Sausage Biscuits

Eat your heart out, McDonalds. Literally, if possible, actually. Because this vegan, from-scratch version of a breakfast classic is tastier, healthier, and 100% cruelty-free. 

The best part? Neither the buttermilk biscuits, nor the sausage is difficult whatsoever. In fact, most of this can be prepped beforehand to make morning snappier than popping those rock-hard frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches in your microwave, minus the heartburn. 


Let's start with the biscuits. 

Gather your ingredients and preheat the oven to 450. In addition to the kitchen basics shown above, you'll also need almond milk and earth balance butter. Note: taking the butter out now, a few minutes before adding it into the dough is helpful when working with it later. Also, I used sweetened almond milk, to counteract the "buttermilk" flavor that will be emulated.

To duplicate buttermilk, add 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar (Bragg's is always best) to 3/4 cup almond milk. Set aside in fridge to curdle. Just like the real thing. 

Next, combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Then, use a fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the texture is coarse. 

Quickly mix in the milk,

...and form dough into a ball in the bowl. Refrigerate this for 20-30 minutes. 

Now, I will tell you right now I am a terrible baker. This is because I fail to follow what seems to be silly instructions such as chilling the dough. Or preheating the oven. Or using a timer. Or adding baking soda. What can I say- an experimental cook like myself just isn't born with the precise, mathematical patience of a baker. So trust me- if I include a step as necessary, it's because I've tried to skip it and failed miserably, so it's likely pretty important.

Don't go press play on the DVR just yet, though. While the dough is chilling, we can start on the sausage.

Boil 1/2 cup water and gather your dry ingredients. 

Once the water is boiling, turn it off and add 1/2 cup TVP. Stir, and let set for about 5 minutes to allow the TVP to re-hydrate. 

Every vegan kitchen has these two ingredients on hand at all times: ground flax seed, and nutritional yeast. Both necessary for countless recipes, and extremely healthy to add to your diet. Flax in particular is a wonderful binding agent and can be used as an egg replacer, as when combined with water flax becomes extremely gelatinous. In this recipe, this is exactly what it is used for. 

Add in all dry ingredients and spices and mix well to incorporate the flavors completely. 

Now, add the remaining ingredients: Bragg's liquid aminos (or soy sauce), maple syrup, and the liquid smoke mixed with water. 

This is what I mean by liquid smoke in the 1/4 cup water. It doesn't need to sit or anything, but by combining the water and liquid smoke together, the liquid smoke can evenly distribute throughout the dough.

It will look like this when ready. Go ahead, take a pinch and eat it. It already tastes damn good. 

Heat up about 1-2 tbsp of oil in a large skillet (that will fit a lid), and form your sausage patties by hand. One batch should yield about 8 patties. 

Fry them on the skillet at medium-high heat, covered, for about 3-5 minutes, until a nice crispy brown.  

Flip the patties over and reduce heat to medium. Cook, still covered, another 3-5 minutes until they are both steam cooked in the middle and a crispy brown on both sides. They will smell like sausage, and look like sausage, but don't trip out; I promise there are no secret, poisonous ingredients snuck in this recipe.

Now, back to the biscuits. Logically, it is time-efficient to pull the biscuit dough out once the sausage mixture is combined (before making them into patties). This way, the biscuits can be in the oven while you finish up the sausage. It just seemed a bit confusing to go back and forth with pictures and instructions on the blog itself. 

So, remove the dough from the fridge and place on a clean, floured surface. Knead for about 1-2 minutes until smooth.

Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rounds using a biscuit cutter or more practically, a small glass jar. You should be able to get 8 biscuits from the dough.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 minutes in your preheated 450 degree oven.

They should come out looking scrump-dilly-umptious indeed.

Now if you took my advice and timed it right, the sausages will be ready about the same exact time as the biscuits. If not, I won't mention all the times I've used a toaster oven to keep half the meal warm each time I don't time it right either.

Cut these babies in half and liberally spread some butter onto each side. 

Place a patty on each bottom, and make cute little delicious breakfast sandwiches. Double-fisting is, in fact, necessary here. 

Sausage & Buttermilk Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches
Prep time: 25 minutes Cook time: 10-12 minutes
Total: approx 35-40 minutes
Makes about 8 sandwiches

Buttermilk Biscuits:
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda 
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter
3/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Sausage Patties:
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup TVP
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 cup water/ 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
3 tbsp Bragg's liquid aminos OR soy sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
oil (for frying)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 

Combine milk and vinegar in small bowl, set aside in fridge to curdle and create buttermilk.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into large mixing bowl and mix well. 

Cut butter into mixture with a fork until coarse in texture. Quickly mix buttermilk into flour mixture. 

Form ball of dough in bowl, and set in fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes.

Boil 1/2 cup water in large saucepan. Add TVP and turn off heat, allowing TVP to set for 5 minutes.

Add all dry ingredients to pan: oat bran, vital wheat gluten, whole wheat flour, nutritional yeast, ground flax seed, garlic powder, ground sage, fennel seed, black pepper, and brown sugar. Mix well. 

Add in remaining ingredients (except for oil): liquid smoke (set in 1/4 cup water), Bragg's, and maple syrup. Stir until totally combined. 

Remove chilled biscuit dough from the fridge. Knead dough on a clean, floured surface 1-2 minutes until smooth. 

Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rounds.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes.

While biscuits are cooking, cook sausages. Heat large frying pan (that has a lid) with 1-2 tbsp of oil. 

Form patties by hand (about the size of your palm), making 8 total. Fry in oil at medium-high heat, covered with a lid, for 3-5 minutes until brown. Reduce heat to medium, then flip and fry, covered for another 3-5 minutes. When done, the patties should be cooked on the inside, and an even crispy brown on the outside. 

Remove biscuits from oven. 

Cut biscuits into halves. Spread butter along both sides of all biscuits. 

To assemble the sandwiches, simply place a patty on each bottom, and cover with a top. 

Voila!