I’m back with another breakdown for this month’s biscuit. I wanted to dedicate the February Biscuit of the Month to simple flavors that I love 💕 – apple, cinnamon, the spices that make breakfast sausage irresistible. And I came up with this: a glazed apple butter biscuit with ginger apple butter and homemade turkey breakfast sausage.

 

1. Inspiration Behind the Biscuit

• What sparked this flavor combo?
  • I wanted something sweet and savory.
  • I also just wanted a really good, straightforward sausage biscuit.
  • I recalled how delicious the Bojangles’ bo’berry sausage biscuits are and the fact that it isn’t blueberry season in North Carolina yet, then settled on apples for the complementary flavor.
• Connection to tradition or innovation?
  • The apple butter is obviously a very traditional biscuit condiment, but I’ve never had a biscuit with apple butter IN the dough. This was my first attempt making a batch myself.

 

2. Recipe Development Process for the February biscuit of the month

• Challenges faced during development
  • Waiting all day long for the apple butter to be finished!!!! lol
  • Otherwise, this was a simple biscuit to make:
    • I used my sweet potato biscuit recipe as a base and just subbed in apple butter for the sweet potato puree. There are still some tweaking to do, but I’ll keep the most up-to-date recipe over on the apple butter biscuit post.
• Ingredients you experimented with
  • The turkey sausage went through 2 rounds of testing.
    • Batch 1: Turkey sausage with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and fennel (toasted and ground to a powder)
    • Batch 2: Turkey sausage with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and fennel, rubbed sage, marjoram (toasted and ground but not to a powder, red pepper flakes (also coarsely ground)
  • Both batches were good and, sort of surprisingly, tasted like sausage I would buy from the store. Batch 2 was more complex and those extra spices did shine through.
  • I liked the result from the spices not being ground all the way down into a powder because gave each bite a bit of its own character, but the finely ground powder will give you a more consistent flavor throughout.

 

3. The Biscuit Construction

• Assembly of the dish
  • • Top Biscuit (apple butter biscuit)
    • Apple Butter
    • Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage
    • Apple Butter
    • Bottom Biscuit
• Textural details
  • The biscuit, glaze, apple butter, and sausage seem to melt together.

 

4. The Flavor Profile

• Flavor balance
  • Sausage (pork or turkey) pair well with apples in any form and the sweet glaze did a great job at coating, bringing together, and balancing out the salt and spice.

 

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
  • This month I used a sweet potato biscuit which may require some extra handling to get the puree incorporated, but don’t overdo it
  • Brush with butter or buttermilk before baking for more browning
  • More Biscuit Tips
• Additional tips for this specific dish
  • You can use store-bought apple butter, but it is worth it to make a batch at home. This slow cooker recipe is super easy and low stakes.
  • Don’t skimp on the apple butter.

 

6. Visual Appeal

• Presentation
  • The heart-shaped biscuit was easy to accomplish because I have heart-shaped cookie cutters. The heart-shaped sausage patty, however, took some sculpting.
  • Remember to make sausage patties slightly larger than you want the cooked patties to end up because they will shrink.
• Any garnish or final touches?
  • The glaze was the finishing touch this month. The biscuit is a little sweet on its own, but the sweet and savory combo is kicked up a notch by a really simple glaze. You could even add another flavor like lemon juice or mint extract.

 

7. Tasting Experience

• The first bite
  • You should probably wait a bit for the glaze to harden on the biscuit, but I didn’t do that. The first bite was messy, but worth it.
  • The apple butter and the spices in the sausage complemented each other perfectly.
• How do the flavors evolve as you eat it?
  • The simplicity of the biscuit means all the flavors were pretty much out front from the first bite.
• Feedback from others
  • N/A – I’ve got to make another batch to gather some opinions

 

8. Serving Suggestions

• How would you serve this biscuit?
  • The biscuit was okay as is – eaten with my hands, but I might even think to serve this biscuit with a fork and knife. That way, adding more apple butter and glaze wouldn’t be a concern.
• Perfect for a specific occasion?
  • These are great for a fall or winter brunch.
  • I think kids would really like these because there’s something like applesauce and a sweet glaze and sausage. So maybe for the morning after a sleepover for your kids and their friends.
• What would you name this biscuit?
  • There are lots of apples involved and going back to the basics makes me think of the first story I remember hearing about with an apple involved. No, not Snow White. Eve from the first book of the Bible. And, lucky for us, this biscuit isn’t forbidden at all.
  • The February Biscuit of the Month will be called “the Eve”.

 

9. The Verdict: Would You Make the February Biscuit of the Month Again?

• Would you tweak anything for next time?
  • I am already working on making slightly larger but still fluffy apple butter biscuits because these deserve to be a full sandwich one day.
  • Also, I need to remember that these sausage patties weren’t manufactured and will puff up and shrink. Over-flatten or use a press for
• Overall thoughts
  • Once I get my apple butter biscuit recipe just right, this will be a staple for me. I’m so glad this biscuit development reminded me of how easy and satisfying it is to make my own breakfast sausage. I’m never going back.

 

10. Next Month’s Biscuit

• March….spinach, herbs, and asparagus are all in season here in North Carolina, and March always makes me think of St. Patrick’s Day (which is also my dad’s birthday). Fun (?) Fact: I am a Black American woman with Irish ancestry on both sides of my family, which is a complicated story I’m sure, but I like to think that I am somewhat entitled to celebrate.
• This year, March will be dedicated to infusing a biscuit with some of my favorite ingredients that happen to be green.