Buttermilk Biscuits and Egg Muffins

This post on buttermilk biscuits and homemade egg mcmuffins was supposed to go live on Father’s Day. It even started with this line: “With Father’s Day today, its only apt to post this recipe.”

But as you might have noticed, it did not go live on Father’s Day and instead on a Tuesday which I generally reserve for indian food as part of my Garam Masala Tuesdays series.

It is never to late to honor the special man in our life- who is there no matter what. And I dont need a single day to make my father know how much he means to me. I have mentioned this before as well, he is one person who always goes through my posts. Reads them, comments on them and then later sometimes even talks to me about the post. And no matter how mad he is at my decisions, he is always looking out for me and supporting me the best way he can.

June is also Men’s Health Month and the American Recall Center (that is responsible for updates on recalls in the medical community) wants to honor the men in our lives and how they stay healthy. Even though this month has almost ended, its not too late to encourage the special people in your life to take their health seriously. According to the American Recall Center, Osteoporosis affects over 40 million people in the US (and even more so worldwide). 

The National Institute of Health categorizes “osteoporosis as a silent disease, as it can progress undetected for years without showing any symptoms until a fracture occurs.” A bone mineral density test can diagnose osteoporosis and while there is no cure for disease certain medications can prevent and treat osteoporosis. A diet rich in calcium and Vitamin D, along with a healthy lifestyle can lessen the effects of the disease. (source: Official website of National Institute of Health).

My mother suffers from osteo arthiritis and while osteoporosis and arthiritis are different in its symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, both these diseases can be prevented by following a good exercise regime. My father constantly pushes us to do knee strengthening exercises and low impact yoga. Swimming is an excellent exercise and puts the least amount impact on your joints. A constant check on your weight is helpful too, but for that its always me asking my dad to control his weight. He loves food, but then he makes sure to exercise to keep it balanced.

A big part of a balanced diet is a healthy and filling breakfast to kickstart your metabolism for the day. And thankfully in our family we make sure we eat breakfast like a king.

These homemade egg mcmuffins are definitely healthier than the ones you buy from fast food chains and super easy to make. I added mushrooms, spinach, salami, red bell pepper and a little cheese to my eggs, but you could customize the add-ins to your liking.

I have another biscuit recipe on the blog, and the one that I had been using in the past. It was part of one of the daring bakers’ challenge and it served me well. The other day while browsing through my cookbooks I came across Sarabeth’s buttermilk biscuit recipe. I love all of Sarabeth’s recipes, and if you are in the market for buying a cookbook, you should definitely check hers out.

The only change I made was to decrease the amount of baking powder called for. I have seen all the biscuit recipes ask for a lot of baking powder to be added, and while I don’t think its been a problem when I baked the biscuits in US, whenever I used more than a 1tsp baking powder to 1- 1 1/2 cups of flour I have ended up with slightly bitter tasting baked products. So whenever I bake with Indian baking powder, I make sure that I follow that ratio irrespective of what the recipe says. Also, I used salted butter instead of unsalted and skipped adding the salt. Plus, I made my own buttermilk by adding around 1 1/2 tbsp of vinegar to a little less than 1 1/2 cup milk (by adding the vinegar the total liquid amount was 1 1/2 cups).

Buttermilk Biscuits and Egg Muffins

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Homemade buttermilk biscuits are the best and they are easy to make at home. Use them to make your own egg mcmuffin.

Serves: 8

Ingredients

For the Biscuits:

• 3¼ cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp super fine sugar
• 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp baking powder ( as mentioned in the post I used about 2¼ tsp)
• 170 grams salted butter, chilled and cut into ½ inch cubes (or I freeze mine and then grate it- you could also use unsalted and add ½ tsp fine sea salt)
• 1½ cups buttermilk ( I make my own by mixing vinegar in milk and letting it sit for a while)

For each egg muffin:

• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• ½ tsp pizza seasoning
• salt and pepper, to taste
• sliced mushrooms, sliced bell peppers, salami, grated cheese, spinach or any add-in you prefer

Instructions

For the biscuits:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F or 200 C. Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder into a bowl. Add the butter and either with the help of the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or pulse motion in a food processor or using your fingertips cut the butter in the flour. Mix till the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs, with some pea sized pieces of butter.
3. Add the buttermilk until the dough barely comes together.
4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and pat it down. Knead a few times till dough is smooth. You dont want to overhandle the dough, just enough to make the dough smooth.
5. Pat the dough down to ¾ inch thick. Using a floured cutter, cut out the biscuits and place 1 inch apart on the half sheet pan. Sarabeth uses a 2¼ inch fluted cutter and gets 16 biscuits, I used a bigger cutter and got 8.
6. Gently press the scraps together, again careful as to not over handling and repeat process.
7. Bake till biscuits are well rise and golden brown, about 20 minutes.

For the egg muffins:

1. Whisk one egg in a bowl. Add the herbs and seasoning. Take a cookie cutter of the same size as the fluted cutter you used to cut the biscuits and grease the inside of it. Heat a non stick pan and place the cookie cutter in the centre. Add a little oil inside the area of the cookie cutter and then add the beaten egg. Add in your sliced vegetables, cheese (I used very little grated cheese because I did add more to sandwich the egg to the biscuit) and cover the pan and let the egg cook on medium low heat. Once done with a glove remove the cookie cutter from the pan and using a palette knife loosen the egg from the sides and push it on a plate. Make the rest of the eggs in a similar manner.

Assembly:

1. Slice each biscuit in two and butter the sides if you like, or not if you want to be healthier about it.
2. Heat the biscuit and sandwich in the egg. You can sprinkle a little cheese on the egg so that it stick on the top half of the biscuit better.

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