Biscuits and gravy

This is so easy. Impress your guests or family with a meal far superior to what they had at a restaurant!

The frugal part

This week, 1 lb rolls of Bob Evans sausage are $1.98 at Ultra, which is a pretty good price even without coupons (there are none currently). These things freeze well and defrost easily, so I try to keep an eye out for these on clearance as they near their sell by date. I can usually get them for $1 or less that way and just freeze until I need one. I prefer the sage flavor for this, but you can use whichever flavor you prefer. Gallons of milk are $1.99 at Dominick’s. Then you just need butter, salt, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and flour. I usually stock up on most of the baking items during the holiday season when the best deals occur and coupons are common. I don’t personally stock up on flour since I don’t go through it very fast and the bug risk is not worth it to me for such a low cost item. Finally, these are buttermilk biscuits, so you will need buttermilk. I have an inconvenient habit of deciding to make things that require buttermilk at the last minute when I have no desire to make a special trip to the store. I also rarely use it all before it passes its prime. There are a couple of options to combat this. First, you can buy a carton of buttermilk and freeze it in the portions you are likely to need. Second, you can make your own! Just put a tablespoon of lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup, and gradually whisk in lowfat or skim milk to reach a cup. Let it sit in the fridge for a few minutes.

Here’s the home made part:

Preheat the oven to 450°. Add 2 cups (10 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour, a teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and a tablespoon of baking powder to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse six times to mix.

Drop 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into little cubes, evenly over the dry ingredients. If it started melting while you were cutting it up, put it back in the fridge to cool down first. The butter needs to be cold for this to achieve the correct texture. Baking is so fussy! Now, pulse 12 more times. You should have coarse crumbs with some larger lumps and streaks of butter.

Pour a cup of buttermilk evenly over the top and pulse eight times.

You want it to just come together. It will be sticky, but do not worry. Lightly flour a work surface and a spatula and carefully use the spatula to pull the dough out on to the work surface, handling it as little as possible.

With floured hands, gently press the dough into a roughly 3/4″ disc.

Fold the dough in half and gently flatten it back to 3/4″. Repeat this process five or six times.

Using a 2″ cutter, cut as many biscuits as you can from the disc without reshaping it. Place the biscuits so that they gently touch on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Gently gather the remaining dough and press it together so that it is just cohesive and cut the remaining biscuits. These (pictured below in the front) aren’t going to rise as much as the others but they will still taste wonderfully smothered in sausage gravy.

If you have twelve biscuits at this point, congratulate yourself! Bake for 13-15 minutes until they are nice and puffy and golden-brown:

Whew! Now for the easy part.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add your sausage.

Brown the sausage, breaking it up as it cooks.

When the sausage is browned and the fat is rendered, sprinkle in ¼ cup flour. Cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes until the flour turns a light golden color.

Slowly pour in 2 cups milk, stirring and letting it thicken as you go. You can use whichever milk you prefer, so long as it has some fat. We are using 1% here and it works just fine. If I were hosting a brunch, I might use whole for a richer result.

Once all of the milk is incorporated, bring it to a gentle boil then turn the heat down and simmer until it is as thick as you like. For me, that is about 5 minutes:

Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Split the biscuits in half and top with gravy to serve.