buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy
i made these flaky, layered, buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy for easter brunch–who doesn’t want to wake up to the smell of sausage and homemade, buttery biscuits on a holiday morning?! these are easier than they sound, and the whole meal came together in under an hour. try them out, and i’m willing to bet you won’t go back to pillsbury!
how do you get layers and flakiness in your biscuits like the ones that come out of a can, you ask? there are a couple of secrets to the much sought-after layered & flaky biscuits:
- start with VERY cold butter. you don’t want the butter melting before the biscuits are in the oven, otherwise you can say goodbye to flakiness and layers.
- cut your butter into small cube shapes (about the size of peas) and thin pats. this way, not all of the butter is the exact same size. the smaller cubes make the dough tender, and the thin pats make the dough flaky. you want both tender & flaky, hence putting both sizes in there.
- do NOT overwork the dough. use your fingertips (not the palms of your hands, which are warm and will melt the butter, defeating point 1 above) and work the dough only as much as is necessary for it to come together then STOP kneading it. i don’t even like the word “knead” here, because it already sounds like you’re overworking the dough. let’s instead say toss the butter into the flour mixture with your fingers to coat the pieces of butter and work them into the flour, and then add the buttermilk.
- only use as much buttermilk as is necessary to get the dough to form a clump. you do not want to add too much moisture, and how much exactly will depend on where you are (taking humidity, etc. into account). once your fingertips get the dough to come together, stop working it, and stop adding buttermilk! you do not want wet dough, wet dough does not sound flaky, does it? makes a lot of sense when you think about it!
- fold the dough, per the recipe, horizontally & vertically before rolling, then repeat. this helps the dough come together and also helps to create the layers.
- do not twist the biscuit cutter as you pull it out of the dough. twisting messes the layers up; instead, pull the cutter straight out of the dough.
now that you have the perfect biscuits in the oven, you make the gravy, which is SO easy. in my recipe i used 2% milk (because that’s what we had), but you can use whole milk to make it even creamier, or it also works with skim. enjoy!
Ingredients
6 tbs. cold, unsalted butter
2 c. all purpose flour
1.5 tsps. salt
1 c. buttermilk
1 tbs. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 lb. sausage (i used odom tennessee mild sausage
1/3 c. all purpose flour
3-4 c. milk (i used 2%, but you can use whole or skim)
1 tsp. lawry's seasoned salt
salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
preheat the oven to 425.
mix flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.
cut 1/2 of the cold butter into pea-sized cubes and the other 1/2 into thin pats.
using fingertips, mix the butter into the dry ingredients, breaking the butter into even smaller and coating the pieces with flour as your work them into the dough.
add in the buttermilk a little bit at a time. using fingertips, mix the ingredients until they come together and form a clump. be careful not to over-mix and only add enough buttermilk as is necessary to get the ingredients to clump together.
turn the ingredients out onto a floured surface and pat, using your fingertips, into a 2 in. thick rectangle.
fold the dough in half horizontally (as though it's a book), then fold it in half again vertically.
pat it out again into a 2 in. thick rectangle, and repeat the horizontal and vertical folds.
using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 1-1.5 in. thick circle.
cut the dough into biscuits with a biscuit cutter or sharp knife. do not twist the cutter as you lift it out, otherwise you'll mess up your layers. instead, lift it straight out.
place biscuits onto an ungreased cookie sheet (or line it with parchment paper).
brush the tops with a little bit of extra buttermilk or melted butter.
bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
brown sausage in a skillet over medium heat until all pink bits are gone.
sprinkle flour over the sausage, and cook for a minute or two to cook out the flour taste.
reduce the heat and pour in the milk. stir, scrape up the browned bits at the bottom of the pan, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the gravy thickens (this could take 15 or so minutes).
season with lawry's seasoned salt
split a warm biscuit in half and smother each half with gravy!
http://www.dishandchipsblog.com/buttermilk-biscuits-sausage-gravy/
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