Bacon Cheddar Chowder & Butternut Browned Butter Biscuits

Ever since Nichole announced November's Improv Cooking Challenge pairing was to be WINTER SQUASH & BACON I'd been collecting butternut bacon soup ideas... All through our "fall weather" of 100+° I thought it sounded like an Autumn-appropriate comfort meal. But the idea didn't jive with all the fellas. (I probably coulda snuck it on the table & they'd politely eat it.)
My next plan was to make rolls (they'll eat almost anything with yeast dough wrapped around it) but I remembered I wanted to make a chowder to show off my Portuguese tureen that I never get to use because I'm lazy we not fancy and usually serve soup out of the slow-cooker or from the pot on the stove.

But... because the hubster ended his work day an hour and a half across town, & the middle fella had a drum lesson after classes, we ended up dishing our soup out of the crocker & snatching the biscuits off the hot baking sheet. {{heavy sigh}}
I love that my slow-cooker made the chowder while I was fussing about with other concerns of the day. And while I'd planned on creating a biscuit with almond flour, I decided to just adapt Bob's recipe on the bag of his Red Mill® Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour. Best decision, ever!

I roasted the butternut halves with a bit of bacon drippings brushed over the cut surfaces... Oh, my!
So, here you go:

BROWNED BUTTER BUTTERNUT BISCUITS

 ½ c. butter
 2½ c. Bob’s Red Mill® Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour
1 T. grass-fed gelatin
½ t. sea salt
2½ t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
1 c. diced roasted butternut
2 eggs
¾ c. buttermilk

Brown the butter over medium heat until it smells like caramel without the sweet. 

Chill to firm.In a large bowl whisk the dry ingredients.Add chilled browned butter (cut into small pieces) and use pastry blender to disperse.

Carefully stir in squash.

Mix eggs and buttermilk. Pour over biscuit mix and gently stir to make dough.Roll to 1” thickness between plastic wrap. Cut with 3” circle cutter and place on parchment.

Brush tops of biscuits with a bit of buttermilk.

Bake in pre-heated 450° oven for 18 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.

Allow to cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before eating. (If you can wait that long!)

And now for the chowder:

Bacon Chowder

1 lb. bacon

1 small onion

3 ribs celery

3 carrots

6 garlic cloves

1 large head cauliflower

1 quart chicken broth

3 bay leaves

1 t. dried thyme

fresh-ground pepper to taste

2 c. milk

2 T. tapioca starch

2 c. water

1 lb. shredded cheddar cheese

Sauté bacon over medium heat until crisp. Set aside and remove all but a tablespoon of the drippings.

In the same pan make the soffritto by rough chopping & adding the onion, celery & carrots. Mince the garlic and sauté until vegetables are tender.

Cut the cauliflower into florets. Place in crock of slow cooker and add the soffritto, broth & spices.

Cook until the cauliflower is soft.

Mix tapioca starch with the milk and add to crock with the water. Blend with immersion blender until smooth.

Crumble bacon into crock and simmer until chowder has thickened. Stir in cheese a little at a time until smooth.

Serve & enjoy!

Even the youngest fella returned to the crock for a second helping of soup! And my bread connoisseur asked for a repeat batch of the biscuits!

Check out these links to see how the other Improvers used their winter squash & bacon:

An InLinkz Link-up

Loaded Potato Scrolls

I asked my fellas what we should fix for POTATO & CHIVES month. I got one request for Irish Stir-fry, and one down on his knees begging that we make Irish Nachos again. ("MOM! Aren't chives just skinny green onions?!") When I tried explaining chives are what's in the dip for Claim Jumper's Loaded Skins®, I then had a request for loaded skins. THAT was when I decided to bake bread -- loaded bread.  So, the Loaded Potato Scroll* was born.

We started with some baked, then mashed Butter Golds. How I managed to save a cup from being devoured by the crew, I have no idea.  But I did have to hide it in the fridge until I was ready to try the recipe!

The chives proved to be the tougher part of this assignment -- I'd planted some in hopes I could have a little harvest in time for the recipe, but our little 90° heatwave proved my undoing. I had to resort to a grocery package... :( 

But the filling... oh the filling!!!!! You can never have too much bacon! This is what we used:

The dough is pretty easy, and so is spreading the filling. If you've used GF flour, the making of the roll & slicing can be a little awkward...

Also, GF flour idiosyncrasies make the rising a little ambiguous.

Since flours brown differently when baked, I decided to use a thermometer to determine when the scrolls were finished.

Because it was such a lovely spring afternoon (in the shade!) we decided to make a little picnic & eat our loaded scrolls (in the shade!)

They were delicious! (...if you can close your eyes & imagine the bread part as tasty, light, fluffy gluten-filled dough!)

I think the filling could take some more bacon, though...

Here's the recipe:

(This recipe is gluten & processed sugar free. It will work using wheat flour, but please adapt the rising & baking times as appropriate.)


*Read why the fellas refer to these as "scrolls" here.

If you're interested in joining our monthly #ImprovCookingChallenge you can find that info here. In the meantime, enjoy these recipes by some of our members:

An InLinkz Link-up

Butternut Carbonara

Squash is not a popular item on our table, unless it comes from the grill… So this time, I neglected to inform my taste-testers of this month’s Improv Cooking Challenge ingredients. I just knew that if I tossed in some bacon, chances of the dish being devoured would go way up!

For this recipe you will need:

• butternut squash
• drizzle of olive oil
• 4 oz. salted butter
• 12 fresh sage leaves (small to medium)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 2 oz. bacon crumbles
• Parmesan cheese (freshly shred about 2 oz.)

I went to Sprouts and bought the largest butternut squash I could find -- which proved to be slightly problematic for my little Veggetti. Cut off the bulbous portion, seed it & roast separately for some other use. Cut off the stem end and peel the rest of the squash.  Use a spiralizing tool to make “noodles”.  Place the butternut noodles onto a silicone baking sheet in a pan and drizzle with a little olive oil.Bake at 400° for about 7 or 8 minutes. (We prefer most pastas al dente, so I didn’t want them too soft…)

While the squash is baking, brown the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.When it starts browning, add the sage leaves and minced garlic. It takes only a minute or so for them to cook.Gently toss in the butternut noodles from the oven.Add the bacon.After plating the finished noodles, sprinkle with a generous amount of Parmesan.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much the fellas enjoyed dinner! They had seconds and asked for more, but the skillet was empty…

 

Want some more squash & sage recipes? Click the links below to see what my fellow Improvers prepared for you today:

An InLinkz Link-up

Bacon-studded Honey Mustard Snaxx

This month’s Improv ingredients are pretzels & mustard. I love making mustard (like I did here) but one must do that not-at-the-last-minute for a challenge!

Anyhow, the wonderhubs has a life-long aversion to pretzels, & I am currently (involuntarily) participating in an aversion to gluten. My solution was to come up with a gluten-free snack mix, where he could pick around those nazzzty pretzel pieces.

I’d been seeing “Muddy Buddies” & “Chex Snack” mixes done in the crock pot on various blogs. That sounded so much more exciting to me than heating the oven/house for an hour or two while toasting the mix. (If your slow cooker, like mine, does not have a vent, you will need to use a towel to absorb the “perspiration” that comes off the mix as it cooks.)

Here’s my recipe:

¼ cup mustard powder

¼ cup water

½ cup butter

½ cup honey

3 cups Corn Bran Crunch™ cereal

3 cups Rice Chex™ cereal

3 cups Honey Nut Chex™ cereal

3 cups gluten free pretzels

2 cups gluten free rice crackers

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup bacon crumbles

Mix mustard powder with water and let sit to thicken 10-15 minutes. Melt butter and stir in honey. Add thickened mustard and whisk until smooth.

Combine remaining ingredients into crock. Pour over honey mustard mixture and stir gently.Cook on “Low” for 2 hours, carefully stirring every 30 minutes.

Pour onto parchment paper to cool.Devour!

This makes you wish for a larger crock…

…because you want to TRIPLE the recipe!

Check out what my friends did with their pretzels & mustard:

An InLinkz Link-up