Hi everyone, I’m Kate Dunbar, the campground gourmet for “Rollin’ On TV.” Today, I’m teaching you how to make a savory bacon and peppercorn biscuit. There’s nothing better than this for breakfast at the campground, especially with a peppercorn gravy. And I’ll be showing you how to make that when we’re outside cooking over the fire.

Let’s talk about ingredients.
I have self-rising flour, some thick cut bacon that I’ve already cooked up ahead of time, some fresh ground black pepper,  some butter, and I have some buttermilk. This recipe couldn’t be any simpler for you. Let’s get started.

So, I have two and a half cups of self-rising flour in this bowl. And now, I’m going to add in the black pepper. I’ve got one tablespoon of that, and I’m going to give this just a good little mix around. And I’ve got the quarter cup of butter, and I’ve sliced it into cubes.

Now, I’m going to take the bacon. And like I said, I’ve already pre-cooked this, and I’ve saved the bacon drippings in the cast iron pan because we’re going to be making a bacon peppercorn gravy in just a minute. Let’s add in about half of it, go all the way around the outside first, and then just a little bit in the center. 

Take your hand and shape it into a claw. And you want to bring your dough all together around the outside. And here’s how you know if you have enough buttermilk in it. You want to grab a little handful and hold it and squeeze it together. And you want to see if it starts to crumble after you press it. And mine’s crumbling just a little bit, so I’m going to add in a touch more buttermilk. 

Just a little bit, just kind of going in a zig-zag pattern right over the top. Take my hand again and just bring everything together, and now I can start to feel it’s a little bit tacky. All the dry little bits are getting clumped together, and that’s what you want. And I can start to see the butter flakes in here, so I know everything’s hydrated.

All right, so we’re going to take this out. Now, this is where we’re going to gently work it together. I’m going to press this out. I’m going to try and keep it in the shape of a rectangle. Just press. So, straight down and out. And all you want to do is take the biscuits and place them snug next to each other. 

Okay, well, here I am outside. And I’ve got the coals nice and hot here. I’ve got the skillet that I cooked the bacon in earlier and saved all that fat in, it’s warming up. Let’s get that camp dutch oven on here.

We’re going to get over here to the gravy. And like I said before, I saved a bunch of the bacon drippings. I have some butter here, and I’m going to add that to it. It’s now time to add our flour. I have about a quarter cup here because there’s about a quarter cup of the fat. And that bacon and butter, and now it’s time to make a roux. If you cook traditional southern recipes like gumbo, you know what a roux is. It’s flour and fat cooked together to create a deep, dark color. Well, with this today, we’re going to take it to a light caramel. It should take about five minutes. And you just want to make certain that you’re whisking constantly. It’s going to get out all of the lumps, it’s going to help cook the flour. And then we’ve got two fantastic additions. We’re going to be adding in some cracked black pepper, and then I’m going to be adding back in that saved bacon from before.

Okay, so it’s been about two to three minutes. Our gravy, look at that. So, this is the roux, this is the flour and the butter and the bacon drippings. It’s the perfect color. Like I said, it’s that caramel color, that’s what we’re looking for. And now, let’s add in our black pepper. Get that going. Now, with this addition of fresh black pepper, you’re going to get a lot of great spicy flavor. Just give that about a minute, let that heat up. And now, it’s time to add in our milk. Now, be careful, this is going to splatter a little bit, so pour it away from you. Work it on one side, and then start adding in. Just keep whisking, it’ll all come together and get nice and creamy. There we go.

This is nice and thick, perfect. So, this has all come together now. And now, I’m going to add in my bacon. This is the remainder of the bacon that I cooked up earlier that I want for the gravy. Stir that together, perfect. Now, if you need to thin it out, add a little more milk to it. Let’s get to breakfast. I’m starving, I need another cup of coffee, and I am just so hungry.

Mmm, crisp and crunchy on the outside. Mmm, I’m going to go dig into this, and I’m going to go grab that cup of coffee that I need. I’m Kate Dunbar, the Campground Gourmet for “Rollin’ On TV.”  And today, we made black pepper and bacon biscuits.

Download a printable version of Kate’s recipe for Black Pepper and Bacon Biscuits here.

Learn more about Kate at The Campground Gourmet.

You can also purchase
The Campground Gourmet: Simple, Delicious Recipes for Dining in the Great Outdoors [Print Replica] Kindle Edition here.