Buttermilk Biscuits with Sausage Gravy
Today I honor my southern roots by making Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. My mother and her mother-in-law prepared fresh biscuits nearly every day. Sometimes even twice a day. Once for breakfast and once for dinner. As a child we often enjoyed the last biscuit of the day split in two and topped with butter and honey. It was a perfect sweet treat that didn’t cost a lot to make and satisfied myself and my four brothers.
My mother tells the story of when her father was a child in the early 1900s. Back then he and his siblings didn’t always have a lot to eat. Sometimes his snack consisted of a homemade biscuit topped with a dollop of lard (rendered pork fat). This fondness for homemade biscuits runs deep in both sides of my family tree.
During the past few years I’ve been searching for the perfect biscuit recipe. One that creates a biscuit that is light, fluffy, golden and slightly crisp on the top. On a recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina my brother and I ate at a super tasty restaurant called, Millers All Day. While I enjoyed the roasted veggie and feta Frittata, I knew I had to order a side of biscuits. Wow is all I can say. No really…WOW! Without a doubt they were the best, most delicious biscuits I’d ever eaten. Ever. Nearly 3 inches high. Perfectly tender and fluffy. Lightly golden with a buttery interior and exterior. Since then I’ve been on a quest to make something as close to their golden perfection as possible. I think that this time I’ve finally done it.
In my research I discovered that any true southern biscuit expert uses White Lily Flour. Unfortunately for me this extra tender flour made from winter wheat is milled and sold only in the south. Their website has a place where you enter your zip code to find a merchant near you who sells this perfect product. Sadly when I selected within 100 miles of me I got this message, “Sorry there are no results in your selected area. Please expand your search for better results”. I chose 100 miles for goodness sake. So if I was going to get my hands on the stuff, I had to turn to Amazon to place my order.
The secret ingredient!
Yes, I spent 12 bucks for one five pound bag of self rising flour, plus shipping. But after seeing and tasting the results, it was worth every penny! Since I’m headed down to Texas in the Spring, I’ve already found stores that carry it. My plan is to load up on this wonderful ingredient and store it in the freezer for future biscuit bakes.
Using frozen, grated butter makes the fluffiest biscuits around.
12 perfect biscuits cut 3/4 to 1 inch thick.
Some of my friends who are not cooks or foodies often tease me about all of my dishes being “gourmet”. I hope today’s recipe (which contains only 3 ingredients) proves to them what I always say about good cooking. Find the best ingredients that you can afford, cook them simply and expect to have something delicious to feed yourself and those you care about. Hope I’m making my southern ancestors proud with this recipe. Click here for a great video that shows you the process that I followed.
Golden, high rise, fluffy biscuit perfection.
Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups Self-Rising Flour White Lily Brand if possible
- 1 stick frozen butter, grated
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees. If you have a convection oven option...set it on convection. Most ovens will automatically lower the temperature by 25 degrees as convection cooks foods faster. Convection baking is great for biscuits, scones and pastries that you want to rise and be light, fluffy or flaky.
- Grate frozen stick of butter on box grater or in food processor fitted with shredder blade.
- Add flour to medium size bowl. Gently mix grated butter into flour.
- Pop flour/butter mixture into the freezer for 10 minutes. No need to cover.
- Once mixture is very cold, remove from freezer. Make a well in center of flour mixture and pour in COLD buttermilk.
- Mix gently, but well enough until the flour has absorbed all of the buttermilk. About 15 stirs with a sturdy wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
- Place mixture on lightly floured surface.
- Flour rolling pin. Gently pat dough into a basic rectangle shape. Roll to 3/4 inch thickness.
- Fold dough in half. Lightly roll again to same thickness. Repeat this process 4 times...ending up with your dough being 3/4 inch thick.
- Using a 2 inch biscuit cutter that is dipped in flour, cut out 12 biscuits. Be sure to use only and up and down motion to the cutter. Do NOT twist your cutter. Doing this ends up compressing the sides of the dough...which prevents it from rising into a light and fluffy biscuit.
- Place cut out biscuits on parchment lined baking sheet. Make sure they touch.
- Bake biscuits at 450 degrees for approximately 12-15 minutes. Watch closely so they don't brown too much.
- Biscuits are best served right out of the oven. Will store at room temperature for a couple of days,
Notes
- For the fluffiest and most tender biscuits it is essential that all ingredients be very cold. When you pop cold pastry into a very hot oven it helps with the rise and creates an open, tender crumb.
- If you can't find White Lily Flour, then buy the best self-rising you can find. Many bakers are fond of King Arthur. Believe me when I say that the quality of flour does make a huge difference in baking the perfect biscuit.
Sausage Gravy
Ingredients
- 1 pound breakfast/pork sausage mild or spicy
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon salt less if sausage is salty
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a deep skillet over medium-high heat break up ground sausage into bite-sized pieces. Brown for approximately 10 minutes.
- Once pork sausage is no longer pink, reduce heat to medium.
- Sprinkle cooked sausage with flour. Stir well until sausage and fat absorbs all of the flour.
- Continue to cook flour/sausage mixture for about 5 minutes. Doing this makes sure that the flour gets completely cooked so that you won't have any raw flour taste.
- Pour about 1 cup of milk in pan. Stir well until combined.
- Slowly add the remainder of the milk. Whisking or stirring frequently until gravy begins to thicken. This may take up to 15 minutes.
- Once thick, take a taste. Then decide on how much salt and pepper to add.
- Sprinkle in salt and pepper and continue to cook and taste until the gravy is creamy and seasoned to your liking.
- If gravy is too thick, add some more milk, a couple tablespoons at a time until it reaches desired consistency.
- Serve over hot, fresh buttermilk biscuits.
