Southern Sausage Biscuits from The Careless Cook

 

Southern Sausage Biscuits from The Careless Cook

 

Need a quick and very tasty hors d’oeuvre?  You cooking husbands know the drill.  You’ve heard it before.  “Honey, I’m having the girls over for tea, but I need something for them to nibble on. By the way, they’ll be here in a little over an hour.”

 

“Great,” you’re thinking, “I’ll have another hour to sleep and greet these charmers in my bathrobe, right after I polish off two shots of Jim Beam.”

 

I’m here to save the day and postpone a tongue lashing from your one and only, who does not favor Jimmy the Beam for breakfast, or lunch for that matter.

 

Where did I get such a marvelously easy and tasty recipe and why do I tag on “southern” to sausage and biscuit?  Well, you see, my momma was from South Carolina and a wonderful cook.  When I was old enough to hold a spoon, I was stirring this or that, amid murmurs of “This needs a little more salt”, or “I add allspice to the crust.” Her chicken fried steak, pounded by my father with a coke bottle to tenderize, was a treat that had neighbors and stray cats swarming.  Then there was her lemon cake and deviled crab.  Oh, honey chile, I could go on until your taste buds melt.  When we lived in Michigan, every winter she and my father made chocolate candy of endless varieties, left to cool on the back porch, on a frozen marble slab.  A friend of mine hit it on the head:  To hell with Godiva Chocolate!

 

Ok, grab your food processor and let’s hit the culinary road!

 

First the biscuit recipe

 

Heat the oven to 450ºF

 

2 cups flour (I’ve tried both all purpose and bread flour…makes no diff)

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons baking powder

6 pats of salted butter

¾ cup of milk

 

Put everything but the milk in the food processor.  Mix and then add the milk. Mix until the ingredients form a ball in the processor. Too dry?  Gingerly add a little more milk.  Don’t want soggy dough!

 

Flour a large space on the counter and roll out the biscuit dough in a rectangle, a little longer than it is wide.  The dough should be about a quarter inch thick.

 

The filliing

½ pound of loose sausage (I used half a pound of Jimmy Dean Natural Sausage)

 

All sorts of possibilities.   Use hot sausage or add cayenne to the Natural, or use mild or hot Italian sausage.  You’re the cook!  Do what the hell you want!

 

Use fingers or a spatula to spread the sausage over the dough.  I used both, just because I’m not particular and just want to get the job done.

 

Once the sausage is thinly and evenly spread, wet one edge of the dough to make it stick, and roll it up jelly roll style (see photo).  I find it's easier to cut if you let the whole roll rest in the frig for about 30 minutes.

Cut half-inch wide rounds and place on a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes. As I’ve said many times, every oven is different, so add or subtract the minutes.  The sausage biscuits should be lightly browned.  But, don’t overdo it or the biscuits will be hard and your significant other will never forgive you for morning Jim Beam breath.  You want fluffy biscuits and a fluffy life!  Sage advice from The Careless Cook.