Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy (the old fashioned way)

Buttermilk Biscuits
via: Bon Appetit, February 2014
(I made a half recipe and that was more than enough for Ethan and I. A half recipe made 9 biscuits.)

3 teaspoons baking powder
2½ teaspoons kosher salt (omit this if you are using salted butter)
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon baking soda
5½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more
1½ cups (3 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces (I pulse this in the food processor before I actually begin putting the recipe together.)
1½ cups chilled buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten to blend (I do not use this. I top the uncooked biscuits with melted butter instead.)

Preheat oven to 375°. Pulse baking powder, salt, sugar, baking soda, and 5½ cups flour in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until the texture of coarse meal with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Mix in buttermilk with a fork, then gently knead just until a shaggy dough comes together.

Pat out dough on a lightly floured surface until 1¼” thick. Cut out biscuits with a 3” biscuit cutter, rerolling scraps once.

Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush tops with egg. Bake until golden brown, 30–35 minutes.

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Sausage Gravy
This is a family recipe. It is really wonderful, but not at all healthy. I still think that it is worth making.


1 pound Breakfast Sausage (links or roll)
2-3 TBL. Bacon Fat (or butter)
2 1/2 cups Milk (2%, some people use whole milk. Other even use some milk and some heavy cream - this is too rich for me.)
1/4 cup Flour
Salt
Pepper

Cook the sausage in a skillet, breaking it up into bite size pieces. Once it is nearly cooked, add in the bacon grease/butter. Put the milk and flour in a canning jar (spaghetti sauce jar), shaking it to blend the flour into the cold milk. Pour this into the skillet once the bacon grease/butter has melted. Stir with a wooden spoon. Continue to stir it as it thickens over medium heat.
Season to taste.

Serve over the biscuits.