Biscuits and gravy tutorial

Recently I made a batch of biscuits and gravy, and Don suggested documenting the process as a sort of tutorial. So here goes.

I use the biscuit recipe from my battered and faithful Better Homes & Garden cookbook:

I also routinely quadruple the recipe, since we enjoy leftover biscuits.

The first task was to skim some milk. I just use a soup ladle for this purpose.

Then I mixed the dry ingredients: Flour, sugar, salt, cream of tarter, baking powder.

Once the dry ingredients were mixed, I grated some of the butter I made the other day. (My rotary grater is very handy for this!)

The grated butter mixes easily with the dry ingredients.

To this mixture, I added the (skimmed) milk.

After the dough was all mixed, it was time to turn it on to the breadboard...

...and give it a bit of kneading.

What follows is something I only learned through Older Daughter's culinary expertise on making exceptionally flaky biscuits. Take the dough, flatten it somewhat...

...and then fold it over itself. Flatten and repeat two or three times to make "layers." Simple, eh? But it makes all the difference.

Then I rolled the dough to about half an inch thick.

Next is another trick Older Daughter taught me: Use an actual biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits, not the old tuna can or plastic tumbler I used to use. Why? Because a biscuit cutter has sharp edges, not dull edges like a can or tumbler. The sharp edges slice through the dough and expose the flaky layers, rather than compressing the edges. Also, don't "twist" the biscuit cutter to cut the biscuit – just press down firmly and pull it back out. Twisting also seals and compresses the edges and reduces flakiness.

Gather the scraps, re-roll to half an inch thick, and keep cutting until the dough is used up.

Of course, there will be the odd "leftover" biscuit that's too small to cut.

Out of a quadruple recipe, I normally get about 30 biscuits or so. Pop them into a hot (450F) oven for about 20 minutes, or longer if you like them browner as we do.

While the biscuits are baking, it's time to make the gravy. For this, I modify a recipe for a separate dish, pork chops with gravy, using just the gravy part. (I skip adding mushrooms for this application.)

I started by cutting up some sausages...

...and letting them fry in their own grease until brown. Bacon is also a fine choice for the gravy.

At this point, I kinda "wing" the gravy. I started with two cups of (skimmed) milk, drizzled some in, then sprinkled in a bit of flour, stirring continuously until it thickened. Milk. Flour. Stir. Thicken. Repeat until the milk is gone. Don't just dump the milk and flour in or it will clump. The constant stirring is also crucial to keep the gravy from getting lumpy.

At some point during this stirring process, add your preferred spices. I use a bit of salt, a generous amount of pepper, and some thyme. Your choices may vary.

When the gravy is done...

...put it aside until the biscuits are baked.

Then cut open the hot biscuits and ladle the gravy over the top.

Ironically, I'm a biscuit purist and prefer just butter on mine (the gravy is for Don).

So there you go: Your biscuits-and-gravy tutorial.