Biscuits and Gravy

Oh how I love making this

Recipe (Biscuits):
10 Oz (285 Grams) of All-purpose Flour
2.5 Oz (70 Grams) of Shortening
1 Cup Buttermilk
2 tsp Kosher Salt
4 tsp Baking Powder

Preheat your oven to 450 Degrees.

For the Biscuits, mix all the dry ingredients together with a whisk or your fingers first (Yes, in the video I didn't do that first, but do as I say not as I do.)  Next, add in the shortening and crumble it together with your fingers or a pastry cutter.  Keep crumbling until you get the texture of soft crumbs.   Finally, add the Buttermilk and stir it together until it just barely forms a dough.  IT WILL BE CRUMBLY... and that's okay.  

Dump all that out onto a floured work surface and shape it with your hands into a rough disk.  Again, I want to reiterate, it will be crumbly.  Don't worry.    

Pat it down into a flat disc and give it a roll with a rolling pin.  Fold the dough, like a letter, into thirds.  Repeat this process 4 - 6 times or until the dough comes together nicely.  Just keep folding, rolling, folding, and rolling.  

Punch out Rounds of dough onto a greased cast iron pan, or a regular sheet pan lined with parchment paper.  Place all the biscuits as close together as you possibly can, and before you put them in the oven make sure you depress the tops of each biscuit with your thumb.  

Finally put your biscuits in the oven, and right when you put them in, Boost the Temp to 500 Degrees and bake them for 10 - 15 minutes.  Raising the temperature like this will give the biscuits more lift.  It helps with OVEN SPRING.  Google it.   I like to check them after 10 minutes, and keep an eye on them until I get the golden tops that I want.  

Recipe (Sausage Gravy):
4 Thick strips of Bacon
.5 lbs of Breakfast Sausage (no casing)
1 bunch of Green Onions
1/4 cup of Flour
Salt
Pepper
2 cups of 2% Milk
Cayenne for dusting

Chop the bacon into little bits, and render the fat out of it in a large pot.  I like to throw the lid on the pot.  I find it helps evenly brown the bacon, and render out a lot of the fat.  We're gonna need that fat.  

When the bacon is crispy, brown, and most of the fat has been rendered out, add in the chopped Green Onions and crumble in the Breakfast Sausage.  The green onions will sweat and release a lot of liquid.  This will nicely deglaze the pan, so scrub the bottom to get all those brown bits up.  

Once the green onions are soft and the sausage is brown, add in the Flour.  Cook the flour in the rendered fat and let it coat all of the mixture.  Let it cook for a few minutes to cook out the flavor of the raw flour.  

Finally, add in 1 cup of your Milk and stir it until it thickens up, scraping up the newly formed fond on the bottom of your pan.  Once it's thickened up add in the rest of your milk and lower the heat to keep it warm.  Add milk if you want your gravy thinner, or cook it longer to thicken it up.  

Once everything is done; split a biscuit, top it with gravy, eat, then repeat.  Don't forget to dust it with Cayenne!  

Concerning leftovers:  Split the biscuits and toast them first before topping with the gravy.  As for reheating the gravy I find the microwave to be pretty great.  After a day in the fridge I find a splash of milk helps loosen up the gravy.