Red Velvet Buttermilk Biscuits with Southern Chocolate Gravy + Whipped Cream Cheese Butter

Red Velvet Buttermilk Biscuits with Southern Chocolate Gravy + Whipped Cream Cheese Butter

I hope all of y'all had a wonderful Valentine's Day... and I'm sorry it has taken this long to post a new Red Velvet inspired recipe!! As I mentioned in my last post, my Red Hot Velvet Cinnamon Rolls were the perfect breakfast-in-bed-with-your-honey meal, and I just had to come up with another one for this year. I racked my brain for breakfast ideas that could be turned into a red velvet recipe, but I didn't want to do one that had already been done... a lot of people have done waffles, pancakes, & crepes. And then it hit me, RED VELVET BISCUITS. Why had I never thought of that before?! Who knows. Well, I started building from there, and immediately remembered enjoying Southern Chocolate Gravy with Buttermilk Biscuits as a child. What kid doesn't want chocolate for breakfast? This kid over here does! So along with the Red Velvet Buttermilk Biscuits, that brings in the red and buttermilk component of this cake classic, the chocolate gravy would sub in for the cocoa powder element, and lastly, the Whipped Cream Cheese Butter mimics the ever-popular cream cheese frosting. So, this dish is practically Red Velvet Cake... deconstructed... in breakfast form... with some Southern lovin' added in for good measure as well. There aren't many things that are as comforting as biscuits + gravy, especially if chocolate and sugar are thrown into the mix also. The biscuits turned out to be a gorgeous "God Bless 'merica" red and were utterly + effortlessly fluffy. As for the chocolate gravy, I called my mom asking if she remembered her recipe and she couldn't find it in the millions of recipe cards shoved into the drawers in our kitchen. So, I found a recipe online that had gotten a lot of great reviews, and it certainly didn't disappoint. If you're like me then you'll want to split the biscuits in half and spread on some of that cream cheese butter until it melts into the hot bread, and drown them in the chocolate gravy until they are completely covered. And just for presentation, I sprinkled on some toasted pecan bits over the top. Honestly, I don't know if there is more in my belly... or more on my face and hands because I got knee deep in this meal. But, that's half the joy of it all, isn't it? Finger lickin' good gravy always cheers this girl up. What an awesome meal this was on Valentine's Day with my Mountain Man. Oh and P.S., I need to be officially dubbed the "Queen of Red Velvet", o'tay? Good, glad y'all agree with me because having this many red velvet inspired recipes is just plain unhealthy!! Enjoy :)

Chocolate Gravy Waterfall  

biscuits + gravy... red velvet-style 

Homemade Whipped Cream Cheese Butter 

Garnish with some Toasted Pecans!

For the Red Velvet Buttermilk Biscuits:

2 ¼C Cake Flour, Sifted

1T Baking Powder

1T + 1t Sugar

1t Salt

6T Unsalted Butter, Cut into Cubes & Frozen

¾C Buttermilk, Well-Shaken

Red Food Coloring (to your liking)

2T Melted Butter, For Brushing

For the Southern Chocolate Gravy:

4T Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

2T AP Flour

1C Sugar

1 ½C Whole Milk

4T Unsalted Butter

1t Vanilla

Pinch of Salt

For the Whipped Cream Cheese Butter:

1 Stick of Unsalted Butter, Softened

4oz Cream Cheese

¼C Sugar

½t Vanilla

Pinch of Salt

Directions:

1. For the Red Velvet Buttermilk Biscuits: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add in the frozen and cut the fat in using a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, but pea-sized pieces of butter still remain. In a measuring cup, pour in some red food coloring, and then fill up the measuring cup to ¾C of the liquid mixture (this will make sure that you don’t add too much extra liquid to your biscuits). Whisk together the food coloring and buttermilk until it is red. Pour in the red buttermilk and use a fork to mix it until the dough just comes together. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead with floured hands, and pat into a thick square. Using a large, floured biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits from the dough and place them about 1-2inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet (I made about 6-8 biscuits). Brush the tops of the biscuits with some melted butter and bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on their side, or until the tops are golden brown. Just before serving, brush the tops of the biscuits with more melted butter.

2. For the Southern Chocolate Gravy: In a medium sauce a whisk together the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk and whisk vigorously to combine. Heat over medium-high until the mixture bubbles. Turn heat down to medium and stir until mixture has thickened to a gravy consistency. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Let cool slightly then transfer to a gravy boat. Serve warm over buttermilk biscuits.   

3. For the Whipped Cream Cheese Butter: In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth & creamed together, about 1-2 minutes. With the mixer on high, add in the sugar, pinch of salt, and vanilla. Beat on high speed until light & fluffy like a whipped frosting. Refrigerate until ready to use.   

4. For Serving: Place some Red Velvet Buttermilk Biscuits onto a plate and pour the Chocolate Gravy over the top. Garnish the top of the gravy with some toasted pecans and serve the biscuits with the Whipped Cream Cheese Butter.   

source: southern chocolate gravy.