CANDIED BACON BISCUITS WITH SEA SALT BUTTER

By TNTPayne

Fluffy, buttery, Southern-style biscuits studded with jewels of sticky-sweet candied bacon with a kick of cayenne at the end. Top that with crunchy, salty sea salt butter. These are extremely easy to make and so incredibly delicious and decadent. Maybe a little dangerous, because once you try them, odds are you will probably want to make them again and again.

Ingredients

• For the Brown Sugar-Cayenne Candied Bacon:
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (or more to taste)
• 8 oz bacon (I used Applegate Farms Uncured Sunday Bacon)
• For the Biscuits:
• 2 cups White Lily brand Unbleached Self Rising Flour
• 6 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces
• 2 tbsp cold shortening
• 3/4 – 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• For the Sea Salt Butter:
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large pinches sea salt

Details

Servings 8
Preparation time 30mins
Cooking time 70mins
Adapted from sarahjunebakes.wordpress.com

Preparation

Step 1

For the Brown Sugar-Cayenne Candied Bacon:

First, line a jelly roll pan or other rimmed backing sheet with foil. Next, in a large shallow dish (such as a pie plate), combine the brown sugar and cayenne. Press the bacon into the brown sugar mixture and then place it sugar side up on the foil lined baking sheet. Sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over the bacon. Place the bacon into a cold oven and then turn on to 400 degrees. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until bacon is crisp (but not burnt) and the sugar is bubbly. Let cool completely, and then chop into small pieces with a knife.

For the Biscuits:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Measure flour into a large mixing bowl, and whisk to fluff it a bit. Add your cold butter and shortening, and cut it into the flour with a pastry blender, until pea-sized pieces form. Make a well in the flour mixture, and add your buttermilk. I usually add 3/4 cup at first, and add more if I need it. Mix the dough lightly with a fork. The dough will be sticky. If it is too dry, add a little more buttermilk. When it looks like it is just about to come together, dump in the candied bacon pieces and mix in.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead 5-6 times. Pat it out into a circle 1″ in thickness. Using a large circular biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits. Press the cutter straight down into the biscuits and do not twist. Place onto a parchment paper or Silpat lined baking sheet, side by side. Brush with the melted butter.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. While they’re baking, make the sea salt butter.

For the Sea Salt Butter:

Combine softened butter with sea salt. Spread over warm biscuits.

Recipe Tips:

Feel free to add more cayenne if you like things a little more spicy. The current amount just leaves you with a tiny bit of a kick at the end.

If you do not have buttermilk on hand, make your own! This is what I always do. Just put 1 tbsp of white vinegar in the bottom of your liquid measuring cup, and top it off with milk (any type will do, but whole is best if you have it) to make one cup. Let it sit for 5 minutes, and you will have buttermilk!

The trick to good biscuits is cold butter and shortening, and not to handle them too much. Don’t be stressed and fuss over them. They are meant to be rustic and not perfect.

Try to get a sea salt that has larger flakes. You could just top these biscuits with salted butter, but the fun of this sea salt butter is you can control how salty you want it to be, and also the bit of crunch you get with the sea salt is fantastic.