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Scallion biscuits with lap cheong gravy.

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With help from Southern Souffle, Local Milk, Food52, and Blogging Over Thyme.

This recipe was a little much for our little household of two — it’s is more suited for four or even six — but everything is easily scaled down. I’ve made a half-batch of the biscuits and I’ve also frozen the extras, both with good results. Gravy will keep up to a week in the fridge, but I have not tried freezing it, so it may be best to make smaller batches as needed.

Ingredients

Scale
  • for the biscuits:
  • 2 cups all-purpose or White Lily flour (or 1 cup cake flour and 1 cup all-purpose)
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup finely diced scallions, patted dry (plus extra if desired)
  • 1/2 stick butter, frozen or nearly frozen (or up to 3/4 stick, see Notes below)
  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup milk (see Notes below for substitutions)
  • 1 tsp sesame oil, for brushing (optional)
  • for the gravy:
  • 4 links (6 oz) lap cheong sausage, diced
  • 2 tbsp all-purpose flour (or about as much flour as fat rendered by the sausage)
  • 1 1/2 cup milk
  • salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. To make the biscuits: Remove butter from freezer and let thaw briefly. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and scallions in a large bowl. Using the largest holes on a box grater, grate the butter into the flour mixture. Use your fingers to mix the butter into the flour until all pieces are coated and no lumps larger than peas remain.
  2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together Greek yogurt and milk. Pour into the flour-butter mixture and use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to stir just until a dough comes together.
  3. Turn the dough gently out onto a well-floured surface. Use your fingers and palms to gently pat the dough into a rectangle about the size of a piece of paper (8×11”) and 1/2-inch thick. Fold into thirds, letter-style, then use the pads of your fingers and palms to gently pat the dough to about 1/2-inch flat. Fold again and pat again. Finally, fold one more time and pat gently to a 1-inch thickness. Optionally, you can scatter extra scallions across the dough every time you fold.
  4. Using a floured biscuit cutter, cut rounds from the biscuits (do not twist the cutter when you remove the rounds, which may inhibit rising). Gather the scraps and gently pile them into a 1-inch mass again, and cut again until you’ve used up all the dough.
  5. Place the rounds, sides gently touching, in a cast-iron skillet or on a baking sheet. Brush with sesame oil and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top.
  6. To make the gravy: Dice the lap cheong sausage and add it to a skillet (no oil necessary) over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until a generous amount of fat renders and the sausage develops crisp bits.
  7. Turn the heat down to low and sprinkle the flour over the sausage, stirring continuously, until flour dissolves into the fat and forms a roux. Aim to add about as much flour as there is rendered grease in the pan, and stop adding flour before the mixture becomes a paste — it should be thick but not dry. Continue to cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until the roux turns slightly darker.
  8. Pour the milk in a slow stream over the sausage and roux, stirring as you go, until incorporated. Continue to cook, stirring often, until gravy thickens to your desired consistency. The gravy should ideally simmer for at least 5-6 minutes after you’ve added the milk before it thickens. If it becomes too thick before that point, add another 1/4 cup milk. Season with salt and a very generous amount of black pepper (I used at least 1/2 tsp).
  9. Once the biscuits are done, split them open (or crumble into large pieces) and serve with plenty of gravy!

Notes

I tried out a few variations on this biscuit recipe, all with good results. The one above is ultimately closest to Beth’s gorgeous rendition. Substituting cake flour makes for a lighter, more tender biscuit, but I don’t think it’s truly necessary. For the “buttermilk,” you can use 2/3 cup regular, unflavored yogurt and 1/3 cup milk if you don’t have Greek yogurt on hand, or if you happen to have buttermilk, simply use 1 cup buttermilk. I just don’t usually have buttermilk, so a yogurt and milk combination has always been my go-to.

For a really revelatory, life-changing biscuit, you can up the butter content to 3/4 stick (6 tbsp) as per Erika’s recipe or even 1 stick (though in that case, decrease the “buttermilk” to 3/4 cup). For a biscuit I’d be serving with a very rich gravy anyhow, I thought it was fine conserving the butter for another use, so I kept it at 1/2 stick — but boy, that double-butter batch blew my mind, it was so good.

Also, you’re much better off consulting the biscuit goddesses linked above for tips on how to make your perfect fluffy, lofty, sky-high biscuits, but just a few observations from my my end — I really, really like grating frozen butter to make biscuits (as per Laura’s method) in the same way that I do for pie crust, but you can cut the butter in too. Also, you can use a rolling pin to roll the biscuit dough out if you like, but I thought patting with my fingers as per Erika’s method worked just as well and gave me a tad more control. Be super, super gentle in handling the dough at all times, and they’ll do just fine, even the scraps.

Finally, don’t be shy with the black pepper in the gravy! It’s hard to over-pepper a gravy — black pepper makes it shine.

Find it online: https://tworedbowls.com/2015/02/18/scallion-biscuits-lap-cheong-gravy/