Biscuits and Sausage Gravy ATK

Source
Source: Raw notes label this recipe as America’s Test Kitchen (ATK).

Description
Family breakfast notes for Biscuits and Sausage Gravy ATK.

Ingredients

• YIELD Serves 6
• TIME 1 hour
• Why This Recipe Works
• Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
• Gather Your Ingredients
• Biscuits
• 3 cups (15 ounces/425 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
• 4 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk (see note)
• Sausage Gravy
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon ground sage
• 1 ½ teaspoons pepper
• 1 ½ pounds (680 grams) bulk pork sausage
• 3 cups whole milk
• Salt
• Before You Begin
• *

Instructions

1. Hearty buttermilk biscuits topped with creamy, spicy sausage gravy are a Southern staple, but many biscuits recipes feature hockey-puck baked goods soaked with pasty, flavorless sauce.
2. We wanted our Biscuits and Sausage Gravy recipe to turn out big, fluffy biscuits with maximum lift, so we used a considerable amount of flour and increased the amount of baking powder and baking soda.
3. Kneading the dough built structure so the biscuits were sturdy enough to stand up to the gravy.
4. In the gravy, our tasters preferred milk to half-and-half or cream, which were overly rich.
5. Bumping up the amount of sausage in our gravy recipe ensured plenty of meat in every bite.
6. Ground fennel and sage supplement the seasonings in the sausage and, along with a generous dose of black pepper, give the gravy—and our Biscuits and Sausage Gravy recipe—some serious flavor.
7. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, whisk 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into 1 1/4 cups of milk and let it stand until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
8. For the biscuits: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
9. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
10. Pulse flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, and shortening in food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal.
11. Transfer to large bowl.
12. Stir in buttermilk until combined.
13. On lightly floured surface, knead dough until smooth, 8 to 10 kneads.
14. Pat dough into 9-inch circle, about 3/4 inch thick.
15. Using 3-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out rounds of dough and arrange on prepared baking sheet.
16. Gather remaining dough, pat into 3/4-inch-thick circle, and cut out remaining biscuits.
17. (You should have 8 biscuits in total.)
18. Bake until biscuits begin to rise, about 5 minutes, then rotate pan and reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees.
19. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and let cool.
20. For the sausage gravy: Combine flour, fennel, sage, and pepper in small bowl.
21. Cook sausage in large nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking up meat with wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 8 minutes.
22. Sprinkle flour mixture over sausage and cook, stirring constantly, until flour has been absorbed, about 1 minute.
23. Slowly stir in milk and simmer until sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes.
24. Season with salt.
25. Serve over split biscuits.
26. (Biscuits can be stored in zipper-lock bag for 2 days.)