Bacon Cheese Biscuit Bites

The azaleas have exploded. There is no more accurate word — the blooming is not gradual but sudden, a detonation of pink and white and red that transforms the historic district overnight from a city into a painting. I walk to work through the explosions and I am, at forty-eight, still awed by the capacity of living things to wait patiently through winter and then announce themselves with such extravagant confidence. The azaleas do not apologize for their beauty. They do not ask permission to bloom. They simply bloom, and the blooming is the permission.

Mama had an episode on Thursday. She was standing in the kitchen, making grits — or trying to make grits — and she stopped. Just stopped. She stood at the stove with the spoon in her hand and stared at the pot and the pot stared back at her and neither of them knew what to do next. I found her there after ten minutes — standing, spoon, pot, silence — and I said, "Mama, the grits need salt," and the specific instruction broke the spell: she added salt, she stirred, the grits were made. But the ten minutes of standing — the blankness, the loss, the distance between the cook and the cooking — was a preview of something I am not ready to see and that I will see anyway, because readiness and reality do not negotiate.

Carrie has been accepted to Emory. The letter came on Monday, and her response was the controlled explosion of a girl who has been working toward this since she wrote it on her spreadsheet: she screamed once, hugged me, hugged Robert, hugged James, and then sat down and read the letter again, slowly, savoring the words the way Mama savors a bite of cobbler — not rushing the experience, understanding that the sweetness of an acceptance letter, like the sweetness of a dessert, is best consumed deliberately.

I have been reading Edna Lewis this week — "The Taste of Country Cooking," the memoir-cookbook that I consider the finest book about Southern food ever written. Lewis writes about Virginia the way I want to write about the Lowcountry — with love and specificity and the understanding that food is not separate from the life that produces it but inseparable from it, woven into the daily fabric so tightly that pulling out the food would unravel the whole cloth. I am taking notes. I am learning from a woman who has already done what I want to do, which is the librarian's method: find the experts, read them, then do it yourself.

I made Mama's sweet potato biscuits — the spring version, lighter than the winter biscuits, made with roasted sweet potato that turns the dough golden. The biscuits were warm and sweet and substantial, and Carrie ate three at dinner and said, "When I'm at Emory, I'm going to miss these," and the sentence was both a statement of fact and a preview of loss, and I smiled and said, "I'll send the recipe," and the sending of the recipe will be the letting go, and the letting go will be the hardest baking I have ever done.

The sweet potato biscuits were already on Carrie’s mind when she said she’d miss them — and that sentence, half-statement and half-goodbye, sent me back to the kitchen the very next morning. These Bacon Cheese Biscuit Bites are the savory counterpart I reach for when I want the comfort of a biscuit but need something that feeds a crowd, something warm enough to fill a kitchen and remind everyone in it that the cook is still here, still making things, still present. They are the kind of small, sturdy thing you tuck into a tin and send with someone when they go.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 14 min | Total Time: 29 min | Servings: 24 bites

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
6 strips bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
2 tablespoons sliced scallions (optional)
2/3 cup cold whole milk or buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper until evenly mixed.
Cut in butter. Add the cold butter cubes to the flour mixture. Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few pea-sized pieces remaining. Do not overwork — those cold butter pieces are what create the flaky layers.
Add cheese and bacon. Stir in the shredded cheddar, crumbled bacon, and scallions if using, tossing gently to distribute throughout the flour mixture.
Add milk. Pour the cold milk over the mixture all at once. Stir with a fork just until the dough comes together — it will look shaggy and that is exactly right. Overmixing makes tough biscuits.
Shape and cut. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat gently to about 3/4-inch thickness. Using a small round cutter (about 1 1/2 inches) or a sharp knife, cut into bite-sized rounds or squares. Re-pat scraps once to cut additional biscuits.
Bake. Arrange biscuit bites on the prepared baking sheet, sides just barely touching for soft sides or spaced apart for crispier edges. Bake 12–14 minutes, until golden on top and cooked through.
Serve warm. Transfer to a wire rack for 2 minutes, then serve warm. These are best the day they are made, though they reheat well at 325°F for 5 minutes.

Nutrition (per serving)

Bacon Cheese Biscuit Bites — The Warmth You Pack Into a Recipe When You Know Someone Is Leaving