Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

"You've never had biscuits and gravy?"

My husband was shocked, but no, it was not something my parents ever made for breakfast when I was growing up. I'm from the Boston area, and breakfast was usually either cereal, various preparations of eggs, sometimes with bacon, various pastries, or the occasional loaf of Polish rye bread from Alice's Bakery in Southie. My husband is from northern California, which doesn't scream "biscuits and gravy" to me, but his mom grew up in Kansas, so that's probably where it comes from!

What is standard breakfast fare in your neck of the woods?

These tender, flaky biscuits are a fabulous complement to the creamy gravy, which has just the right spice from the fennel in homemade sausage.

Biscuits and Gravy

Source: Slightly adapted from Beantown Baker and Good Things Catered
Yield: Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
Total time: 27 minutes

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (I used Earth Balance vegan butter sticks)
• 3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
• 8-12 ounces chicken sausage (I chopped up 7 pre-cooked patties, which ranged from 1 to 1.5 ounces each, since that is what we had on hand)
• 3 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 cups milk (I used 2%)
• pepper

Instructions

1. For the biscuits: Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture until the butter pieces are pea sized. Add the milk, stirring just until combined.
2. Turn dough out onto a work surface dusted with powdered sugar or whole wheat pastry flour. Roll out dough to 1" thick.
3. Cut dough into rounds or other desired shape. Top each biscuit with a small cube of butter.
4. Bake biscuits at 450 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes.
5. For the sausage gravy: Brown sausage in a skillet. Add milk and flour to pan and whisk together to form a gravy. Add more milk to thin the consistency out, more flour to thicken the consistency. Season with pepper to taste.
6. Serve gravy over biscuits.