Biscuits and Gravy in Biblical Times
Okay, it's not biblical times but come on the pandemic feels like a plague and we are certainly living through a historic moment of pestilence and uncertainty. So any type of comfort food can feel like a blessing. For us, biscuits and gravy checks all the boxes. We don't always have eggs, or milk, we are actually low on butter (shhh) and we don't have any all purpose flour. But we DO have wheat berries and a grain mill! So we made it work!
Ingredients
- 4 pounds Hard Winter Wheat Berries (Soft Wheat Berries would work fine too.)
- 3 tablespoons Baking Powder
- 3 teaspoons Salt
- 3 tablespoons Sugar
- 2 sticks Butter (1 cup)
- 2 cups Milk
- 1 cup Sourdough Starter (These biscuits are perfect for your yeast starter "discard". But if you aren't growing yeast this week, add another cup of milk, no problem!)
- 24 Eggs
- 5 Morningstar Veggie Links (You can absolutely use more, this is what we had on hand.)
- 1 stick Butter
- 1 Onion, chopped
- .5 cups whole grain flour
- 3 cups Milk
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Whole Grain Biscuits
Scrambled Eggs
Veggie Sausage Gravy
Instructions
Grind your the four pounds of wheat berries in your grain mill on the finest setting. If you are just starting to use whole grain in your meal prep, you can sift the flour to remove some of the bran. We did that for the first few months but after a while we enjoyed the nutty wonderful flavor of whole grain. In fact the bran is where the B vitamins, iron, copper, zinc, magnesium, antioxidants, and phytochemicals are in the berry so keeping all of the bran makes for a nutrient rich flour.
Combine 7 Cups Flour with your baking powder, salt and sugar. Then cut your cold butter into the flour mixture until all of the tiny butter bits are well coated in flour.
Measure out a cup of your sourdough starter and combine with two cups of milk. Pour the wet mixture into your dry ingredients and give a good stir. Add more milk if the dough seems too stick, you want a soft almost sticky dough.
Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. As you begin to kneed the dough, the whole grain flour will absorb more of the liquid and you should have a firm for soft dough.
Roll the dough to about a little more than a half inch thick and press down with your biscuit cutter in one motion. Do not twist! If you don't have a circle cookie cutter, you can slice the dough into squares. Use the same downward motion with the knife, trying not to drag the knife through the dough. A fresh cut edge will encourage the dough to rise better than if you twist and seal the edges.
Place the biscuits on parchment paper lined trays and cook in a 400° for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.
Everyone has their family favorite way to cook eggs. We use an extra large cast iron hot with melted butter. We added about a half cup of water to 24 eggs that we whisked until the yolks were broken and the mixture was well blended. We stirred the eggs over low heat until most of the liquid was absorbed and then finished them off at high heat until they were almost done. Turned the pan off and by the time we were plating, the eggs were fully cooked.
Saute the chopped onions in a large pan, adding the frozen link veggie sausage and breaking up the bits as they defrost and lightly brown. Add four or five tablespoons of butter or olive oil and an equal amount of flour to your pan. Continue stiring until all of the flour is coated with fat.
Stir the milk and simmer until sauce is thickened.
You can use a stick blender or leave the bits chunky.
Salt and Pepper to taste!
I didn't use this on the vegetarian version. But for people who like a little spice, this is perfect with biscuit gravy!
Scrambled Eggs
Veggie Sausage Gravy