If you’re in the market for a classic Southern-style buttermilk biscuits recipe you’ve come to the right place! As a thanks for coming, I’m throwing in my Mom’s down and dirty sausage gravy recipe. Fluffy biscuits smothered in spicy, creamy sausage gravy. It’s the stuff Friday night dreams are made of!
Growing up on biscuits and gravy
There are some weekends where I wake up and I absolutely crave what we called “sausage biscuits and gravy” growing up. Don’t ask me why we say it all in that order. It’s entirely incorrect (there’s no sausage in the actual biscuits), and the logical way is to say “biscuits and sausage gravy”.
Maybe it’s because my dad slides a sausage patty in between his biscuit halves. Or because by the time it’s all on the plate – hot, spicy, and creamy sauce over flaky, buttermilk biscuits – it’s doesn’t really matter what you call it. It’s divine. And one of those breakfasts that sends you back to bed.
Southern-style biscuits know-how
In order for your biscuits and sausage gravy to induce any kind of food coma, you must accept that there’s a right way and a wrong way to craft the biscuits. At least according to the authoritative Southern cooks I know, and wouldn’t disagree with in a million years.
DOs
- Lard or butter (I recommend pastured pork drippings, never shortening or hydrogenated lard)
- White Lily brand flour (or soft wheat, white flour)
- Buttermilk
DON’Ts
- All-purpose flour
- A rolling pin
- Twisting the cutter (push straight down, then straight back up)
That last don’t will give you really tough biscuits. Tough to craft and even tougher to chew on. Love your biscuits the whole way through by hand, from the cutting in of the butter to the gentle kneading of the dough.
The best flour for any buttermilk biscuits recipe
If you don’t have access to one of the classic Southern brands like White Lily, go with pastry or cake flour. What you ultimately want to use for any buttermilk biscuit recipe is a flour as low in protein as possible. The less protein in the flour = the softer your dough will be = the fluffier your biscuits.
The Southern biscuits mixing method
There are certain biscuit recipes, like mine for strawberry shortcake, that are more forgiving regarding the mixing process. But for a classic Southern biscuit, your hands are the mandatory mixing tools.
After mixing the dry ingredients well, rub the butter into them with long strokes of your thumb across your fingers. Add the buttermilk and knead gently just until you can gather a shaggy mass into a large round. Then you cut and bake, easy peasy.
While the biscuits bake, brown up a pound of spicy sausage and simmer the gravy to pour over your light, fluffy, tender, flaky Southern charmers. Trust me, you’ll be in a food coma and back in bed in less than an hour.
Yours in biscuits ‘n’ gravy,
P.S. The legend of Southern biscuits and gravy earned the dish its own holiday!
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Southern-style Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
Description
Fluffy, quick and easy homemade buttermilk Southern biscuits! If you really want to take a trip down South, top them off with hot, spicy, creamy sausage gravy.
Ingredients
For Biscuits
- 2 cups soft wheat flour (like White Lily brand) or pastry/cake flour (you can use all-purpose)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons of butter or pastured pork lard (I save bacon and sausage drippings)
- ¾ cup buttermilk
For Sausage Gravy
- 1 lb of bulk Italian sausage, spicy or sweet
- ½ cup minced onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups milk
- few dashes Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard seed
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- dash of hot sauce, optional
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
For Biscuits
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- In a large bowl combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Add butter, and rub in until the mixture looks like chunky, wet sand.
- Add buttermilk and stir gently with a wooden spoon or your hands. Once dough begins to come together, knead gently until you have a somewhat cohesive mass.
- Turn out onto a clean surface, and knead a bit more if necessary, patting dough into a large round, about an inch thick.
- Cut into circles with a water glass or biscuit cutter dipped in flour, line side by side on a sheet tray with edges touching. You can also arrange in a large cast-iron skillet.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until biscuits are lightly brown on top.
For Sausage Gravy
- In a non-stick skillet, brown sausage over medium heat breaking into small pieces with wooden spoon. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate. While sausage cooks, mince onion and garlic.
- In same pan, cook onions over low heat for about five minutes, adding garlic right at the end.
- Sprinkle flour over oniones, and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter absorbs all the flour, one to two minutes.
- Whisk in milk, bring to a boil stirring constantly, then reduce heat to a simmer. Add spices and seasonings and simmer on low heat for five to ten minutes stirring occasionally, until gravy thickens.
- Add sausage back to gravy, and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Keep warm over low heat.
Keywords: buttermilk biscuits recipe, biscuits and gravy, Southern biscuits, sausage gravy
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Thanks, Julienne! Welcome + enjoy.
That looks amazing! I used to love to eat breakfast at my grandmother’s house for that very reason.
Ah, grandma’s biscuits. Nothing beats ’em!