Biscuits and gravy

For my family, biscuits and gravy are a BLD food. We can eat them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and we do. I am fairly traditional, making fluffy baking powder biscuits with white flour and top them with a milk gravy. Sometimes, I add meat, but not always. When it comes to comfort food I like it the old fashioned way...unhealthy. Feel free to use whole wheat flour, coconut oil, and tofu sausage, just know that it won't be as delicious as mine no matter how hard you try. :-p

For the biscuits

3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup cold butter (I have used shortening, lard, and cold rendered bacon fat all with great success)
1 cup milk

Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cream of tartar. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or fork until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs (a few chunks are ok).

Then stir in milk just until it comes together. Stirring too much at this point will give you hockey pucks, not biscuits. Dump everything on the counter and knead 5 times only. Again, because too much is no bueno.

Roll dough, or pat out with your hands until 3/4 of an inch thick. Cut biscuits, reshaping dough carefully, so as not to over work the dough and continue cutting until all the dough is used. Most likely there will be one ugly biscuit that is all scraps smushed together. I feed this one to the youngest person at the table. Place on a cookie sheet, brush the tops with melted butter, and bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.

For the gravy

1/2 lb browned breakfast sausage or 4-5 slices crispy bacon crumbled or 1/2 lb browned ground beef
1 stick butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter over medium heat in the same pan you used to cook your breakfast meat of choice. Once bubbling has stopped, whisk in flour until there are no lumps and cook 4 minutes so that the raw flour taste cooks out. Gradually add the milk whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Continue cooking over medium heat until thickened, then add meat...or not and salt and pepper to taste. If the gravy is too thick for your liking add more milk a few tablespoons at a time.  (if you make a larger batch the basic recipe is to use equal amount of flour and fat and keep adding milk until you reach the desired consistency)

Biscuit topped with bacon gravy