Biscuits and Gravy

Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? I've been making these biscuits from the Homesick Texan for a few years now and I think they're wonderful. We must have had a light lunch the day I made these because I thought we needed gravy for our biscuits. I found a great recipe from Katie Lee Joel's Comfort Table cookbook which I adapted a bit to use bacon instead of sausage (because that's what we had). I suggest making a double batch of the biscuits because they freeze quite well. Just line the extras up on a sheet pan and freeze for 30 minutes or so. Then, place the frozen biscuits in a plastic freezer bag. (the pre-freeze helps keep them from sticking together) When you're ready to enjoy, just take out the number of biscuits you need and bake at 400° for 20 minutes or so. Hope you enjoy these as much as we do. Oh and the scrambled eggs in the picture were made by Chris. The eggs are always better when he scrambles them.


Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

Biscuits 2 cups of all-purpose flour 1 TBSP of baking powder 1 heaping tsp of sugar 1/2 tsp of salt 1 stick of butter, cold 3/4 cup of buttermilk, cream or half-and-half (I used buttermilk)

Gravy 4 strips of bacon 3 TBSP all-purpose flour 2 cups milk 1 tsp kosher salt 1/2 tsp pepper

Biscuits

1. Preheat the oven to 450°
2. Mix the 2 cups flour, 1 TBSP baking powder, 1 heaping tsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp salt in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Be sure to level off the ingredients as you add them, except for the sugar which should be a little more than a tsp.
3. Cut the stick of butter into small cubes. I do this by slicing it lengthwise into 4 strips, then cutting down each of the strips until I have cubes.

4. Once you have your cubes, use your hands to work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles pea-sized crumbs. You don't want big chunks of butter but you also do want it to be fully incorporated. See the pic for more detail.

5. Add your 3/4 cup of buttermilk, cream or half and half and use your hands to mix until it's a bit loose and sticky.

6. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and dump out your dough. Knead it for a minute by using your hands to press into the dough, then flip and repeat. You want to work in any loose flour at this point so the dough gets smooth and isn't wet. You may need to add more flour as you do this.
7. Take the dough into a ball, and hit it with a rolling pin, turning it and folding it in half every few whacks. Do this for a couple of minutes.

8. Roll out dough until it’s 1/4 of an inch thick, and then fold it in half.

9. Using a round cutter (can use a glass or a cup if don’t have a biscuit cutter) cut out your biscuits from folded dough.
10. Place on a greased baking sheet close together (so they rise up not out), and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. This recipe makes 10-12 biscuits.

Gravy

1. Turn on a skillet to medium-high heat and let it warm up for a couple of minutes. No need to add any oil.
2. When your skilled is hot, add your bacon. Cook it for 3-4 minutes on each side until it's as brown as you like it. I like my bacon well-done and crispy as you can see in the pic.

3. Set your bacon on a paper towel to drain
4. Pour off all of the grease except for 2-3 TBSP or enough to coat the bottom of your skillet.

5. Turn your burner down to medium-low and add your 3 TBSP flour to the grease. Cook the flour for about 2 minutes while stirring it with a whisk. It will kind of clump up, which is fine.
6. Add the 2 cups of milk after your flour has cooked for a bit and whisk it all together. You may want to bump up the heat to medium here to heat the milk so the gravy will thicken. Keep whisking while it thickens and make sure the gravy doesn't boil.
7. Once it's nice a thick, add your salt and pepper and taste to make sure it's seasoned to your liking. Serve over warm biscuits.