Anyone else sick of winter? I have heard rumors that it might finally be leaving us next week, with forecasted temps getting up into the 60’s in the next couple weeks, I’m looking forward to coming out of hibernation.
For me, this winter has been SO LONG! We literally had four weeks of no sun from mid-December to mid-January, and I know it’s true because our solar panels hardly made any power at all during that time. I have the records to prove it.
Now that its warming up, we have mud and thawing poo EVERYWHERE, as our herd share members can attest to. Even fresh gravel spread in front of the milkhouse gets lost in a sea of mud, so much that I’m sure someone in China is benefiting from all of it. At least I hope someone is.
As I start to come out of my winter sabbath, I’ve begun making lists and diagrams for all of the spring projects I have set to accomplish before we have company coming mid-June.
Last year we tackled the solar array project, which was huge both in size and impact, this year we’re working to simply complete what we didn’t get done last year, and improve existing infrastructure. I’m already looking forward to being able to focus on the simple things this season. If you want to read more about the solar project and my philosophy for the new year click HERE!
I’m excited to share all the little projects we have planned as we get them completed. Look for some how-to (and how-not-to) articles coming up as we go along!
Anyway, now that I’m coming out of my winter ‘rest,’ I figured I would share this recipe with you all. The pictures have been waiting on my phone since February!
Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
Ingredients
Biscuits
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Salt I use Redmond Sea Salt
- 7 tbsp Butter I have substituted coconut oil with good results if I'm low on raw butter
- 3/4 cup Whole Milk (raw of course) Or buttermilk- either works
- 4 tbsp Butter for the frying pan
- 1/2 cup Extra flour for rolling out the biscuits
Sausage Gravy
- 1 lb Bulk Breakfast Sausage- seasoned Or plain ground pork (see notes)
- 1/2 cup Real Butter (raw if possible)
- 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
- 2 cups Whole Milk (raw of course) If you don't have whole raw milk, use 1 3/4 cups milk, 1/4 cup of heavy cream
Instructions
To make the biscuits-
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees- Add about 2 tbsp of butter to your cast iron skillet and place it in the oven to heat.
- I usually start the biscuits first so that I can get them baked while I prepare the sausage gravy.
- Place all dry biscuit ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix together thoroughly. Cut in cold butter (or cold coconut oil if substituting) until well incorporated. Stir in milk, adding enough that the dough holds together, but is not wet.
- At this point you can either use this dough to make drop biscuits on a cookie sheet, or choose to roll it out and cut rounds. For me, it just depends on how much time I have to fuss, and though the rounds are fussy, they are sooooo much better when prepared using the roll-out method.
- If rolling out, flour your rolling area and roll dough to about 1/2" -3/4" thick depending on your preference. I usually do about 1/2", and use a 2-3" round cup or biscuit cutter to cut them out.
- Remove your pre-heated pan from the oven and spread the butter around to coat the whole bottom of it. Place biscuits in the pan and flip to coat with butter on both sides. Leave about 1/2" of space between the biscuits.
- Bake in batches for about 12 minutes, until they are golden brown, adding 2 tbsp of butter to the pan for each batch. Make sure to flip the biscuits before baking each batch so that they are buttered on both sides!
- Set biscuits aside, keep warm.
Sausage Gravy-
- Brown your breakfast sausage in a medium size sauce pan, making sure to chop it up as you go.
- If you choose to use plain ground pork for this recipe, season with- 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp salt (to taste), 1/2 tsp pepper (to taste), while browning. Instead of that, I have used about 2 tsp of Montreal Seasoning, with good results too.
- Once the sausage is thoroughly cooked through (do not drain), add the butter and cook a bit longer until it is melted.
- Once the butter is incorporated add the flour, stirring well and allow to saute for a minute or two.
- Then add the milk in 1/2 cup increments and stir continuously until gravy is thickened to your liking. Taste test the gravy and adjust your seasoning if needed. Serve immediately over warm biscuits!
Oh, this recipe makes my mouth water! Come May 1st, we will be official “yoopers” and I cannot wait! I look forward to meeting you very soon!
We’re looking forward to it!
Love your updates. Looking forward to trying the recipe. Happy Spring! Come on Sunshine!
Happy Spring! Let me know how you like it!
Sounds delicious….and what a great idea to coat the biscuits with butter to make them golden brown…crispy outside and perfect inside. Yummmm
I can’t take credit for the idea, but it does work great!