Okay, so when I say these are "quick," I don't mean that they are microwaveable or anything like that....what I do mean is that the biscuits take less than 10 minutes to get into the oven, and after that, it took about 15 minutes for me to get them to the table with all the finishing touches. Pretty good for a meal that is completely made from scratch.
And just look at those beauties...
Biscuit Ingredients:
-2 cups all purpose flour
-4 tsp. baking powder
-3/4 tsp. baking soda
-3/4 tsp. salt
-1 cup buttermilk (sub. 1 tsp lemon juice and fill cup rest of way w/ milk)
-4 tbsp. butter
Preheat the oven to 450F and prepare a pan.
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Quickly cut up your butter and sprinkle it into the bowl. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, combine the butter into then flour mixture until it looks like crumbs (the faster the better; you don't want the butter to melt. We are working for imperfection!). Next, pour in your buttermilk and stir with a spatula until it creates a sticky dough.
Flour a surface and dump your batter out. Flour your hands and fold the dough over itself, with care, 5-6 times, being sure not to press down on it. It should be airy and light. Next, form your dough into a 1 inch high surface, and using a 2 inch cookie cutter or glass dipped in flour, cut out as many biscuits as you can. Reform the scrap dough, working it as little as possible, and cut out more biscuits. You should have 6-7 biscuits when you are done.
Once you have them all ready, brush them with a little milk, and place them in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until risen high and the tops and bottoms are golden brown.
Filling for Biscuits:
-6 eggs
-3 large, thick slices of Virginia Ham
-6 Slices sharp cheddar cheese
While the biscuits are cooking, preheat two pans on medium heat. In the first pan, once it is hot, pour a drizzle of oil, then lay in your pieces of ham--do this in batches if needed. Let the ham sizzle away until it gets crispy with deep brown spots.
In the second pan, drizzle in some oil to the hot pan and crack in a few of the eggs, sprinkling with some salt and pepper. We like ours over easy. I cook those on the first side until the white is almost completely firm, then carefully, with a rubber spatula, I flip them gently and cook for 30 seconds on the second side, just to firm up the egg white, and then the yolks are still soft. If you want your egg yolks firm--over hard, just cook them on the second side until they feel firm under pressure from the spatula.
Once eggs and ham are finished, cut the ham slices in halves on a plate, and rest a finished egg on each slice.
When the biscuits are ready, take them out of the oven and cut the tops from the bottoms...I think you know what to do next. Assemble, and eat! These are really delicious--SO much better than McDonalds...
