I present to you, one possible solution to the sweet or savory breakfast dilemma…
Sticky Maple Bacon Biscuits. That’s right. You know how you go out for breakfast…and you’re looking at the menu knowing that you’re going to order eggs, potatoes and bacon/sausage? (You know, a nice hearty farmer’s breakfast for all of us who have never plowed a field or milked a cow :) Then, you see the section of the menu that has waffles and pancakes or muffins and pastries and they also sound really good. But you know you don’t want to skip your eggs, bacon etc and you don’t want to order a stack of pancakes that ultimately turns your meal into first breakfast and second breakfast combined. Yep, it’s a real life dilemma alright, encountered exclusively at restaurants.
But at home? You can go ahead and have your eggs and anything else that makes your breakfast great…hash browns, fruit etc…then add these biscuits. They have everything else you’re going to need to “balance” your meal.
If you’ve read my Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuit post, you know how I love a great biscuit for breakfast, especially with honey and butter on it. If you haven’t tried those yet, you should. There are some helpful videos in that post that will take you through the process. I used that same biscuit dough for this recipe.
Today, however, there are no videos. There’s no kneading, no rolling, no cutting. The biscuit dough is simply mixed up in a bowl and then dropped into a pan. You’ll end up with one big pull-a-part biscuit bake. Couldn’t be easier. Perhaps this recipe will be the gateway to homemade biscuits for you.
Before you drop those biscuits into the pan, you’re going to make a maple bacon syrup. Yep, it tastes as good as it sounds. It’s just melted butter, maple syrup, flour and brown sugar. Stir it up. Add the cooked bacon and spread it in the bottom of the pan. I decided to add pecans this time just to see how it turned out…loved it! (And, if you’re vegetarian, you could easily sub the bacon for pecans.)
Now it’s time to drop spoonfuls of the biscuits dough into the pan. You don’t have to get fancy here, I just used one spoon to scoop and one spoon to scrape. Drop them evenly around the pan. That’s it. Bake it. Flip it. Pull off a piece. Eat it. After a bite or two, I kind of forget about how much I like butter and honey on my biscuits…because bacon, pecans and maple syrup?
Yeah. Enough said.
Sticky Maple Bacon Biscuits
Ingredients
For the syrup:
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 Tablespoons salted butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 pound cooked, chopped bacon (about 1 cup total after cooking and chopping)
- 2-4 Tablespoons chopped pecans, optional
For the biscuits:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt, see note
- 2 Tablespoons salted or unsalted butter, (cold and cut into cubes, I use unsalted)
- 2 Tablespoons shortening, I use non-hydrogenated
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees F. Spray or lightly grease an 8" square or 9" round pan.
- Make the syrup. Measure the maple syrup into a glass liquid measuring cup and add butter. Microwave until butter is melted. (Or, melt butter separately and stir into maple syrup.)
- Add brown sugar and flour and stir until well combined. Then stir in cooked, chopped bacon.
- Spread syrup mixture evenly in prepared pan. Sprinkle pecans evenly over syrup, if using.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Using a pastry blender or your finger tips, quickly cut shortening into flour mixture until combined.
- After you've cut in the shortening, cut cold butter into the flour mixture until you have various sizes no larger than peas. You want your butter to stay cold, so work quickly.
- Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the buttermilk.
- Working from the outside in, bring the flour into the center with a large spoon, scooping and turning the mixture in the bowl until the buttermilk is fully incorporated into the flour and you have a sticky dough.
- Drop dough by spoonfuls evenly over the syrup in the pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 475 degrees F. Then, without opening the door, turn oven off and allow biscuits to cook for another 5-10 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from oven, cover with a serving dish, then flip pan upside down. Scrape any remaining syrup and topping out of pan and quickly onto the biscuits while it's still hot and spreadable. Serve immediately. Biscuits should pull apart easily.
Notes
*I melted the butter with the maple syrup because I didn't want cold maple syrup to re-solidify my butter. If you don't have a microwave, you can do this in a pan on stove top, but heating and combining all together in the measuring cup saved dishes. *I was testing using pecans this time, so you'll only see the pecans on half of the pan. However, once I flipped it and scraped the additional topping out of the pan, they got spread all over the top. They were delicious, so it didn't matter, but just know that it's hard to keep them separate. *I cooked the bacon in the oven on a rack at 375 until the bacon was medium brown and starting to get a little crispy on the edges. You want it fully cooked, but I wouldn't take it to the super crispy stage. When mixed with the syrup, it's nice to have tender pieces mixed with just a bit of crispiness. *Biscuits are best served the same day. Cover and refrigerate leftovers. They can be reheated in a 375 degree oven, wrapped loosely in foil. This could take 5-10 minutes. My toaster oven works perfectly for this type of reheating. Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour and from Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits The Merchant Baker Copyright © 2015
LoriK
Sunday 1st of September 2024
I made these today and was so excited. The biscuits were amazing and the recipe was easy. Unfortunately the bacon maple goodness cooked into a solid toffee layer on the bottom of the pan and did not adhere to the biscuits. I had to scrape it off the pan, which was a non stick pan that I had greased. Delicious maple bacon toffee crumble bits to have with the scones, but not something I’ll try again. However, I’m going to play with the bacon maple stuff to see if I can cook it to a jammy consistency. Thanks for the idea and for a really good easy biscuit recipe.
Ramona
Monday 2nd of September 2024
Hi Lori, I'm sad to hear that the delicious topping didn't work out the way that it should. The only thing I can think of that would have caused that is if the temperature got too high and turned your mixture into candy instead of a sticky syrup. How could that happen? Not being there with you in your kitchen, it's hard to know for sure. Here are a few guesses....the mixture shouldn't cook before it goes into the bottom of the pan. You only need to melt the butter in order to mix it with the rest of the syrup ingredients. You want the syrup to cook in the oven. This might help it not getting to a candy level temperature. Also, make sure you don't pack your flour. Too much flour could throw off the ratio to fat and make it too dry. Your oven could run hot. If this is true, reduce the temp to 450. Make sure you're putting it on the middle rack of the oven. Again, you don't want to overheat the bottom. I can't think of anything else right now. The measurements are correct, so it should work out. Hope that helps!
Imegahan
Wednesday 21st of October 2020
I'd like to do it gluten free. The biscuit part is no challenge, but the maple sauce with its 1/4 cup of flour has me stymied. I don't know which GF flour or blend is best to achieve the results.
Ramona
Wednesday 21st of October 2020
I don't have much experience with gluten free flours, so I'm not sure how they would react in the sauce. My quick search appears to indicate that it would work fine as a thickener which is basically it's function here. You might also try using cornstarch using half the amount the flour calls for.
Currently Crushing On. | How Sweet It Is
Saturday 18th of April 2015
[…] sticky maple bacon biscuits. […]
Kathy @ Beyond the Chicken Coop
Wednesday 15th of April 2015
What a clever idea! These do look finger licking good.... I love bacon and maple together.
Karen @ On the Banks of Salt Creek
Tuesday 14th of April 2015
I'm drooling. What a way to solve a problem.
Ramona
Tuesday 14th of April 2015
Yes...drool worthy, indeed. We are sad that they are gone. Even the leftovers, reheated, were fought over :)