Salty Sage Biscuit Brunch Sandwiches

February 2012

Look at the sun shining on that butter and the flour clinging to those kitchen tools.

In my minty colored kitchen, that combination could easily mean a morning batch of pancakes, which I could happily eat once a week. For the sake of variety, and for the sake of keeping my chief pancake flipper guessing, I diverged from my Saturday morning creature comforts.

I sure did! I said “sage” too! Then I started talking about cheese, and from there, things became a little salty but fortunately, not in the sassy or sarcastic sense of the word.

Salty Sage Biscuits for Breakfast Sandwiches
Makes 5 larger biscuits or 10 small biscuits
(the pictured biscuits were on the smaller side)

Biscuit Ingredients

3/4 cup chestnut flour
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat pastry flour, plus more for dusting
1 Tablespoon coarse sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons grated pecorino cheese
Fresh sage, chopped
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 stick organic, unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
3/4 cup buttermilk (I was fresh out, so I used this method for homemade buttermilk)

Recommended Breakfast Sandwich Filling

Sliced Porqueta
Aged gouda
Eggs (local/free-range), sunny side up

For the Biscuits

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Position rack in the middle. Line a baking stone with parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the salt, baking powder, baking soda, black pepper and pecorino cheese. Add the chopped sage.

Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse sand.

Add the buttermilk, and stir until a dough forms.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface, and knead it until it comes together.

Pat the dough into a rectangle, about 1 in thick.

Use a small, round cutter, stamp out as many biscuits as possible. Reroll the scraps if necessary and repeat.

Transfer the biscuits to the baking stone, and bake for about 20-30 minutes, until golden and risen.

Let the biscuits cool.