as you can from the first roll out. Working the dough more than you need to will melt the fat, which will ruin the fabulous flaky layers. This happened to me anyways as my apartment has no A/C and it's 80 degrees for some reason in October. Although my biscuits weren't super tall they were still wonderfully fluffy and tender on the inside. Making sure you get the most biscuits you can out of the first roll out is important because the more you refold the dough the flatter and tougher your biscuits become.

While the biscuits were in the oven I cooked up some loose breakfast sausage for the gravy. I inadvertently purchased some leaner meat and didn't end up with the required 2 tablespoons needed for the gravy, so I added a tablespoon of peanut oil to make up the deficit. Making the gravy was super simple and it was done right as the biscuits were ready to come out of the oven. These biscuits were awesome with the gravy, however I actually preferred them plain with a simple pat of butter slathered on the inside. They would also be scrummy with some jam, or even some apple or pumpkin butter. I even saved a few to eat with my beef stew that's currently cooking in the crock pot for dinner tonight! YUM!

Hopefully you will enjoy these as much as Jack did! Happy biscuit making y'all!




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