Manly Men Father's Day Bread
Such was the title of Thursday morning's email of our treat. And with that, these "manly men" were some of the first in line.
Have you ever seen a prettier lineup of manly men? Me neither!
So what is a Manly Men Father's Day Bread?
This.
A sausage biscuit roll covered with bacon and served with gravy. (Deb Disclaimer # 1: Gravy is not in the above picture. Nor does a picture of the gravy appear anywhere in this post. Deb has her airhead moments although at Deb's age, the phrase "senior moments" may more accurately apply.)
Records show that the email was sent at 8:18AM, and conversation noted that all of the Manly Man Father's Day Bread was completely gone before 8:30AM.
"Bacon will do that."
Yes, yes it will.
One young man said that he was "going to slap his mama for not making this when he was a kid." (Deb Disclaimer # 2: Quotes of taste testers do not necessarily reflect the views of this blogger. In no way does this blog endorse or encourage the slapping of mothers.)
Another young father of two said that he "didn't want to eat the last bite because then it would be gone and he wouldn't have another bite left." Complete with sad face icon. (Tissue anyone?)
Words such as "fantastic!" and "best biscuits and gravy I've ever had" and "that was the best thing you've brought in so far" were heard around the cubicles as well as spoons being dipped in the last of the gravy to "eat like a soup" after all of the biscuit rolls were gone.
Ready for the recipe and to see how it was made? This time I won't tell you that this is easy. It isn't hard either, but it definitely isn't easy. There were a number of steps; it didn't take me long, but one of the steps is a bit tricky.
We begin with The Star - BACON. <Insert choral sounds of angels singing "Ahhh!")
I like to use a thick-slice bacon that we get at Aldi.
Aldi? The low-price, no-name place where you use a quarter to pick up a cart, pack your own groceries, and get your quarter back when you put your cart back?
Yes, Aldi. Because let me tell you.
This. Stuff. Is. Good.
And it's not pricey. About $6 for 24oz. in our area. But even if the price was a bit higher, we would still buy it.
It is good bacon. Smokey. Full of flavor. And thick slices. And it isn't "bacon" that used to have feathers. This is REAL bacon from a REAL pig - a "wonderful, magical animal" as Homer Simpson has been known to say.
I cut a stack of bacon (12 oz, give or take for this double recipe?) in half crosswise. Then I cut each stack in half lengthwise. I did this because I wanted a piece of bacon to serve as a cutting guide. If you want thicker biscuit slices, then you can skip this step.
Next I half cooked these slices. I didn't think that the biscuit rolls would be in the oven long enough to fully cook the bacon, so I didn't want to put raw bacon slices on the biscuit rolls, and I was afraid fully cooked bacon wouldn't curve around the rolls plus it would burn to a crisp after the baking time. So I decided to half cook them.
I did half of the slices in a nonstick frying pan...
...and half in the oven (no pic, please refer to Deb Disclaimer # 1 above), and either method worked just fine. I guess it took about 15 minutes on the stove over medium heat or about 20 - 25 minutes in the oven at 350. They don't really look like much at this point, but patience young grasshopper!
Next I browned up 2 pounds of sausage. (Keep in mind that I am making a double recipe here!) And you can see that I added herbs from our garden - fresh chives, sage, rosemary and parsley.
Next I put together a batch of Angel Biscuit dough. All of these ingredients can easily be cut in half for a single recipe. This is based on the Angel Biscuit recipe that found to make for our daughter-in-law, A. Her mother makes Angel Biscuits for Thanksgiving, and I would never say that these are as good as the ones that her mother made, but they are pretty good! There is a point in the recipe below where I talk about freezing these sausage rolls. That is one of the beauties about this recipe. Freezing before baking is a step in the process, so once you've done that, you can take as many as you need out to bake and you still have a stash in the freezer for the next time! I modified the recipe just slightly by reducing some of the milk and adding 2 eggs instead since I wanted a bit more body to the dough from the eggs and to keep it from being too wet of a dough. If you want the original Angel Biscuits recipe, you may find it
here on the King Arthur Flour site.
So here goes...
5 cups all-purpose flour
4 t. yeast
4 T. sugar
1-1/2 t. salt
5 t. baking powder
1/2 cup shortening (I used butter flavor)
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 8 T. pats
1-1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
I used my food processor, but this can be made by hand in a bowl. I added the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and baking powder to the food processor bowl and mixed for 5 seconds to combine. I cut the shortening in by pulses until crumbly. Then I added the butter and cut it in with pulses until the butter was about the size of peas. Finally I poured in the milk and eggs and pulsed about 12 times until the dough just held together. I dumped this out on a floured surface, kneaded gently for about 10 turns, formed into two disks, lightly covered the disks with a tea towel and let them rest about 10 minutes to relax the gluten before I continued.
While the dough was resting, I added 4oz of softened cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sour cream, a dash of salt, 1 - 2 T. of dried parsley and 1 - 2 t. of dried rosemary into the processor bowl and mixed until well combined.
After resting the dough, I rolled one disk out fairly thinly into a rough rectangle and spread 1/2 of the mixture of cream cheese over the surface. I added this step to help hold the sausage and cheese on the dough and keep things a bit moister.
Then I spread 3/4 lb of sausage over the surface along with about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. May I say that this is looking promising already?
Now it was time for the trickiest part. The dough is fairly soft, but I carefully rolled it up from the long side to form a log. I didn't really have any trouble with the dough not cooperating, but I can see where that could be possible. If so, I would suggest that you slide the dough onto a cookie sheet, set it in the freezer for about 10 minutes, take a deep breath and try again. And then I repeated each of the above roll, spread, fill and roll steps for the other half of the dough. And I placed both logs on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Now, remember that half-cooked bacon? I do! And I laid it over each log. And suddenly we could see manly men bread starting to take shape!
Now this was the first time I had ever made this, and I wanted the bacon to shine. I could have cut each log into individual biscuits, laid them on their side and baked, but I couldn't figure out how to work the bacon in for as prominent a presentation that way. And I wanted the bacon to take center stage! But the next time I make these, I will cut each log in half so that I have more ends and to help the centers bake more fully and evenly. I would add one other small change as suggested by one of my most faithful taste testers. I would cut small slits in each side of the center of the log. No more than about 4 slits, but just enough to help steam escape and help the center of the logs bake as evenly as the ends.
Does that make any sense? Or have I just put you all to sleep here?
Now, after letting the dough rest for about 30 minutes to an hour, I covered each log with plastic wrap and set them in the freezer overnight. The freezer step is actually not just so I could sleep. The freezer step helps the dough to bake up tender. That being said, this recipe can be put together to this point and then frozen up to 2 months before baking. How sweet is that?!
I slept well Wednesday night, then work up Thursday morning and preheated the oven to 375 degrees. I embellished these logs with one more small indulgence by sprinkling the tops with just a touch of demerara sugar to bring out more of the sweetness in the bacon before sliding the logs into the oven and baking them for 30 minutes.
While baking, I made the gravy. I had about 1/2 lb. of sausage remaining plus its drippings. If you have a favorite sausage gravy recipe, then by all means use it! Here is what I did if you'd like to try it.
1/2 lb. of cooked sausage and drippings (my sausage had been seasoned with herbs, too)
4 T. butter
4 T. flour
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups milk
2 T. maple syrup
1 T. Worstershire sauce
Salt & pepper to taste
I melted the butter with the sausage and drippings and whisked the flour in and cooked for 1 - 2 minutes. Then I added the chicken stock and stirred it for about a minute before adding the milk. I cooked it for about 10 - 15 minutes until it was to my desired thickness. I seasoned to taste with the syrup, Worstershire sauce, salt and pepper.
And then I began to smell the bacon and biscuits and couldn't wait for them to be done!
And finally, they were! Look at this!!! <Insert choral sounds of angels again here!>
Oh! And look at what I remembered to do this time! I caught a pic of a cut serving!! (Ok, so yes, I know. I didn't show you the gravy on top...but at least I showed you a cut serving!!!)
Since I don't have a serving tray large enough for these logs to fit, I cut them into half logs and squeezed them on the serving tray and headed to work to hopefully bring some smiles to all of the "manly men" in the office!
Sausage. Biscuits. Gravy. And BACON! HELLO!!! Whether you are a father or not, or have a father or not, I hope you give these a try sometime! I think these are a keeper!
Thanks for stopping by! Happy baking and happy Friday!
