Bacon Blue Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits

The humble biscuit. A mainstay in Southern homes passed down from generation to generation. It's the perfect morsel to devour at breakfast or to mop up the sides at dinner. There are plenty of different techniques and recipes out there but this is and has been my go to method for years. While I'm a huge fan of the folding method that creates layers of flakey goodness, I much prefer this approach. The tip here is frozen butter and a swift preparation to keep things cold.

Pro Tip:
Substitute the bacon and blue cheese with various other ingredients like sausage and swiss, green onions and corn, pimentos and cheddar, etc. You can also omit the bacon and blue cheese for a stellar plain biscuit!

INGREDIENTS:
2 ½ sticks (10oz) unsalted butter
6 strips of bacon cut into ½ inch lardons
4 oz blue cheese
3 cups all purpose flour
2 TBSP Kosher salt
1 TBSP baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ TBSP molasses
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Freeze 2 ½ sticks of unsalted butter for at least 2 hours. 

Fry the bacon in a dry pan until crisp. Remove to a paper towel and drain. Cool to room temperature and set aside. Crumble the blue cheese into pea sized morsels, add to the bacon, and refrigerate until needed. 

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, Kosher salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Remove the butter from the freezer and grate using the large hole side of a box grater. Quickly mix in with your dry ingredients and return to the freezer for 10 minutes. 

In a cup, mix together the molasses and buttermilk. Remove the butter and flour mix from the freezer, make a well in the center, drop in your crumbled bacon and blue cheese, and pour in the wet ingredients. Quickly fold in the flour making sure not to overwork the mix. You’re ready to form biscuits once all of the flour is incorporated and the mix no longer has dry pockets.

Make compact balls of the mix using 2 large spoons and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You should yield 10 to 12 biscuits. Bake in a preheated 325F oven until the biscuits are sturdy and golden brown. About 15 - 20 minutes. 

UPDATE: I've tinkered with the temperature and found that baking at 400F for 8 minutes then turning down the oven to 325F for another 10 minutes results in a slightly taller biscuit. Enjoy!

Check out my Fried Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce recipe for the perfect filling for the ultimate breakfast biscuit!