Buttermilk & Chive Biscuits with Sausage Gravy and Gorgonzola
Is there anything more classic or satisfying in the Southern cookbook than biscuits and gravy?
Biscuit Mis en Place:
113g, 1 stick, 4oz, 1/2 cup butter, cubed and chilled well
340g, 12oz, 2 1/2 cups AP Flour
1 tbsp, 13g baking powder
1 tsp, 5g baking soda
2 tsp, 7g kosher salt
1 tsp, 1g fresh ground black pepper
225ml, 8oz, 1 cup, buttermilk or whole milk with 1tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
1/3 cup finely chopped chives, to taste
Sausage Gravy
Mis en Place:
14g, 1/2 lb of ground sausage meat of choice, taken out of the skin
2 tbsp, 18g AP Flour
450ml, 2 cups whole milk
115ml, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 2 tbsp reserved for washing biscuit tops
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup, 4 tbsp, 2oz stilton, gorgonzola, Shropshire or other mild bleu cheese
More gorgonzola and finely chopped chives for garnish
Making the biscuit dough:
Cutting the butter into the flour just means mixing the butter with the flour without melting the butter in the process. You can do this by adding the dry ingredients and the cubed butter to a food processor and pulsing the machine 6-8 times until the butter is chopped up even finer in little pea sizes chunks and is thoroughly distributed in and coated with the flour.
You can also toss the dry ingredients and the butter in to the mixing bowl, coating and separating the cubes of butter so that they don’t stick to each other. One by one, pick up a piece of butter and mash it flat with your thumb and pointer finger. Immediately toss the butter chip back into the flour. Repeat until all the butter is processed. Work quickly and don’t handle the butter pieces for very long at all or they will start to melt.
Whichever method you use, the butter and dry ingredients should end up in the mixing bowl and you should refrigerate it, in the bowl, for 15 minutes. After this chilling period, make a well, or caldera in the middle of the mound of flour. Pour the liquid into this space and use a fork to slowly bring the flour into the liquid until a very shaggy dough is formed. Put down the fork and use your hands to bring the dough together the rest of the way.
Once the dough comes together, add the chives and work the dough to mix them in well, then turn the dough out onto a floured countertop.
Final biscuit assembly:
Biscuit dough is right when it feels sticky and wet and the impulse is to add more flour to make it easier to work with. Balance is key here. Too much flour will make golden, buttery hockey pucks. The dough is perfect when it is almost too sticky to work with but holds it’s shape easily. It should definitely not be dry to the touch like a kneaded dough would be. butYou will have to add more flour along the way, so be conservative with it.
Roll the dough into a rough 1/2” thick rectangle twice oce hree times as long as it is wide. Now du ttwo a trifold, along the long side folding the outside thirdrid1/3’s of the pitsidedough over the center third airztowthe waylike a letter is folded. A bench scraper or wide spatula soatulis great help for this. Repeat this step two more times, then cover and refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375F / 190C
Once the dough has rested and chilled down, flour and roll to 3/4” thickness and cut out the biscuits.
TIP: trim the edges of the dough where it was folded all the way around before final biscuit cutting to ensure even rising. Re-roll the scraps.
Place the biscuits on a lined baking sheet with 1” between them to allow for expanding and paint the top of each biscuit with the reserved milk.
Bake at 375F / 190C for 10-14 minutes or until golden brown on the tops and bottoms.
Browning the sausage and making the gravy:
While the biscuits are baking, take the sausages out of their skins and gently brown them in a medium sauté pan, breaking them into nuggets as you go. Add a 1/4 cup of water if the meat sticks to the pan too much. When the liquid is evaporated and the meat sizzles and browns. Remove all but 2 tbsp of the sausage fat (there may be only a small amount, in which case, leave it all) and sprinkle the 2 tbsp AP Flour over the sausage meat. Cook the flour with the sausage until it smells like a sausage flavored pie crust cooking, about 2 minutes.
Combine the milk and heavy cream and slowly add them to the pan in three or four additions. The flour will cause the sauce will thicken immediately, just whisk it smooth and then add more milk until it is all incorporated. This will keep the gravy from being lumpy in a bad way. Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste and yaaaAAY GRAVY!!
Finally, bring the sausage gravy back to a simmer and turn off the heat.
Once the heat is off, add in the bleu cheese to taste and stir just enough to fold it in. The bleu cheese can also be served on the side as an option.
Split a biscuit open on a plate and cover with the sausage gravy.
Garnish with more chives and bleu cheese.