The April Biscuit of the Month is somewhat of a classic with a couple of twists to make it my own. The beloved bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit is a classic combination that has never failed to satisfy my biscuit cravings. This biscuit, although a little to the left of a classic BEC, was no different.
1. Inspiration Behind the Biscuit
- What sparked this flavor combo?
- I’m not sure who the first person was who decided that eggs, cheese, and bacon belonged together on a biscuit, but bless them and their descendants for the rest of time. Bacon, egg, and cheese is just too classic of a flavor combo to not have represented at least once in this series of Biscuits of the Month.
- Connection to tradition or innovation?
- All I know is that it’s a classic. Here’s a Mental Floss video on the origins of the popular combination of flavors.
- All I know is that it’s a classic. Here’s a Mental Floss video on the origins of the popular combination of flavors.
2. Recipe Development Process for the April Biscuit of the Month
- Challenges faced during development
- The biggest challenge this time was getting the grapefruit juice flavor to shine through in the jam. The strawberry is up front, then a bit of tartness from the cranberries, but finally a twang of fresh grapefruit comes through. Figured out that I should add the juice later in the cooking process – basically right before turning off the heat under the pot – to allow it to use the residual heat to incorporate into the jam without completely suffocating the fresh taste of grapefruit juice.
- Ingredients you experimented with
- Grapefruit pepper: used to season the beef bacon; a wonderful reminder of how simple it is to make your own seasoning blends
- Beef bacon: I’ve never had beef bacon before this experiment, but it’s not bad. Definitely tastes like a thin slice of steak. I can dig it.
- Smoked butter: smoked butter is like brown butter but smoking it takes it a couple steps further. Instead of a nutty flavor, smoked butter begins to taste like cheese. It’s such a delightful addition to biscuits!
3. The Biscuit Construction
- Assembly of the biscuit
- Top biscuit – garlic & smoked butter biscuit
- Scranberry (strawberry + cranberry) jam
- Grapefruit pepper beef bacon
- Loaded omelet with green onion and smoked gouda
- Bottom biscuit – garlic & smoked butter biscuit
- Textural details
- The silkiness of the cheese in the loaded omelet paired perfectly with the crunchy outside of the biscuit.
- The beef bacon has some crisp on the ends, but was still a little chewier than I would’ve preferred in a sandwich.
4. The Flavor Profile
- Flavor balance
- The smokiness of the butter in the biscuit combined with the beef bacon? Sensational.
- The fresh pops of green onion in the loaded omelet? Necessary.
- The sweetness of the scranberry jam balancing out all the savory, smoky, peppery-ness of the other ingredients? It healed me.
5. Cooking Tips & Techniques
- Biscuit-making tips
- Use cold ingredients and utensils, if possible – cold butter makes for fluffy biscuits
- Avoid over-mixing and over-working the dough before forming biscuits. It’s okay if the dough isn’t uniform
- Brush with butter or buttermilk before baking for more browning
- More Biscuit Tips
- Additional tips for this specific biscuit
- Use garlic powder in the biscuits. Fresh, minced garlic is okay to use, but the dried garlic powder distributes evenly and doesn’t add any moisture that could alter the texture of your biscuits.
6. Visual Appeal
- Presentation
- I did make these biscuits smaller since I was also planning on making sausage and gravy for this morning’s breakfast feast and didn’t want to be too stuffed.
- The smaller biscuits had more trouble standing up to the weight of the ingredients, but since ate it without putting it down and picking it up too many times, there was no issue.
- It looked like a regular bacon, egg and cheese with strawberry jam since none of the ingredients (aside from the bacon) are too visually different from the traditional versions.
- Any garnish or final touches?
- The only finishing touch to the biscuit this month was a brush of butter on the finished biscuits – just because.
7. Tasting Experience
- The first bite
- A solid biscuit sandwich although, I will say, the beef bacon just isn’t as good as pork bacon – in my opinion. The first bite gave something in between a bacon, egg, and cheese and a steak, egg, and cheese.
- How do the flavors evolve as you eat it?
- The more scranberry jam in the bite, the more complete and cohesive the vision was. The grapefruit on the bacon kind of gets lost among all the other flavors in the fully composed biscuit, but the jam does a lot of the heavy lifting as far as fresh, pops of flavor are concerned.
- Feedback from others
- TBD – I’d love to make these again so I can get a friend’s feedback.
8. Serving Suggestions
- How would you serve this biscuit?
- This biscuit would be perfect with a glass of citrus juice – orange or grapefruit – on the side to tie in more of that bright flavor and round out the meal.
- Perfect for a specific occasion?
- These biscuits are for the first days – first days of school for the kids, first day at your or your partner’s new job, first day cooking in your new home. It just feels like solid beginning to something new.
- What would you name this biscuit?
- The Jo – a classic name (Josephine) with a bit of a twist. Just like this biscuit.
9. The Verdict: Would You Make the April Biscuit of the Month Again?
- Would you tweak anything for next time?
- Cooking the bacon just a tad longer. I enjoyed the bacon not cracking into pieces, but just a little more crunch would be nice and would make it easier to take cleaner bites.
- More grapefruit flavor – either in the pepper for the bacon or in the jam.
- Overall thoughts
- As with any other bacon, egg, and cheese, it was a solidly delicious breakfast sandwich. I do have some tweaks for almost every single element of the biscuit, but I would definitely make it again.
- 7/10
10. Next Month’s Biscuit
- The last half of May is blueberry season here in North Carolina so I think a very blueberry forward biscuit will be my next experiment. Blueberries in on and all around the biscuit. Lemon blueberry glaze, blueberry jam as a spread, blueberry sugar on top before baking and/or to finish? More on that in the next few weeks or so…
