“The best thing my grandmother gave to my mom, including my dad, is the recipe for her biscuit pudding. The best thing mom ever made, besides me, is this biscuit pudding with chocolate gravy,” writes pit master Sam Jones in his new cookbook, Whole Hog BBQ: The Gospel of Carolina Barbecue. “I haven’t found the verse yet, but I think somewhere the Bible says that biscuit pudding was really the reason that Lazarus was raised from the dead. My mom also made a chocolate gravy that she poured over the top. That also may have been what Jesus rubbed on the blind man’s eyes. Grandma Jones didn’t make this dessert all the time, but when she did, she’d always send me home packing a big square of it. I once took it to school to eat at lunch. A few at my table were curious about it, and asked for a taste. I actually got in a little trouble for trying to share that biscuit pudding—for fifty cents a square. The administration wasn’t having it—something about a noncompete clause—so I had to stop. It was an early taste of being an entrepreneur.”
Food & Drink
Biscuit Pudding with Chocolate Gravy
You won’t believe the secret ingredient in this family dessert recipe from the famed North Carolina pit master Sam Jones
photo: Denny culbert
Ingredients
For the Biscuit Pudding
3 (9.5-ounce) cans Butter-Me-Not Biscuits or any canned biscuit with “butter” or “buttery” in the description
4 cups whole milk, at room temperature
1 cup salted butter, melted
4 cups sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
For the chocolate gravy
1⁄4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
Pinch of kosher salt
2 cups whole milk
1⁄4 cup cold salted butter, cubed
Preparation
To make the pudding, crack the biscuit cans open on the edge of the counter. (“I thought it was so cool when my mom did that.”) Bake the biscuits according to the instructions on the can.
Set the oven temperature at 350°F. Grease a 9 by 13-inch baking pan.
Combine the milk, butter, sugar, eggs, nutmeg, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor. Mix to combine. Crumble the biscuits by hand into the mixture. Continue to mix until relatively smooth. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until the pudding is stiff and lightly browned on top.
While the pudding is baking, make the gravy. Sift the cocoa, sugar, flour, and salt together into a 12-inch skillet. Slowly pour in the milk, while whisking, and continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth.
Cook over medium-high heat, while stirring, until the gravy thickens to the consistency of a thin pudding.
Excerpted from Whole Hog BBQ: The Gospel of Carolina Barbecue by Sam Jones.
Related Stories:
Recipe
Himalaya Fried Chicken
Sample the universal appeal of a Houston chef’s Indian meets Pakistani meets Tex-Mex cooking
Recipe
The “Private Plane” Cocktail
Shake up a bourbon classic
What's in Season
Curried Sweet Potato Soup
As the temperatures drop, cozy up with this recipe starring the bright orange root veggie
Trending Stories:
Books
The Lasting Power of Larry McMurtry’s Not-So-Secret Texas Truths
In a new book, writers pay homage to his words. Read an exclusive excerpt here
Food & Drink
Six Grilling Tips from Rodney Scott and Bryan Furman
The Southern pitmasters share a few rules of thumb
Arts & Culture
Meet Blackmon Huckabee Jr., Clemson’s Viral TikTok Crooner
A Tiger wide receiver scores big on SportsCenter—with his singing voice