Breakfast Sandwich Spice
Light, flaky, buttery… all adjectives that describe the perfect biscuit.
The biscuit has very humble beginnings as a way for cooks to use the remaining eggs, butter, and flour before the beginning of Lent. In more recent years the biscuit has become a staple at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Biscuits are often paired with sausage gravy and eggs at breakfast, are utilized as a vehicle for cheese and meats at lunch, and are paired with just about anything at dinner.
The biscuit seems like a relatively simple mixture of flour, baking powder, and butter. But its simplicity is deceiving… Biscuit dough needs to be handled with great care. The butter added to the mixture should be very cold and the mixture itself should not be overworked. Once biscuit dough has been overworked, there is no saving it: the results will be a very dense and hard biscuit (essentially the opposite of what we often look for in a biscuit). The biscuit should be light, fluffy, and moist without being dense. The cold chunks of butter are important because as they melt into the biscuit while baking they create tiny pockets of steam that puffs and lifts the dough. These pockets turn into that beautiful light and flaky texture we crave with biscuits. The steam comes from butter’s water content, which is usually about 15 to 20 percent. By overworking the dough, your butter melts and is incorporated into the dough. The butter is no longer providing the pockets of steam necessary for lift and flakiness. The result is dense biscuit dough and therefore a dense biscuit. The moral of the story, DON’T overwork your dough! Treat it carefully and you will have the most beautiful, light, and flaky biscuits. Even your Nana will compliment you on your stellar creation!
Now that you have the perfect moist and flaky biscuit you can either eat it as is or create an even more delectable breakfast sandwich. The addition of bacon, fresh spinach, and a perfectly poached egg brings your perfect biscuit to a new level of perfection. Poaching eggs may seem like a daunting task but in reality, it is so very simple. Carefully crack the egg into a ramekin; assuring that the yolk does not break. Place a large saucepan onto a medium-high flame filled halfway with water; bring the water to a boil. Add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water and slowly swirl the water with a slotted spoon to create a whirlpool. Carefully slide the egg into the water and cook for 3-5 minutes until the white part of the egg is no longer translucent. Remove with a slotted spoon, place onto the biscuit with the spinach and bacon.