*Edited since original*
NOW TITLED:
Sausage & Cream Cheese Crescent Casserole because once this recipe unexpectedly took off on Pinterest, it was shocking how many people were upset about the title because they felt it was misleading
{originally "Sausage Biscuit & Gravy Casserole"}.
First, calm down everyone. This was a recipe from my sister-in-law Becca and we just called it that
for ourselves. It was never meant to be misleading! We just generically called it that for fun, because
to us it tastes similar enough to sausage biscuits and gravy that it was fun to call it that. I can see how everyone who is used to this taste would think that this recipe is way too different, but again, it was just meant to be a "substitute" of sorts at home when we can't get the real thing.
Second, I love the ideas you've all had for this! Becca got this idea from someone else and we just both loved it the way it was. But you can certainly do other things with it! Here are some of the ideas from the comments:
- replace cream cheese with sausage gravy [or just cut cream cheese in half and add the gravy]
- add cheese on top of the sausage/onion/cream cheese mixture
- add eggs, pioneer gravy, 1/4 more onion, and double the cream cheese so it's all thicker [a family tried this and loved it!]
- double the sausage and cream cheese in order to make it thicker
All of these ideas sound yummy! My hubby and I love it just the way it is, as does Becca & her family, so we didn't even think about altering it. But the ideas sound good and we'll have to give them a whirl sometime, for sure!
Also, one commenter asked if they scrambled uncooked eggs for this, would they just pour the recipe over the mixture and bake it that way, or would they need to cook the eggs up first and then pour it over? Another commenter said you'd need to do scrambled cooked eggs if you want the layered effect because otherwise the eggs would just run into the mix and make it a different type of casserole.
One final thing, I recently experimented with this more and I show my revised recipe/experiment below the original recipe, at the bottom of this post.
Thanks again for coming! Now back to the original recipe/post....
******
Last night, I gave a recipe a whirl that I got from my sis-in-law {and cooking extraordinare!} Becca. It was
amazing!
If you like biscuits & gravy even remotely, you have to try this!
Sausage
Biscuit &
Gravy Cream Cheese Crescent Casserole:
1 lb pork sausage
1 onion
{size to your preference}
1 8 oz pkg softened plain cream cheese
2 pkgs crescent rolls {updated: recommend the new
Pillsbury Crescent Seamless Dough Sheets, much easier!}
Saute the onions in a skillet for a minute or two just to get them to start softening.
{I used 1/4 of a medium sweet yellow onion. Tim isn't a big onion fan so I also chopped them up as finely as I possibly could.} Add the pork sausage and brown. Preheat oven to 350 degrees while sausage is browning. Drain.
Add the cream cheese and stir until smooth.
Spray the bottom of a 13 x 9 pan with cooking spray. Layer one pkg of crescent rolls along the bottom. Pinch all of the pieces so there aren't any separations, flattening along the pan as you go.
Spread the sausage mixture on top of the crescent rolls, smoothing as you go.
Roll the remaining pkg of crescent rolls lightly over the top of the sausage mixture. Pinch the edges and also the sides so no mixture seeps through.
{Easier said than done. I ended up having some come through one side but it wasn't a big deal.}
Cook in a 350 degree preheated oven for 22-28 minutes, depending on your oven and how dark you like it. Our oven cooks pretty quickly, and we like it a bit lighter, so I cooked it about 22 minutes. Becca cooks hers about 27 to 28 minutes since their oven cooks slower and they like it darker.
Becca suggests serving it alongside hash browns. We had it with baked chips and cinnamon applesauce. I want to try it with fresh fruit and potatoes next time.
Seriously so, so good! Let me know if you try it!
******
Based on commenters suggestions, I decided last week to experiment a bit with this recipe. Here's what I came up with:
Still only used 1 pound of sausage, but increased to 2 packages of cream cheese. This time I used a sprinkling of onion powder instead of actual onions since hubster wasn't a fan of the onions.
After mixing the cream cheese into the sausage the best that I could {since there's so much cream cheese, you can't mix it extremely well yet}, I added in some frozen hash browns {totally just guessed on the amount based on the cream cheese amount}. Mixed it together and cooked it until it looked well-mixed and solid.
In the meantime, I mixed together 6 eggs, milk, and pepper, and scrambled 'em up.
It was evident at this point that the hash browns weren't going to cook in quite the way I'd intended. Lesson learned, cook the hash browns on their own separately and
then add them into this mix.
One commenter suggested using the new Pillsbury Crescent Seamless Dough Sheet. I didn't even know this existed!!! It was amazing and definitely the best way to go, so thank you!!
After adding the sausage, onion, cream cheese, and hash brown mix over the first dough sheet, here's how it looks:
Then I topped it off with the scrambled eggs:
6 eggs are definitely not enough. Suggest 8-10 to really fill up that layer. Also I didn't cook the eggs all the way through {just until mild and fluffy, though we prefer our scrambled eggs well done and not runny} because I thought that cooking it in the oven would finish it off enough. We still felt it was a bit too "fluffy" for our taste so next time I'll continue cooking them on the stovetop a bit more.
I cooked this for a couple minutes longer than before, so this time it was more like 24-25 minutes for us {our oven cooks fast}. And voila! Here's how it came out:
Certainly a worthwhile experiment, though I definitely learned some things. It was okay. Next time the hash browns will be cooked separately, the eggs will be cooked longer, and then we'll see how that goes!
Thanks again everyone, great suggestions!!
Keep letting me know what you all are doing with this, I love hearing it! Just please no more complaints about the recipe title. I am not
a cooking expert by any means and had no idea this would take off on Pinterest. Your understanding is greatly appreciated. If you complain in a comment about the title, I will delete your comment. Thanks. :)
