Sunday, August 31, 2014

Sunday Brunch - Scrambled Pepper Jack Eggs, Sausage & Easy Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits

Happy Sunday! This morning we slept in late. We awoke to a bright and sunny morning, although there are clouds that float by on and off. Unfortunately, it is oppressively humid...almost sauna-like. I made a big Sunday brunch late this morning and we ate around lunch time. It has been a while since I've made my biscuits. I have several biscuit recipes and I was torn between making my Easy Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits and my Buttermilk Biscuits. I decided on the cheddar-black pepper version. They are SO easy to make. I usually make the dough and then roll scoops of dough in my hands to place on the baking sheet. I decided there must be a less messy way than getting dough on my hands so I rummaged through my gadget drawer and grabbed my 3-tablespoon size scoop. It worked like a dream. I proceeded to scoop out 12 beautiful balls of biscuit dough. The dough balls get baked without any flattening. They stay thicker that way. These are some of my absolute favorite biscuits...and that includes the regular kind as well as the grain free kind. They are buttery, cheesy, and I love the little burst of black pepper flavor. If you don't like black pepper, you can easily omit it. 

While the biscuits were baking, I diced some Cabot pepper jack cheese to make scrambled pepper-jack eggs for brunch. It is some of the best pepper jack cheese I have ever eaten. I buy it in large blocks at Costco, but you can find it in smaller sizes at many regular grocery stores. I cracked the eggs and rinsed some fresh strawberries and blueberries. I started browning some Applegate chicken sausage links. I've used both their chicken apple and chicken maple flavor. They are nitrate and nitrite free and I really like them. As soon as the biscuits came out of the oven I scrambled the eggs and "Voila"...we were having a beautiful and delicious brunch in no time. When I went low carb and grain free over 2 years ago, I never ever thought that I would be eating a breakfast or brunch like this again...surely not one that included BISCUITS! Even my hubby, who is not grain free, enjoyed our brunch. He actually ate 2 biscuits with his meal. I snapped some photos below as well as included the recipe for my biscuits and some step-by-step photos of what the dough looks like at various stages. Enjoy!


Flour, butter, egg, half of the cheese (salt, pepper & baking powder) cut in making a crumbly dough
Cream and remaining cheese added; ready to stir in
Final dough is ready to be scooped onto the baking sheet
Scooped into dough balls and ready to bake
Fresh out of the oven...cooling a bit on the rack




Easy Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits

Ingredients:


2 cups blanched almond flour

3 tablespoons "cold" butter, diced
1 large egg (or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters)
1 cup sharp shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 to 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup heavy cream 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly grease a baking pan or line with non-stick foil or parchment paper.  

In a medium bowl, add almond flour, butter, egg, 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese, salt, black pepper, and baking powder. Cut in with a pastry cutter/dough blender until crumbly and all flour is slightly moistened and cheese is pulverized into the mixture. 

Stir in cream and remaining 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese; mix in lightly until dough forms. Use a 3-tablespoon retractable scoop to make 12 even sized biscuits or divide and roll dough into 10 to 12 balls and place on prepared baking pan. Do not flatten dough balls (this will result in a thicker biscuit).  

Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 18-20 minutes or until light golden brown; careful not to overcook. Remove from oven; brush tops with melted butter, if desired. Cool about 5 minutes or so (they are fragile when hot out of the oven).

 
         

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

How do you store the cheese? I always have the problem of thrn either drying out or going moldy in the fridge. Ann

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Ann,

I usually store it tightly wrapped in plastic wrap (over the package wrapper)...and am careful to get all the air out. If I don't think you are going to use it up within a month, you could always wrap and freeze part of it. On occasion, I have had a small leftover piece go bad...but I try to find ways to use it before that happens! :-)

Candace @ Cabot said...

It all looks so gooooood...especially those biscuits! What a wonderful Sunday brunch!

vaccinenurse said...

I envy you your new countertop! It's beautiful! Thanks for your daily entries. I read them all. I feel like neighbors, we're in Montgomery and visit Atlanta fairly often..

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi vaccinenurse,

Thanks so much! So glad you enjoy my blog and posts. I've never been to Montgomery before. I'm guessing you must have family here! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Candace,

Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to using my Cabot Pepper Jack in the biscuits soon...especially with "chili season" coming up soon! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi....
I just had to send you a quick note. Made your Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits tonight to have with our leftover 'zucchini lasagna' for dinner...got them all rolled and into the oven when i realized I forgot to add the baking powder!!! I pulled them back out of the oven, dumped them warm, back into the bowl, added the baking powder and put them back into the oven! They were still delicious!!!! I can only imagine how wonderful these will be when I make them 'right' next time! lol...Thank-you for another amazing recipe.
Cat

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Cat,

Wow...can't believe you were able to rescue them! Years ago, I can remember making a cake and realizing after it had started baking that I forgot to put in the sugar. My cake couldn't be saved! LOL Glad you didn't have to toss this batch and they will probably be better next time! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm fairly new to cooking low carb. Can you please tell me the difference between blanched almond flour vs not blanched? Also the difference between almond flour and almond meal? Sorry for the dumb question. These biscuits look amazing! Can't wait to try them once I know the difference. Thanks so much in advance!
Lori

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Lori,

Welcome to low carb cooking! Don't worry -- your question isn't dumb -- we have all wondered the exact same thing when we first got started! Myself included. Blanched almond flour is almond that are ground "withOUT" skins...it is usually a finer grind. Almond meal is typically ground WITH the skins and a bit more coarse.

While you can use both in many recipes...for baking, almond flour produces a lighter, less dense product. If you are making a pie crust or pizza crust, it really doesn't matter which you use because their natural outcome is dense. For muffins, cakes, breads, etc...I definitely prefer the almond flour. It's pricey though, I'm not going to lie. Also, almond flour is usually sold in 5-lb bags so it is sticker shock for sure. But, that bag will last you a long time and ends up being cheaper if you figure it out "by pound" compared to buying it a pound at a time. I hope that answers your question...feel free to ask me questions any time! :-)

Anonymous said...

Is there a difference between blanched almond flour and almond flour?

BekkaB said...

What is the carb count per biscuit?

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Bekkah,

It will depend on how many biscuits you make with the recipe (based on the size). If you make 1 dozen, the carb count is approximately 2.6 net carbs each.

So you can easily figure out your carbs (net carbs are total carbs minus fiber), here's the calculate I use: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

Hope that helps! :-)

Unknown said...

These were great! I used I cup of almond flour and 1cup of coconut flour

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Cyndy,

Glad you enjoyed them. You used 1 cup of coconut flour??? I'm guess that is a typo because if you used 1 cup in this recipe, I don't think you would have been able to eat them! ;-)

Marianne Kleminski said...

Do you think coconut milk from the can could be used instead of heavy cream? I am dairy free. These sound so good. Also the pepper could that be left out. I would use goat cheese instead of cheddar.

Anonymous said...

Can you use coconut flour instead of almond flour? If so, how much coconut flour should be used? Thanks!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Yes it should work fine and should be delicious using feta as well. Hope you enjoy them! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Anonymous,

Unfortunately this recipe won't work with coconut flour. There are a number of other coconut flour biscuit recipes you should be able to find online but there isn't really an amount I could give you to swap and make this particular recipe with coconut flour. Sorry about that! :-)