Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy

A lot of the time while I'm making dinner, I'll have Food Network on in the background.  Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is on about 90 percent of the time, but it is good background noise.  One day, while I was cooking, I heard Guy Fieri mention Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy.  I thought they sounded delicious so I wrote Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy on my fridge calendar to remind myself to look it up.

I couldn't find the recipe from the episode, but I found plenty of other recipes on blogs that sounded equally delicious.  I love this age where we can get a meal idea and use the internet to find something that sounds similar in under ten minutes.

Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy
barely adapted from Tiny Test Kitchen
Ingredients
Biscuits
2 cups flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup cold buttermilk, shaken
1 cold large egg
1 cup grated Cheddar
1 egg beaten with a splash of water

Sausage Gravy1/2 teaspoon canola oil
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage
1/2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk

Directions
Biscuits
1)  Heat oven to 425ºF. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper and set aside.
2)  Add the egg to the buttermilk in a measuring jug and beat to combine, set aside.
3) Take a tablespoon of the flour and add it the grated cheese. Toss to coat the cheese with the flour, set aside.
4) Place the remaining flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl of an stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the ingredients with the mixer on low. Add the butter and mix until the butter is the size of peas. You may need to shut the mixer off and manually rub the butter into the flour to get the butter pieces all the same size.
5) Turn the mixer back to low and add the buttermilk mixture to the flour in one addition. Mix until just combined. Add the cheese mixture to the dough and mix until just combined. Stop the mixer.
6) Using clean counter space, flour a 12×12″ area well. Form a ball with the dough in the mixer bowl and place it on the flour. With lightly floured hands, knead the dough gently. Using your hands again, form a 5×10″ rectangle with the dough.
7) Using a 2 3/4″ biscuit cutter ( or a small cup), cut out 8 biscuits from the dough. Reform squares of the same thickness to get the last biscuits.
8) Place biscuits on the prepared baking sheet.
9) Brush the tops of the biscuits with the egg wash and pop in the oven for 20 minutes, until golden grown.

Gravy
1) Heat the oil in a 9″ saute pan over medium high heat. Add sausage and break up any large pieces with a wooden spoon. Cook until the sausage is browned.
2) Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon, trying to keep as much of the oil and fat in the pan as possible. Add the butter (less if you have a lot of oil) and allow to melt. Add flour and begin to whisk continuously for 2 minutes until the flour and butter have formed a smooth paste and the flour is cooked.
4) Begin to add the milk in a thin stream, whisking all the time to prevent lumps.
5) When all the milk is added, let the gravy simmer gently for 2-3 minutes to make sure the milk is heated through.
7) Re-add the sausage and cook on medium low heat for 2-3 minutes.

I love biscuits and gravy.  I loved the biscuits by themselves.  I just used regular packaged cheese in our biscuits and I do think to achieve the full cheddar flavor from the biscuits you do have to use something sharper and more pronounced.  While the recipe looks labor intensive, it isn't difficult.  It definitely isn't a weeknight recipe, but made for a delicious Saturday breakfast at home watching our recorded shows from the week.