Biscuits and Gravy

I'm making this for supper tonight, and I wanted to type it up before I start cooking. It's an excellent recipe, but I never keep cake flour in the house, so I have to substitute a ratio of flour and cornstarch. Having to do math while cooking (and keeping children from ruining the house and/or killing each other) makes for a stressful kitchen experience. So I'm typing it up here with the flour/cornstarch substitution, and also breaking it down a little more so I don't try to add the wrong things at the wrong time.

(The recipe I am using is from the wonderful Noble Pig: here are the two different recipes as posted there-- Buttermilk Biscuits, including tips on how to make good biscuits, and Sausage Gravy .)

This recipe intrigued me because it used a stand mixer instead of cutting the butter in. Not that I've ever found biscuits hard to make, but I'm all for even easier biscuits!

Basic Buttermilk Biscuits

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. table salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda

Whisk together and set aside.

• 1 1/4 cup + 1 T flour
• 3 T cornstarch
• 5 T cold vegetable shortening, cubed
• 4 T cold butter, cubed
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 T melted butter

Preheat oven to 450°. Grease a cookie sheet, or use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Whisk flour and cornstarch together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, pulse this mixture with the shortening and butter until fats are pea-sized flakes. Mix in the other flour mixture just until blended. Add buttermilk to dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. The dough will be wet.

Turn dough onto floured surface and knead just until dough holds together. Flour your hands and pat dough into a 1"-thick circle. Use a 2" biscuit cutter to cut out 10 biscuits. Do not twist cutter.

Put biscuits on baking sheet and bake until golden, 15-18 minutes. Brush tops with melted butter during last few minutes of baking.

And, in the interest of having this recipe for the next time I make it for the Vaughan clan, here is the ingredient list when doubled.

• 3 cups flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. table salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Whisk together.

• 2 1/2 + 2 T flour
• 6 T cornstarch
• 10 T cold vegetable shortening, cubed
• 8 T (1 stick) cold butter, cubed
• 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 4 T melted butter

Sausage Gravy

• 4 strips thick-sliced bacon, diced
• 1 lb. pork breakfast sausage
• 1 T minced fresh sage (or 1 tsp. dried, in the dreary depths of winter)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• Black pepper

Cook bacon in saute pan. When bacon is nearly crisp, stir in sausage and sage, breaking up any clumps. Cook sausage until browned, 8-10 minutes. Transfer bacon and sausage to bowl; reserve drippings.

Sprinkle flour into hot dripping while whisking continuously. Whisk until mixture thickens and begins to brown. Whisk in milk. Cook gravy over medium-high heat, whisking until thickened and flour taste is eliminated, about 15 minutes. (That line always confuses me, since I don't taste the flour, but anyway, till it's nice and thick.) Season gravy with pepper to taste. Stir bacon and sausage into gravy; serve with biscuits.

Not that the buttermilk biscuits up top there are hard, but I do have a standby biscuit recipe that is even easier, and it doesn't require a mixer or pastry cutter. Biscuits are a great Sunday lunch item, since you can have them 15 minutes after you walk in the door.


Cook's Country Quick and Easy Cream Biscuits

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. table salt
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 450°. Line baking sheet with silicone mat or parchment paper, or grease the pan. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Stir in cream with a wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 seconds. Shape the dough into a 3/4" circle, then use a biscuit cutter (or inverted glass) to cut out biscuits. You can also just cut them in wedge shapes, like a pizza. Place biscuits on the baking sheet. (Baking sheet can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 hours.) Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.

Note: Since I started this post on a Wednesday afternoon and it is now Sunday evening, I have already made this recipe. It was much less stressful this time around, since I had the correct list of ingredients. I did take a picture, but trust me, seeing a picture of sausage gravy is not going to make you want to make it. It looks like something the dog would leave behind-- it is super yummy, though.

Food Processor Fun!

I love food processors. They can take a whole massive amount of basil...

(plus a few other ingredients)...

and turn it into this tiny (but wonderful) amount of stuff. Pesto, to be precise.

Much as I love the food processor I've had for a year now, I still haven't abandoned this.

It's a salsa maker that they sell at fairs and flea markets. Evan and I saw one years ago at the fair, and watched the demonstration, and tasted the salsa. It was so good, but Evan didn't think we needed one. Well, I (and by proxy, Evan) regretted that decision all year. So the next year, I bought one. It is the handiest onion chopper ever...

And it still does the best job of making salsa of anything out there! (Sorry, Most Beloved Food Processor.)

This is some of the green-leaf lettuce I bought at the farmer's market.

We made taco salad for supper the other night, it was all so fresh and yummy! I need to make lots more fresh salsa. My pesto is sitting in the fridge, too, waiting for me to use it. I often make grilled chicken and cheese sandwiches with pesto, or put it on a white pizza. We'll have to see what I actually do with it this week!

Pesto
This recipe is from Process This! by Jean Anderson. I got that book out of the library when I first got my food processor, and it was so helpful I actually went out and bought a copy.

• 2 quarts loosely packed tender young basil leaves (two humongous bunches at the farmer's market should do it), washed and dried.
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 2 large whole cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup oil (I ended up using closer to 1/3)

Place all ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor fitted with the medal chopping blade and churn for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and churn 30 seconds longer to form a thick paste. With the motor running, drizzle the olive oil down the feed tube, adding only enough to give the pesto the consistency of prepared mustard. Scoop into a small bowl, press plastic food wrap on top to keep from darkening (I have experience in stating this is a VERY important step!) and refrigerate until needed. Bring to room temperature and stir well before using.

Fresh Salsa

• Small white onion, chopped and rinsed
• Juice of one lime
• 5 Roma tomatoes, or 3 small regular tomatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
• 2-3 jalapeno or serrano peppers, seeded if you're a wimp like Evan
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Chop it all up in a food processor or the like. My sister Bethaney uses a blender, which makes a very finely chopped salsa. Eat immediately, although it will keep fairly nicely in the fridge.