porter road butcher | The Persnickety Biscuit

Where did this biscuit recipe come from?

Why choose this biscuit recipe?

After spending some time focused on making more “traditional” biscuits, I was ready for something different. I love pumpkin muffins so figured I would like these, too!

What is Persnickety about this biscuit recipe?

For me, it is the spices. I don’t like too much pumpkin spice mix in anything. The blend is not quite right to me, but you need enough spice to make these interesting, so I fiddled with that a bit. It was also a little tricky to get the ratio of wet to dry ingredients right.

What changes were made to this biscuit recipe?

I made these several times. The first time, I made them as written, the second time (and third and …) I made the following changes:

Used a little more flour and a little less pumpkin so that the dough was easier to work with
Added 1/4 cup of brown sugar because I wanted them to be a bit sweeter
Used 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (instead of all pumpkin pie spice) – this was perfect for me
I modified the butter recipe, too, adding cinnamon to the Maple Butter, so it became Maple Cinnamon Butter. I used salted butter because I always prefer salted butter.

So how was the biscuit?

Wonderful! They were a gorgeous orange color and very moist with just enough spicy sweet pumpkin flavor to make it interesting, while still tasting like a biscuit. They did not rise terribly high but enough.

I ate them several different ways. I did make the maple cinnamon butter, and that was a really nice sweet, salty touch. I also served them with fresh sausage from my local butcher and blackberry jelly. I made little biscuits (about 1 1/2 inches diameter) for a party and served them with an assortment of butters and jams and the option of sausage. They were a hit!

I believe this is where my biscuit obsession got serious. Up until then, it was more of a craving, an inside joke, a form of nostalgia.

Barista Parlor – Nashville

It was in the fall of 2012. We went to a new coffee house in East Nashville – Barista Parlor. We’d read about it on Yelp and could not believe there was a place in East Nashville that we had not tried yet.

One cool thing about Barista Parlor is how you get to pick your roast and each cup is made to order. It also has this major hipster vibe. The kind of vibe where I know I am not hip enough to be there at all – except that I am old enough to not care.

Very Hip Iron Light Fixture

They also have a very small food menu. I recall on that first visit ordering a cup of some exotic sounding coffee and then getting a sausage biscuit almost as an afterthought. The coffee was good. Very good. But the sausage biscuit?

Oh. My. God.

How could something that looks so simple be so amazing?

We discussed it obsessively the entire time we were there. How the biscuit was just the right size, the right level of flaky vs. fluffy, the perfect venue for the sausage that (we later discovered) came from Porter Road Butcher next door. The sausage was like nothing I’d had before. Perhaps it was just sage or something simple like that but it was amazing. And then to bring the whole thing together and provide a sweet balance to the salt and herb flavors, there was this dollop of strawberry preserves that proceeded to ooze out over the sides.

I have to be honest. I never would have put those things together. But that is why we go out to eat right? What would have seemed odd to me before – became the breakfast sandwich that I can only describe as sublime. My mild obsession turned into a full blown case of Biscuit Obsessed Syndrome, and also created a grave concern of mine that biscuits were being overlooked in the current culinary climate. And so . . . a blog was born.

The Persnickety Biscuit

One Day at a Time, One Biscuit at a Time

Tag Archives: porter road butcher

Pumpkin Biscuits with Maple Cinnamon Butter

Sublime Sausage Biscuit at Barista Parlor

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