Sourdough Stories #20 - Sausage Egg & Cheese Biscuit "Muffins"

What's this?  An original recipe!?!?  YUP.  Pretty proud of that fact.  I needed to use up a bit of discard, as well as some sausage left over from dinner earlier in the week (homemade wonton soup, which was fabulous, FYI).  And I figure if I'm going to try to pair my sourdough adventures with this blog, I jolly well need to post some actual original content, not just talking about other people's recipes and what worked & didn't.

I was very happy with how these turned out--crisp & flaky edges on the outside, tender interior and great flavor from the cheese & sausage. A perfect quick breakfast option.

INGREDIENTS: (makes 12 muffins)

• 8 oz ground pork sausage, browned & drained, seasoned with black pepper
• 100g sourdough discard
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (275g)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (omit if you used salted butter)
• 2 cups of shredded cheese (I used a sharp cheddar)
• 2 green onions, sliced (or 1 Tbsp dried chives)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Brown the sausage. 
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the discard, butter, egg, and milk until well combined. 
4. Add the salt, garlic powder, then the flour, baking powder, cheese and onions.  Stir until combined, but don't overmix.
5. Use a scoop to portion into a greased muffin tin, and bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are nice & golden. 
6. Remove from the tin to cool, and eat while warm.
7. Cool any remaining muffins completely on the counter, and then store in the fridge for later in the week, or freeze if not planning to eat right away.

Sourdough Stories #19: Dinner Rolls

 Another winner with this recipe!  The Hubs asked for some dinner rolls to accompany a meal. I had extra sourdough starter to use up, so we made a double batch and froze what we didn't eat that week for future meals (6 to a bag, since there's just the three of us).  

So many of the dinner roll recipes I found on the interwebz involved adding instant yeast. Which I still don't want to do. I mean, what's the point of having sourdough if you're just going to add yeast?  So I was thankful when Little Spoon Farm's recipe didn't call for yeast in the recipe.  

I started the dough in the morning before church; about 5pm I used a kitchen scale to parcel the dough out into balls weighing roughly 65g each.  We let these rest in the pan for a couple hours before baking.

These were easily as soft and fluffy as any yeast rolls I've had...maybe even on par with Lamberts???  Will definitely be making them again.

Sourdough Stories, Unlucky No. 13: Pigs in a Blanket

Pigs in a Blanket is a go-to in our household. Enlist a can of crescent dough and some Lil' Smokies, and we have a meal that our 7 year old actually enjoys helping make.  And we did just that last week...but so far, it appears that Big Bread and Big Sausage (heyoo) are in cahoots when it comes to how many of their product to put in a package (as previously hypothesized by George Banks in Father of the Bride).  AKA: we had a ton of sausages left afterward. 

So I decided to make some "blankets" using sourdough.  I used The Pantry Mama's recipe as a base, but left off the ketchup/cheese inclusions and didn't do a maple butter on top (just regular butter).  Also, I didn't use the instant yeast...because it seems like cheating. If I wanted to use instant yeast, I would just make REGULAR bread, not sourdough.  Isn't it kinda the point of sourdough that you DON'T need to add yeast?

But I think I'm realizing that when I see beautiful pictures on the interwebz and the recipe notes "optional" inclusion of instant yeast....they probably used yeast to make sure it was a nice, fluffy dough for the pictures. AND....it probably also indicates that the noted rise times are for a dough that had yeast added.

You see where I'm going here. This recipe attempt was a bit of bust--if you're a superstitious (or just a little stitious) person, maybe we can chalk this up to luck since it was the 13th thing I'd made.  But I'd also set myself up for it. I started making the dough around 9am, thinking that would be plenty of time to have them ready for lunch.  After all, I'd pulled my starter out of the fridge the night before so it could come to room temperature, and fed it with some rye and whole wheat flour to get some extra nutrients in there.  Mandough was VERY happy--who needs instant yeast when you have a nice, bubbly starter?  

The variations in color are from the rye flour.

After sitting on the counter overnight. I needed to split some off for a neighbor, so I fed it in a larger container.

Mandough's third split. 1st was Gro-goo, 2nd was Dough-bi Wan. Now: meet Dough Pameron.

Bulk rise started about 9:30am, and the original recipe calls for 2 hours.  I sat the bowl near a sunny window to help encourage the rise.  About 11:30a, I checked the dough--while it had grown, it wasn't *quite* doubled, but now I was feeling a bit of a time crunch to have these ready.  So I went ahead and started making my pigs in a blanket.  I used a kitchen scale to check each ball of dough I pulled off to make sure it was about 30g, rolled it in my palms to round it out, then flattened it into an oval, added the sausage, then pinched the ends together.  The dough was nice and supple--all good, right?

I set them aside for the second rise, on top of the pre-heating oven to encourage growth.  The recipe called for 30-60 minutes or until they got "puffy".  Somewhere around the 30 minute mark (so, 12:30p) The Hubs walked by and asked "are these ready to go in?"  I was working on another dough (stay tuned for next week), glanced over, and said "sure"--because if they didn't go in soon, we were going to be eating lunch at 2pm.  And in they went...not really looking any puffier than they'd been when I made them.  

End result was pale, fairly dense & doughy--tasty, but not as devourable as the ones we usually make with crescent dough.  And it made a LOT.  So we had to eat on them all week.  By the end of the week, the condensation & moisture from the sausages had basically reverted the "blankets" back to raw dough, if that's possible.   Probably won't be trying this one again--we'll just stick with pre-made crescent or biscuit dough.

Sourdough Stories, Numero 10: Sourdough Quick Biscuits (Cut Recipe)

My in-laws were in town, so we wanted to make some biscuits for breakfast. Now that we actually have eggs and butter again, I decided to go with a cut biscuit recipe from Bless this Mess. (Note: in case it's not obvious, I'm not sharing recipes on my posts unless they're original to me or I made significant modifications. There's already a million versions of the same recipes floating around on the interwebz. I'd rather just give credit to the original baker and talk about my process/experience using their recipe.)

This is the 3rd sourdough recipe we made in a week, which definitely helped whittle Mandough back into a reasonable size.  The first two were our Egg Noodles for chicken & noodles, and the other was a loaf of white sandwich bread.

Note #2: Grating frozen butter is NOT my favorite activity, but it makes for some friggin' delicious baked goods.

So, like with the chocolate chip scones, I used the food processor to bring this dough together--it's great for incorporating butter in with dry ingredients and then bringing the wet in as well.

After everything was mixed together, I rolled the dough out into a roughly 8" x 10" rectangle, folded it a few times to make sure we had some layers happening, rolled it back down, then cut into 12 pieces with a large knife. That was transferred into a greased 9x13 baking dish; I topped them with a bit of melted butter to make sure they were nice & golden.  

These definitely turned out better than the drop biscuits--I'm sure the plethora of real butter helped in that.  Very quick & easy--I think we'll be making these again soon with some sausage gravy.

Sourdough Stories Chapter 6 - Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

This week we were headed out on a Spring Break trip to Colorado in the wee hours of Saturday morning, which meant no time for bread-making this weekend. It also meant I needed to make sure I fed Mandough before we left.  

Since I work from home on Fridays, I decided to wake up early and make some quick biscuits using the discard from my sourdough feeding session.  This was somewhat a choice of necessity, since we've been in fridge cleanout mode all week, which means no milk, eggs....or really anything else in the fridge, aside from condiments & pickles.  We are THOROUGH.

But I have my handy can of instant buttermilk powder in the fridge, and we had some "butter".  I put that in quotations because what I actually had was Country Crock.  We have been out of real butter for a while (basically since it went over $4/pound).  This was not ideal, but it's morning, we need food, so we, in the words of Tim Gunn, MAKE IT WORK.

While I love the beautiful layers of a rolled out & cut biscuit...I am lazy.  And we were leaving on vaycay next next morning and I don't want to dirty any more of my kitchen than I have to.  And this recipe promised a sneaky trick to arrive at those beautiful butter clumps without having to freeze and grate butter (like the recipe for cut biscuits was asking me to do at 6am before having my coffee. Nope.)

So, I made some instant buttermilk (added a few ice cubes to get it super cold), and then melted my "butter", and mixed them together in the Kitchenaid, hoping for some magic....but...not surprisingly, melted Country Crock does not react the same way that melted butter would when mixed in with ice cold buttermilk.  Le sigh.  

BUT NO WORRIES!  I'm sure they'll still taste fine. So I mixed in the rest of the ingredients, popped them in the oven...

...and then 17 minutes later, we had some beautifully golden biscuits!  The were definitely a smoother texture than when I use real butter, and lacking in that beautifully buttery flavor that real butter adds, but honestly, still very good.  When split with some extra "butter" and cherry preserves, they were a perfect complement to the rest of our brek-FEAST (comprised of the other things we needed to polish off from the fridge.)

These would be perfect for biscuits & sausage gravy (or as I prefer to call it, "Flour Two Ways").

Our trip was a lovely success; it was Lil' Man's second time skiing and he's definitely a natural.  He gets his bravery & desire to go fast from his dad...and his propensity for falling at the top of the lift from me. :)

What I've Been Cooking Lately

I don't have many original recipes to share lately, but I AM still cooking!  In fact, I cooked THREE meals on Memorial Day!  
Breakfast: egg scramble & home fries

[Scramble: 4 eggs, 1/2 c cheese, 1 green onion, salt, pepper, turmeric, and Greek seasoning. Home Fries: par-bake 2 potatoes in the microwave for 4 minutes, then dice (which will remove most of the peel), and saute over medium heat with cajun seasoning in about 1 Tbsp coconut oil until brown & crispy.]

Lunch: quesadillas made with manchego, smouded gouda, and leftover dirty rice
Dinner: Amazing smoked gouda grilled cheese with bacon pepper jam.

Here's a few others:

I chopped up some Holy Trinity (celery is there too, but I was using frozen, which isn't as pretty)...

To make Chef John Folse's Dirty Rice (used pork sausage instead of livers and gizzards, because ew.)

The recipe makes a TON, so I used some of the leftovers the next day to make stuffed bell peppers (no pic, they disappeared too fast) and the aforementioned quesadillas. (For the quesadillas, I added some lime juice, dried cilantro, and cumin to make it feel a little more Latin and less "Cajun taco".)

The Hubs was out of town for a few days, so I got a rotisserie chicken (to make life easy while having to cook AND entertain the kid by my lonesome) and served it up with some baked sweet potato, steamed broccoli, and homemade bread from a friend.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might already know that one of my Resolutions for the year was "eat more breakfast", as I am a notorious breakfast skipper.  I'm happy to report that at almost halfway through the year, I've not missed a single breakfast yet!  This monkey bread made for several good breakfast mornings (note: I used 1 Tbsp of cinnamon, and pecans instead of walnuts):

And these pancakes (using Alton Brown's recipe for instant mix) are also a quick and easy weekend breakfast fave.

These pancakes are a great base. I like to add in grilled pineapple bits, or chocolate chips, or some pumpkin pie spice, or blueberries...whatever strikes your fancy.

Over Memorial weekend, I made some quick biscuits from scratch while The Hubs whipped up some of his white gravy.

I've been traveling a lot the past couple months, so stay tuned for another post entitled "What I've Been Eating Lately". :)

What I've Been Cooking Lately

While I haven't had a ton of time to blog lately (the posts you've seen have been compiled over several weeks, pieced together here & there), I have still been cooking.  When I went back to work we quickly realized we needed to do some meal planning so we didn't starve to death or end up eating pizza every night.  Having a meal plan written down for the week helps us to figure out who's cooking what, which nights we won't need to cook anything and can just eat leftovers, and helps us to make sure we have enough leftovers for lunches.  

I've been ever-so-slowly working my way through my Recipes to Try on Pinterest. I try to keep a running list of what recipes I want to try next alongside my menu plan for the week, so I can cross things off as we use them and then add new recipes based on what's on sale or what we need to use up in the fridge. So, here's what I've tried recently, and my thoughts/tweaks to those recipes:

Easy Weeknight Chicken Parmesan - This was the recipe found inside a can of Progresso  Fire Roasted Tomato Recipe Starters in our pantry.  I've used a few of these Recipe Starters and have thus far been underwhelmed.  They all have a pretty "prepackaged" flavor.  I added a ton of garlic and basil to this sauce, which helped.  We used the excess sauce to make a pasta side dish.

"Chicken parm you taste so good..."  Thanks, Manning.

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup:  This one was practically perfect as-is. I made it for my church small group and everyone requested that I send them the recipe. I did use more cumin (probably closer to 2-3 teaspoons) and used smoked salt instead of regular--what can I say, I like my Mexican dishes a little smoky!

Crockpot Spaghetti Squash & Meatballs:  This is possibly the easiest meal I've ever made, and it was really tasty.  You literally cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, plop the two halves into the crock, then pour in a jar of sauce and toss in some frozen meatballs, set to high for 3 hours, then go back to playing with your kid.  Perfect.

Crockpot Mashed Potatoes:  This one ended up being a flop for me, but I think I accidentally used too much milk--I also think it would have worked better with russets instead of red potatoes.  Reds have a tendency to not be as fluffy, and when I OD'd on milk the end result was a gluey mess.

Crock Pot Beef & Broccoli:  This one was also a flop.  The meat completely fell apart after having been cooked for 8 hours on low, so we essentially had shredded beef & broccoli over rice.  The sauce also didn't really ever thicken up, and was sweeter than I would have liked, so we added extra soy and sriracha. 

Baked Crispy Sweet Potato Wedges:  While not as crispy as I had hoped, these were still delicious.  Great as a side with burgers or brats.

All grilling best when completed by The Hubs with his young apprentice.

Hummus Crusted Chicken:  The hummus "crust" never really got crunchy, but it DID keep the chicken nice and moist and even my father-in-law, who doesn't like hummus, said this was a really tasty dish. I used Sundried Tomato Basil Sabra hummus, and seasoned both sides of the chicken with Cajun seasoning before adding the hummus.

Baked Garlic Paprika Chicken:  This was tasty. I recommend using smoked paprika.  Also--I was lazy and didn't heat the oil & spices together--I just tossed them in a gallon Ziploc and then added the chicken to the bag, tossing to coat.  Still a delicious result.

Biscuit Waffles 'n Gravy:  Technically only "pinspired" by Pinterest, and the trend of waffling everything these days.  We stuck some Grands biscuits in the waffle iron, and my Hubs made his famous sawmill gravy.  The biscuits were a little tough, but tasty--and no fork required, you could just pick them up & eat them.  Good schtuff.

Cajun Black Bean Soup:  My soup did not end up as creamy as I would have liked--I could never get the puree to be thin enough, so it just had some bean chunks in it. I did use Camellia brand black beans. However, flavor-wise this was delicious.  Also--before you start this recipe, note the long cook time.  I didn't and we ended up eating dinner at about 8pm that night. :)

Mushroom & Kale Ramen:  This was a nice spin on regular ramen.  I used baby portabellas instead of shiitake, but it was still a yummy bite. I also added a bit of fish sauce because...well, because it's in our fridge, and it makes me feel fancy.

Ravioli Lasagna:  We didn't really follow any recipe exactly, but the recipe under the link is close to what we made.  I used frozen cheese raviolis from Aldi, 1 lb of sliced smoked sausage links, 1 jar Italian sausage pasta sauce, and tons of mozzarella & Italian cheese blend.  Just layered the ingredients and baked for 40 minutes at 350F.

PF Chang's Style Lettuce Wraps:  These were super-tasty & really easy to throw together. I will definitely be making again.

Herbed Chicken & Pasta:  This dish had great flavor but ended up being WAY too salty for our taste. I think if you could find a low-sodium version of the soup mixes it might help, or just eliminate one of the mixes (either the garlic mix or the onion soup mix).

There's a few other things I've made recently but they were tinkered with enough (or are Cajun enough) to warrant their own post, so I'll save those for later.  You know...when I have time. :)

Andouille Biscuits & Gravy

So, I've shared our recipe for homemade biscuits & sawmill (aka white) gravy here before, but the other day we made a really fun (and DELICIOUS) spin on it:

We subbed out the traditional pork sausage for andouille.  Our local meat market has house-made andouille sausage that's pretty on par flavor-wise to what you can find down south.

Now, you won't get quite as much fat drippings from the andouille as you would with pork sausage, but that's okay since we typically discard about 2/3 of the grease when we make it with pork, so less mess/waste.

This go-round we used canned biscuits, but please feel free to make homemade if you have the time. (NOTE: I had a version of this at Surrey's Cafe in New Orleans recently that was made with whole wheat biscuits, if you want to health things up a bit.  ...I also tried their famous Banana's Foster French Toast (recipe behind the link) during this same visit, which was most definitely NOT healthy, but freakin' DEVINE.  Highly recommend.)

*drools* Err...wait...sorry, got distracted.  Back to the gravy.

INGREDIENTS (Gravy):

• 1/2 lb andouille sausage (this is about 1 large link from our butcher--NOTE: you need the raw andouille, not a fully cooked sausage like Johnsonville)
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/4-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups skim milk (more or less to desired thickness)

DIRECTIONS:

Cook the sausage in a large pan with some salt & pepper to taste. 

Once browned, add the flour & stir. You want enough flour so that it’s still runny in the pan—if it gets clumpy, add more grease to thin it out (you can use bacon grease). 

Mix for 1-2 minutes over medium heat until it becomes a dark brown (but not burnt). But don’t overdo it-- Remember that the roux you’re creating will absorb the milk, so the more roux you make, the more milk you’re going to have to add to turn it into a good gravy. So if you’re not wanting to eat gravy on everything for the next week, err on the side of less. 

Then add milk and continue stirring, about 2-3 minutes. Make sure to scrape the edges of the pan to keep everything well combined. At this point, you can add more milk if you need to thin things out a bit, and you can season with more salt & pepper to taste. Remove from heat when you’ve reached the desired consistency, otherwise it will continue to thicken. 

Spoon onto your biscuits, and chow down. Makes about 3-4 cups of gravy. Nutritional info & servings will vary depending on how heavy-handed you are with your gravy-to-biscuit ratio.

NutriFacts: (assumes 4 servings of about 3/4 cup each)

Calories		229.9
Total Fat		9.2 g
	Saturated Fat	3.1 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.0 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	0.1 g
Cholesterol		52.5 mg
Sodium		531.7 mg
Potassium		199.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate		13.1 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.2 g
	Sugars	6.3 g
Protein		14.0 g

Homemade Biscuits (And sausage gravy!)

I love weekends, because they mean sleeping in with my hubs (and occasionally the pup—we don’t always let him sleep on the bed because he somehow manages to occupy 90% of the bed with his 18-lb body), and making a REAL breakfast… not cereal or quick toast & bacon.

Friday night, just before bed, we managed to watch an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives that featured Ruth’s Diner in Salt Lake City, featuring a biscuit & gravy recipe with Ruth’s Mile High Biscuits as the centerpiece…

…so of course, when we woke up Saturday morning, all I could think about was biscuits & gravy.

I reached for my handy-dandy American Legion Auxillary cookbook, because if there’s anyone who knows how to make good biscuits, it’s the lil’ old ladies of the Midwest.  These were referred to as “Cloud Biscuits” in the cookbook.

So while I whipped up some clouds, the Hubs whipped up a sausage gravy.  Yes, you heard that right, this is the first entry where both myself AND The Hubs will be contributing to the post!  I’m pretty well crap with gravies (unless it comes from a packet or can) so I leave that to his mastery.

RECIPE FOR BISCUITS: (makes 1 dozen regular sized biscuits [or 16 small ones])

1 cup sifted flour

1/2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup shortening (we used light margarine)

1 egg white

1/3 cup milk

 

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then cut in the shortening until crumbly.  Add the egg & milk and then stir until the dough leaves the side of the bowl.

Turn onto a floured surface, and  knead gently, about 20 strokes.  Then roll or pat out to about 3/4 inch thick.

Cut with a biscuit cutter (note: I misplaced my big round cutter, so I had to use a little 1.5-inch diameter round, though I could have used a glass turned upside down) & place on a lightly sprayed cookie sheet.

Bake at 450F for 10-14 minutes or until lightly browned.

Seriously… how stinkin’ kewt are these?

And while these are quite a lovely lil’ bite with some strawberry jalapeno jam…

They’re even more delicious with fresh sausage gravy.

 

GRANDMA DAKE’S SAUSAGE GRAVY RECIPE (transcribed by me on behalf of The Hubs):

1/2 lb pork sausage

salt & pepper

1/4 – 1/2 cup flour (depending on how thick you like it)

2 cups milk + more to desired thickness

 

DIRECTIONS:

Cook the sausage in a large pan with some salt & pepper to taste. 

Once browned, you remove the meat from the pan, and then discard about 2/3 of the grease. 

Then add the flour & stir.  You want enough flour so that it’s still runny in the pan—if it gets clumpy, add more grease to thin it out.  Mix for 1-2 minutes over medium heat until it becomes a dark brown (but not burnt).  But don’t overdo it-- Remember that the roux you’re creating will absorb the milk, so the more roux you make, the more milk you’re going to have to add to turn it into a good gravy.  So if you’re not wanting to eat gravy on everything for the next week, err on the side of less.

Then add milk and continue stirring, about 2-3 minutes.  Make sure to scrape the edges of the pan to keep everything well combined.  At this point, you can add more milk if you need to thin things out a bit, and you can season with more salt & pepper to taste.  Remove from heat when you’ve reached the desired consistency, otherwise it will continue to thicken.

Spoon onto your biscuits, and chow down.

In my case, enjoy with your favorite coffee (in your favorite coffee mug):

 

NutriFacts: (for two biscuits & 1/2 cup gravy)

Calories 318.4

  Total Fat 16.3 g

  Saturated Fat 4.4 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.6 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 5.5 g

  Cholesterol 43.9 mg

  Sodium 654.0 mg

  Potassium 287.0 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 30.9 g

  Dietary Fiber 0.8 g

  Sugars 5.8 g

  Protein 12.5 g