Breakfast Feature: Magic Sausage Rolls

Don't laugh because I said "magic sausage." If you're laughing, you can't eat them, and that means you have to deal with your brutal hangover.

Yes, that is why they are magic; these breakfast rolls are the ultimate hangover relief food. They're composed of Jimmy Dean sausage, a brick of Philadelphia cream cheese, and a roll of Pillsbury Flaky Layers biscuits. The exact ingredients are important for these, so I don't bother with generic versions.

I like to get as far along in the preparation as possible the day before so the next morning when I'm glaring at my kitchen out of one bloodshot eye, I don't have to tackle a lot of prep. This usually includes browning the sausage and mixing it with the cream cheese, but this time I took it a step further an prepped the biscuits, too. It's crucial to get the Flaky Layers biscuits, because you need to peel each biscuit into 3 pieces, which isn't too hard if they're already flaky layers.

Several people that I've made these rolls for have been hesitant because of the sausage cream cheese mixture, but these are the only food that I make that has NO leftovers EVERY time; I think that says it all.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 roll Jimmy Dean Sausage (I prefer Maple flavor)

8oz Philadelphia cream cheese

1 roll Pillsbury Flaky Layer Grands Biscuits

Directions:

1) Brown the sausage and drain it very thoroughly (I put it on a layer of several paper towels and dab it to get it as drained as I can)

2) After the sausage cools, mix it with the brick of cream cheese

3) Peel each biscuit into 3 pieces to get a total of 24 thinner biscuits

4) Spoon the sausage mixture into the biscuits and pinch them closed so it looks like a little taco

5) Put in a baking dish and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes until the biscuits are brown

Biscuits and Gravy

Tonight I tried my hand at biscuits and gravy. I hadn't made either before and its always pretty satisfying. We threw some bacon in as well, because we happen to have tons of it.

Bacon turned out alright, I probably should have cooked it longer, but I think I like it crispier than most people anyway.

Biscuits were a new adventure. I don't really bake much, but figured I'd give it  a shot. I got covered with flour which was neat. They weren't particularly hard. Mix the stuff in bowl, roll it flat and cut them into circles. They turned out really good I thought.

The gravy was another story. We got the Jimmy Dean sausage and broke it down, but I think we really ought to have gotten ground sausage. The JD was hard to break into small chucks, and I sort of gave up halfway through. The gravy didn't thicken like the recipe said it would, and while decent, it wasn't as thick as I'd want.  In the end the sausage should have been smaller, and the gravy thicker.

 

-Jeff

Biscuit recipe from Allrecipes.com

Sausage Gravy recipe from Allrecipes.com