Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Evil Biscuits!

I got this neat cookbook called Small Batch Baking. I wanted this book specifically for that reason. I just didn't want all the leftovers we have all the time it seems. So each recipe makes one little cake or 2-3 biscuits, 2-3 cookies. Perfect for a couple. When I saw the following recipe I said no way we could only have 2 of THESE biscuits! How ironic, right?

So getting back to the title, what makes these biscuits evil....bacon isn't THAT bad. Many biscuits are made with butter and you can bump up the richness by using heavy cream. Um, well, this recipe also uses the BACON GREASE! That constitutes EVIL to me. Since I am already making these biscuits evil, I am going for heinously evil by adding cheese. I suggest wearing rubber soled shoes while making these biscuits in case of lightning strikes!

Rustic Bacon Biscuits
increased in size from Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos

12 slices of bacon
3 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp saved bacon grease, frozen
6 Tbsp of cold butter (if just plain bacon biscuits)
or 3 Tbsp butter with 1 1/2 c. shredded cheese)
1 -1 & 1/2 cups cold heavy whipping cream (the extra 1/2 is to be added little by little if your dough seems dry)

Cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Pour 3 Tbsp of bacon grease in a small bowl and freeze it until the drippings are solid, 10-15 minutes. Finely chop the cooked bacon and set it aside.

Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Scoop out the bacon drippings by teaspoonfuls and drop them onto the dry ingredients. Add the butter pieces. Cut the dripping and butter into the flour mixture with a fork by dragging the tines of the fork through the flour, pressing the tines to the bottom of the bowl, until the remaining lumps are no larger than small peas. Toss in the chopped bacon. Pour the cream over the mixture, and toss lightly with the fork just until the dough begins to hold together. Use the remaining 1/2 cup cream to drizzle in if necessary to make the it hold together as a soft dough.

Flour your hands, and lightly knead the dough in the bowl, 5 or 6 times. Lightly flour a cutting board, place the dough on it, and pat the dough out to form a rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Cut out biscuits with a 2-1/2 inch round cutter. If you wish, form the scraps into 'free-form' biscuit.

Place the biscuits on parchment paper on the baking sheet. Bake until the biscuits are golden, 10-15 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and serve hot or warm.

K-man just LOVED these! Well, he really liked them but when I cooked an egg and sandwiched it in one of these bad boys and sent them with him to work....then he LOOOOVVVVEEDDDD them. I am sure you can imagine his coworkers looking at their fast food breakfast sandwich and then his and being very envious!

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