Biscuits and Gravy Casserole

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Spray a square baking dish (8×8 or 9×9) with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don’t want the fats to melt.)

Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto a floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times.

Press/roll out the dough into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough.

Cut each biscuit into quarters.

Layer half of the quarters in the prepared pan.

Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside. If baking separate and not in casserole form, bake the biscuits for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

In a heavy skillet, brown the ground breakfast sausage over medium heat until fully cooked.

Add the flour to the sausage, and use a spoon to stir until the flour is completely absorbed.

Cook flour/sausage mixture for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Slowly pour the milk in, stirring in between each addition. You want to give the mixture a chance to absorb most of the liquid before each new addition. Towards the end it won’t absorb as much, but will start to thicken and become like gravy.

Add salt and black pepper.

Stir frequently until mixture comes to a slight boil.

Taste, and adjust seasonings as desired. (I usually add more black pepper)

If the gravy is too thick, add a bit more milk. You want the gravy to be thickened but not too thick, not “globby”.

Pour gravy over the cooked biscuits.

Layer the remaining uncooked, quartered biscuits over the gravy.

Place the casserole dish on a baking sheet, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. If they start to over-brown, you can cover with foil for the last 10 minutes or so.