Crêpes are one of the simplest pastries you can make quickly for breakfast. Four ingredients (plus water) that you can put together in any order and be ready to cook in about 2 minutes. And half that is melting the butter. You’d think they’d show up on the menu more often, except that the technique can be a little tricky.

No, that’s not right. It’s not the technique so much as the hardware. You need a really good pan to cook them in: heavy bottom (cast iron is best), non-stick (well-seasoned cast iron), flat bottom and shallow sides. Some people are as protective of their crêpe pans as they are of their omelet pans[1] — meaning you’ll lose a hand if you try to use it for anything else. Once you’ve had good ones, you’ll believe it’s worth it.

This recipe is shamelessly stolen from Alton Brown, but the technique is slightly different. I’m sure his technique works fine with plenty of practice, but I haven’t had plenty of practice. And if I do enough practice to get really good at it, none of my pants will fit.

Ingredients

2 large eggs
¾ cup milk
½ cup water
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
butter, for coating the pan

Directions

The batter

Combine the eggs, milk, water (mine looks cloudy because I used the same measuring cup from the milk), melted butter and flour in a blender or food processor. (Or a Ninja.)

Pulse 10 times so the batter is completely smooth but no more.

If you beat it too much the flour will start to get gummy.

The hardware

Here’s the pan I was talking about.

It doesn’t look very pretty, but that surface is smooth as glass. I haven’t seen this shape anywhere else, so unfortunately I can’t tell you where to find one new. Andrew has a relatively close example over at CloveGarden. (It’s listed as “Cast Iron Round Griddle / Comal / Tava”.)

Let the pan warm up over medium-low heat until it’s just warm enough that it’s uncomfortable to touch with your hand. Add a half-tablespoon of butter and, when it’s melted, brush it around the pan with a pastry brush or BBQ sauce brush.

The classic technique

For this first one, I used the technique you usually see demonstrated. I poured the batter into the middle of the pan, then picked it up and tilted the pan around to distribute the batter.

You can see that the edges are too thin, and the center is already setting up. I tried pushing the edges in a little with a spatula …

… which sort of worked. It didn’t look real pretty, but I was able to turn it over without losing any major pieces.

That first turn should come when you start seeing bubbles in the batter, about a minute. Slip a long, skinny spatula underneath and flip it over.

Here’s a look at the spatula I’m talking about.

That’s a cake decorating spatula, designed for spreading frosting on the top layer.

The alternate technique

Once the pan is up to temperature, each crêpe is done in just a minute or two. Which is my excuse for not having pictures of the second technique I tried. (That and the fact that I didn’t know it was going to work until I tried it.)

Instead of pouring all the batter into the center, pour a small amount in the center then start spiraling out away from the center.

Do it just right and you’ll end up with an evenly-thin layer of batter from edge to edge in your pan. Which I’d love to show you but, like I said, things got a little hectic.

The other alternate technique — don’t try this at home

Restaurants and specialty shops where they make a lot of crêpes have a special electric skillet called a billig, which is much larger than any pan you’re likely to have in your kitchen. Onto this the cook will pour the batter, then spread it out with a rozel, a T-shaped wooden tool made just for doing omelets.

Click here for a nice set of photos showing how to make crêpes with the bilig and rozel.

To serve

You could stop here and serve the crêpes like pancakes. Or fill each one with fruit, the way you’d fill an omelet with vegetables.

Or do what I did: Fill with sliced bananas and top with strawberries and whipped cream.

And that’s it.

All these omelets I make in my special pan, which has not been used for anything else in the sixteen years I have owned it. Neither has it ever been washed, for water would cause the omelets to stick to the pan.

I got an email from a reader asking for help with fried eggs.

Hi — I don’t know what I do wrong, but although I am generally a good cook, I can’t make a decent fried egg to save my soul.  They either are all crispy and burned on the edges or slimy and yucky on top.  If I try “over-easy” I get “broken yolk”  as they seem to stick to the pan.  If I use non-stick pans, I get a weird light brown on the bottom that is unattractive.

Help!

I’ve got to admit I’m not the greatest fried egg maker. I’m too impatient, but I always know what I did wrong about three seconds after I did it. If I take my time and don’t try to work on too many things at once, I can do them. Here’s what I’ve learned:

• First, don’t be afraid of butter or bacon fat. The egg shouldn’t be floating on it, but I’ve come pretty close.
• Second, you can’t cook an egg faster by turning the heat up more. I love doing meat on super-hot surfaces, but with an egg you’ll get a burned bottom and a runny top at the same time. Not good. So take your time.
• Third, find a lid that fits over your pan and use it. Clear is better, so you can see how it’s looking, but you can use anything that fits tight enough to keep the steam in.

Putting it all together

So, here’s my method.

Melt two or more tablespoons of bacon fat in a pan that is just large enough for the number of eggs you’re making. I’ll use a six-inch for two eggs.

Crack the eggs into the pan. If you’re worried about splashing grease, crack the eggs into a teacup or a bowl, then pour them into the pan. Add salt and pepper. (You don’t have to, but if you’re going to, do it now rather than after it’s cooked.)

Don’t try to lift the edges right away. You have to wait for the bottom to cook before you can move the eggs around. Turn the heat sort of low — I can’t say exactly, since electric and gas stovetops have very different definitions of “medium” — and put on the lid.

Check every minute or so, or look through the clear lid if you’ve got one, until the top of the yolk starts to turn white. That’s when you can safely flip them over.

If I’m doing sunny side up, I’ll tilt the pan a little so the bacon fat pools at one side. Then spoon the hot fat over the top of the egg a few times to make sure it’s cooked on top. Another way I’ve seen at diners is to pour a few tablespoons of water on the hot pan next to the eggs and put the lid back on. The steam will finish the top so it’s not runny.

The most important thing is to just take your time, which is why this is so hard for me. Keep the heat low, don’t tell yourself you can turn it up and “just keep a close eye on it”. It won’t work.

What did I miss?

I’ve never worked at a diner, so I’m sure there are lots more great tips. Who’s got a good one? Leave a comment and share the knowledge.

By the way, that egg in the picture at the top is actually a fried egg truffle — white chocolate and fruit filling. Follow that link for some more amazing dessert pics.

My wife had pancake puffs at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to try making them at home. We took our regular pancake recipe, tweaked it a little, and it came out great on the first try.

Then we noticed something cool, and turned them into an awesome Halloween treat.

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus up to one more cup (see note below)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder (see note below)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons olive pomace oil

Directions

Mixing

Combine one cup of flour, plus the sugar, baking power and salt, and whisk together.

In a separate bowl (or save cleanup and just do it in the measuring cup) combine the milk, egg and oil and whisk together.

No, you don’t need the mini-whisk. You can use a fork.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until there are no lumps.

NOTE: With normal pancakes you stop here and start pouring them out onto a hot pan. (Oops, I just typed that as “onto a hot man”. What the hell?) Also, with normal pancakes you’d only use two teaspoons of baking powder instead of two tablespoons.

For these, the batter needs to be thicker. So we doubled the flour and stirred again.

You want it thick enough that it sticks to the whisk, and it takes a few seconds for drips to settle back down into the batter.

Deep Frying

The best choice for frying is beef tallow. If you don’t have that, go for lard. Third choice (for me) is olive pomace. Same health profile as extra virgin olive oil, but with a higher smoke point and no flavor.

Before choosing your frying fat/oil, go see what Andrew has to say about them. (He’s another one of the co-authors on my upcoming book, Starting From Scratch. You can get a sample chapter here.)

If you don’t read anything else there, make sure to check the proper cooking temperature for your fat/oil. Too hot, and it will turn rancid. Too cold and it will soak into the food.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I’ve had problems in the past with running out of pomace oil and not having it deep enough in the pan. Since these were going to be little tiny balls of batter, I used the smallest pan I had and filled it two inches deep with olive pomace oil.

I kept it over high heat until a candy thermometer registered 375°. (In case it needs to be said, be very careful when deep frying. Long sleeves are a good idea, and don’t reach over the oil.

Using a melon-baller, drop scoops of batter into the oil.

If you don’t have a melon-baller, you can use a small spoon. Don’t use your finger to scoop it out. Seriously, you don’t want your hands that close to the oil. Use another spoon.

Let the first one cook by itself so you can get a feel for how quickly it cooks.

When it’s brown on the bottom, flip it over using tongs or, if you’re good with them, chopsticks. (Bamboo ones, not plastic.)

Once you’re comfortable with how fast they’re going, you can do two or three at a time.

Or go crazy and do four at once! Rock on.

As the oil got hotter, some of them squirted batter out a crack in the side and mutated a little bit. Since they weren’t going to be “pretty” for the picture, I just topped them with some maple syrup and had them as a snack.

The pretty ones went on the serving dish and got a dusting of powdered sugar.

And that’s it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wait … that’s not it. I said there was a Halloween treat, didn’t I?
 
 
 
 
 
Remember those “mutant” ones I mentioned? My daughter thought this one looked like a chicken that fell in the oil and cooked solid.

Someone mentioned Halloween, and I realized we were looking at … tumors.

A little raspberry preserves, some apple butter, and voila.

We’ll be having these again Halloween morning.

I won’t lie to you, doing these will take a little practice. If you’ve never rolled dough out into a rectangle before, it probably won’t be really even. The good news is, even if they come out all kinds of different shapes they’re still going to taste great. So practice on yourself a few times before doing these for guests. Go ahead, no need to wait for a special occasion.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons, half stick)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons yeast (one package)
1/4 cup warm water (105°-115°)
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
3-1/2 cups flour

Filling

1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons, half stick)
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
(optional) raisins

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
juice of 1/2 small lemon

Directions

Prep

Start by scalding the milk. This is probably not strictly necessary if you’re using pasteurized milk. (For way more on the “should I or shouldn’t I” than I feel like putting here, take a look at what the internet has to say about scalding.) Scalding breaks down a protein in the whey that can keep the dough from rising as much. (Maybe, unless it doesn’t … Seriously, go see what the internet has to say.)

In a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat, bring the milk nearly to a boil.

When a film starts to form on the top, turn off the heat and skim it off with a spoon.

Add the sugar, salt, and the first half-stick of butter and stir until the sugar and butter are both melted.

Set the milk/butter mixture aside to cool to room temperature.

In a separate bowl, combine the yeast and warm water and stir quickly.

Stir in the egg.

Add the milk/butter mixture. (Make sure it’s cooled down to room temperature or you’ll kill the yeast.) Add the flour and stir until the flour is all incorporated and the dough comes together in a soft, loose ball.

Add a couple of tablespoons of oil (I always use extra virgin olive or olive pomace oil) to a clean bowl. Roll the dough around until it is oiled all over, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a wet dish towel. This will keep the dough from drying out and forming a skin, which would keep it from rising.

Put the bowl someplace warm, not hot — inside the stove, turned off but with the light turned on is about perfect — until the dough has doubled in volume, about an hour-and-a-half.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down to deflate it.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes, until the dough is smooth and satiny.

Assembly

Here’s the only part of this that takes some practice. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about an eighth-inch thick. All the reading and watching in the world won’t help you with this. You’re just going to have to do it a few times to get the hang of it.

Soften the butter, but don’t melt it. Spread it evenly onto the dough.

Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon.

My sugar was a little clumpy, so I had to break it up a bit with a fork.

Spread the cinnamon evenly over the dough and roll it up.

Make-ahead option

I was preparing these the night before, so I could bake them fresh for Easter brunch. You still have to take them out a couple of hours before baking, so this won’t actually save you much time. But it’s one less thing to worry about when you have a lot of other things going for a party.

So, wrap the roll in plastic wrap, to keep it from drying out, and aluminum foil, to help keep the shape.

Put the wrapped roll in the fridge overnight. The next morning, the cold dough will be firmer and much easier to cut.

Slicing and baking

I had heard you could cut these really easily using dental floss. It tried it.

FAIL!

It seems a trick to it. Okay, now I know.

But I didn’t see that when I was making them, so I just used the knife. Because the roll was cold from the fridge the slices mostly kept their shape. Even so, I squeezed them a little to round them out after cutting.

Once they’re all cut, oil a baking sheet and arrange the rolls with room in between.

Place the baking sheet in the oven — turned off but with the light on again — until the dough warms up and the rolls double in size. (If you did these the night before and they’re cold from the fridge, this could take three hours.) Then bake at 400° for 10-15 minutes, until they are golden brown on top.

Glaze

Arrange the rolls on your serving dish, and prepare the lemon glaze. Pour it over the rolls.

Serve with ham, eggs strata, pineapple stuffing and fruit salad.

Or, you know, like … just by themselves. That works pretty good.

And that’s it.

Radio interview available

The interview I did on Darla Shine’s show is available here. (Warning: It’s over 7MB)

Now that spring is showing up every now and then — anyone else who’s ever been in Cleveland through April knows what that means — I start thinking about fair food from my childhood. I always preferred funnel cake to elephant ears, though they’re basically the same food in a slightly different shape. (Funnel cake has more crispy surface area, elephant ears have more light, fluffy insides.)

But I don’t like deep frying in the house, unless I can open up all the windows in the kitchen and get a nice breeze going through. Otherwise the whole house ends up smelling like the fry stand … which is great at a fair, not so much when you’re trying to sleep.

Well it turns out I can get almost the same taste without the deep frying. After the last time I made pizza crust someone wrote to ask me if I ever tried frying it. I have now, and it’s a great movie night snack.

Ingredients

1 cup each white flour and (high gluten) bread flour, sifted
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (one package)
2 teaspoons sugar or honey
3/4 cup warm water (105° – 115°)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
butter for frying

Topping

cinnamon
powdered sugar

Directions

Standard dough

This is going to look almost exactly like the pizza crust directions, because it’s exactly the same recipe. The only difference is this time I used the stand mixer to do the kneading. This is also exactly how every yeast bread recipe is going to start. Get these few steps down and you’ll be able to make bread.

Start by “proofing” the yeast. Combine the yeast and about half the water. It needs to be warm enough to activate the yeast, but not so hot it kills it. Give it a quick stir, but don’t try to stir until it’s all dissolved — like a lot of recipes call for — or it will all stick to your spoon. That’s why I use the handle of the spoon or, in this case, a chopstick to mix it.

Sift in one cup of flour (either one, doesn’t matter which is first), and the sugar or honey. The sugar is there to feed the yeast, not so much for flavor. And since I already had the powdered sugar out for the topping I just used that.

Give it another stir and add the rest of the water. I like to add the water in two steps so that if I had it a little bit too hot, the flour will absorb some of the heat and keep it from killing the yeast.

 
 
The first picture below is just after mixing everything. The second is ten minutes later. It may be a little hard to tell unless you click on the pictures to see the larger versions, but it has increased in volume from the yeast eating the sugar and giving off gas bubbles. That means the yeast is working. If you don’t see it grow like this, or lots of bubbles breaking the surface, it means that your yeast is not active. Either it was too old, or the water was too hot. You’ll have to get more yeast and try again.

Sift in the other cup of flour, the salt and oil, and put on the dough hook.

You can knead this by hand for ten minutes instead of using a mixer. That’s how I did the last batch of pizza crust. A few people told me they swear by the mixer, so I tried it this time.

Mix on medium for ten minutes. The dough should end up wrapped around the hook, smooth and not sticky.

Pull the dough off the hook and form it into a ball by tucking all the loose edges under one spot. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a clean bowl and swirl the dough around to make sure the bottom of the bowl and the whole surface of the dough are oiled. Then put the dough in the center.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel to keep the surface of the dough from drying out. If it gets dry it stops stretching and won’t rise as much.

Leave the dough to rise in a warm place — inside the oven with the light on is the perfect temperature — for about an hour, until it has doubled in volume. It’s ready when you press on the surface and your fingerprint doesn’t spring back.

Punch the dough down to deflate it, then turn it out onto a well floured surface. Slice into four pieces with a pizza cutter.

Take each piece and tuck the corners together and turn it over.

Put the four pieces of dough on a floured surface and cover with the plastic until they’ve doubled in volume again.

Using your fingertips, spread out each piece into a flat disk about six to nine inches across. If your fingers stick to the dough, dust the top with a little more flour.

Leave the dough to rest for a few minutes while you get the topping ready. I started with a teaspoon each of cinnamon and powdered sugar. Next time I’ll use at least twice as much sugar.

Mix them together so you can sift them onto the finished dough. I have this handy sugar/flour shaker, so I just mix it right in there.

I’m a kitchen hardware geek, so if it’s okay with you I need to get way too excited about this skillet for just a minute. I found it down in the basement a couple of months ago. My wife insists I had it when we got married, but I don’t remember ever cooking with it. It had some light surface rust on the cooking surface, and it looked like it had once been seasoned but had been stripped at some point.

I finally decided it was time to strip it down back to bare metal and re-season it. But first, I thought I’d just hit that rust with some oil, kosher salt and a paper towel. And would you look at that? It came right off with just five minutes of rubbing.

I rubbed the rest of the cooking surface and realized that it was actually still seasoned really well. I wish I had taken “before” pictures so you could see what I started with. I was expecting to need power tools to refinish it.

It may not look so great in that picture, but it took me several tries to get a shot where the light shining off of it didn’t overexpose the whole frame. Okay, enough about my new favorite pan.

Melt a tablespoon of butter in a cast iron or non-stick pan and spread it around.

Fry the dough until golden brown on the first side and flip it over.

While the second side is cooking, dust the top with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

When the second side is golden brown, remove it to a plate and add more butter. You can see from the smoking that I had let the pan get too hot.

Note to self: Cast iron skillet on electric stove, set to low! It really captures every bit of heat from the burner.

The second piece of dough got browned a bit faster than I expected. Once the pan gets hot you need less than a minute per side. It’s 30 seconds between these next two photos.

Stack them all up to keep them warm.

This isn’t knife-and-fork food, get in there with your hands and tear off a piece.

Add more powdered sugar … even if it doesn’t “need” it.

And that’s it.

I’ve seen lots of French toast recipes. Even a few that claim to be the best. But most of them are all about the ingredients you dip the bread in. How about the bread?

I promise, changing the bread makes much more of a difference than adding another teaspoon of vanilla.

Ingredients

1 loaf Irish soda bread
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 heaping tablespoon raw sugar
1/3 cup milk
butter for frying

Directions

Combine all the ingredients (except the bread, of course) in a large bowl.

Beat well, but don’t worry too much if it separates a little bit. You’re going to have to keep stirring it as you work.

Slice the soda bread — and if you haven’t seen it before, go follow that link … raisins, crispy raw sugar topping, yum — thicker than sandwich bread. If your loaf is more than about six inches wide, cut your slices in half so the pieces are no more than four or five inches long. Otherwise they’ll break when you try to flip them over.

Melt several tablespoons of butter over medium heat in a non-stick or cast iron pan.

When the butter is starting to bubble, dip the bread one piece at a time in the batter. Let it soak for a count of ten, and flip it over.

Place several pieces in the pan. Leave enough space that they don’t stick together when the egg cooks.

Flip them over when the first side is browned, about two minutes.

Go for another two minutes on the other side.

Dust with powdered sugar, and top with real maple syrup.

And that’s it.

There’s really not much to a banana smoothie. I don’t know how stores can stay in business doing nothing but throwing fruit and milk in a blender and charging four bucks each for it.

Oh, wait … I think that four bucks each might be the secret. Okay, so what I don’t get is why would anyone pay four bucks for one of these.

Ingredients

banana
milk
yogurt

Directions

Peel the banana. Yeah, I know you knew that, but I’m being complete here, okay? Break it in half and drop it in the cup you want to use.

Fill the cup with milk up to about a half-inch from the top. This is the best way to measure, since every banana is a slightly different size.

Hold the banana in place while you pour the milk into your blender. Otherwise it will splash. Then carefully add the banana.

Add a couple spoonfuls of yogurt.

This was really supposed to be plain yogurt, but they were actually out of plain when my wife went to the store. This lowfat vanilla was the plainest she could find. And I’m not going to pay four times as much at the health food store. Okay, that’s my rant for the day.

Blend on high speed until the banana is completely pulverized and everything is foamy on top.

Pour it back into your cup.

And that’s it.

How To Cook Like Your Grandmother: Starting From Scratch

Registration officially opens on the 23rd, but if you drop me an email now at basic-course@cooklikeyourgrandmother.com with “Register me for the free mini-course” in the subject line, and your name in the email, I’ll be sure to reserve a slot for you!

Registration is open! Enter your name and email in the form at the top of the column on the right.

Wow, I didn’t even remember shooting these pictures until I downloaded my camera. Cool, bonus post! What’s extra cool is at least one person is already drooling over this idea. (I’m looking at you, Bob.)

So here it is, how to turn leftover fajita fixin’s into a killer breakfast burrito.

Ingredients

leftover fajita steak
leftover fajita onions and peppers
leftover extra sharp cheddar cheese
leftover flour tortillas
(Seeing a pattern yet?)
eggs

Directions

Grab just a little less steak, peppers and onions than you would use for a regular fajita, and dice into bite-sized pieces.

Heat over medium heat until warmed through, then add two eggs. You can beat them first, like I did here, or just crack them into the pan and mix it up. If I had been more awake, I would have saved myself the extra bowl to clean and done it right in the pan.

Stir everything over medium heat until the eggs are no longer runny, then transfer to a warmed tortilla. (Twenty seconds in the microwave should be fine for the tortillas.)

Grate some cheese on top, and add a couple of spoonfuls of pico de gallo.

Lift up the two sides of the burrito to get all the fixin’s centered.

Fold up the bottom of the tortilla, to keep everything inside, then wrap the sides around.

If you overstuffed it, like I did — like I always do, actually — you’ll need both hands to keep it all together. And you won’t be able to put it down until you’re done, or it will all fall apart.

And that’s it.

I know I just did this last month. But really, it’s so good you’ve just got to try it.

If you’re lucky your deli has a meat grinder, or your butcher carries prosciutto. Unfortunately my deli doesn’t, and my butcher doesn’t. Fortunately for me I’ve got my own meat grinder, so I can grind my own prosciutto bits.

I won’t tell you it’s worth the cost of a meat grinder just for these eggs, but if someone asks what you want for Christmas …

Ingredients

eggs
prosciutto bits
mozzarella and Colby/jack cheese
bacon fat

Directions

Melt a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat over high heat in a non-stick pan. Use enough to coat the bottom of the pan.

Don’t crack the eggs into a bowl and pre-mix them unless you like having extra dishes to clean. If you’re not comfortable cracking them on the edge of the hot pan, use the edge of your spoon to crack them.

Once all the eggs are in the pan, stir them roughly with a wooden spoon. Don’t use metal spoons in your non-stick pans. Please. Pretty please. Teflon is not a spice, you don’t want it in your eggs.

While the eggs are still runny, but just starting to set up, add the bacon and stir it in. Just before the eggs are finished — when they look almost dry, add the cheese.

I’m using shredded mozzarella and cubed Colby/jack because that’s what I had handy. I like the cubed better than shredded because you get lumps of gooey cheesy goodness that way.

Turn off the stovetop and let the heat from the eggs soften up the cheese as you mix it in. You don’t want the cheese completely incorporated with the eggs.

Before the cheese gets too runny and separates from the eggs, scoop it out into a serving dish.

And enjoy a super-simple, super-tasty breakfast. Or lunch. Midnight snack would work.

And that’s it.

I’d like to apologize in advance to any Southerners reading this. Yes, your Grandmother’s biscuits and gravy were better than anything I’ll ever make. I don’t deserve to even call this biscuits and gravy. I’m a damn Yankee, and I should stick to beef stroganoff and croutons.

Good, that’s out of the way?

Now, if you don’t already have your own tried-and-true sausage gravy recipe, this one should do just fine for a start.

Ingredients

2 pounds bulk breakfast sausage
2-4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
4 cups cold milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook the sausage over high heat in a stainless or cast iron pan. Don’t use non-stick, you want to get brown bits. Crumble the sausage up as much as possible.

That’s the Pampered Chef Mix ‘N Chop I’m using. Absolute best thing I’ve found for breaking up ground meats.

Once the sausage is browned all over, remove it to a bowl using a slotted spoon. (Use the same serving bowl you’re going to put the finished gravy in.) Leave the rendered fat — okay, the grease — in the pan. You’ll need it to make the roux.

Now you can see those brown bits I mentioned. That’s pure flavor right there.

You can also see I didn’t have much grease left, so I upped the butter. You want about one tablespoon of fat for each tablespoon of flour. Add the butter and return the pan to low heat. Seriously, turn it down. You don’t want to burn your roux.

When the butter is nearly melted, add the flour and stir. Keep stirring until the flour is completely incorporated, and the roux starts to turn the barest shade darker.

Add the milk, turn the heat up to medium, and scrape up as much as you can of the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Add a generous helping of fresh ground pepper and, depending on how salty your sausage is, add salt.

Keep stirring over medium until the gravy starts bubbling steady.

Add the sausage back in and stir until the sausage is warmed back up.

Transfer the sausage gravy to a serving bowl and cover it with a plate to keep the heat and steam in.

Make some biscuits.

Rip the biscuits in half and cover them with sausage gravy.

Because it was my first time making them — and yes, because I’m a damn Yankee — my biscuits weren’t flaky enough to cut easily with a fork. Good buttermilk biscuits are light and fluffy all the way through. Mine had a delicious, but slightly chewy, crust. Great for a dinner roll, not so much for biscuits and gravy.

So I used them for scoops instead.

And that’s it.