Kevin really wanted me to choose bacon when it was my turn, but I picked mushrooms instead and included bacon in my stuffed mushrooms. Well, someone picked bacon this week, so I get another go, and I chose to bake something.
~Maple Bacon Biscuits~
First, cook 1 12-ounce package of bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, in a frying pan. I used low sodium bacon. Pat dry on paper towels to rid of excess grease.
Whisk together 3.5 cups flour, 2 Tablespoons sugar, 2 Tablespoons baking powder (recipe calls for 1, but my roommate Will told me to routinely double that to make stuff rise better), 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Cut in 2 sticks of butter "until it resembles small peas", whatever the hell that means. This part was very hard, so do your best.
Stir in bacon, 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons maple syrup (I used regular Ralph's brand pancake syrup, because I have a lot of it, which may have been a mistake, but they tasted good to me), and 3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons of buttermilk. Mix together until the dough comes together; it will still be clumpy. I suggest using flour to help with this process.
Roll out the dough to 1-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut into 2-inch rounds (I didn't have a cookie cutter, so I used the 1/4 cup measure, and it worked okay). This should make about 24 biscuits.
Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
While they are chilling, mix together egg wash: 1 egg, 1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream.
Brush the egg was on the biscuits and sprinkle 1 pinch of coarse sea salt on each biscuit (I didn't have coarse sea salt and wasn't going to buy it just for this, so I used a salt grinder that had course sea salt inside of it -- salt is salt!).
Place 1-2 inches apart on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 F.
Drizzle 1 teaspoon of maple syrup (here I think the type of syrup is important...I probably really should have used maple, because mine came out REALLY sticky!) on each biscuit and bake for ~3 minutes more.
You tasted breakfast before you even got them in your mouth -- it was amazing! They were really sticky, which took away from the quality, in my opinion, because I don't like food that is too messy (sticky) to eat, but they were tasty. I brought them with me to LA when I visited Kevin, and he nommed on them pretty good.~*~
