Sausage Balls

This is a recipe for Sausage Balls that doesn’t use Bisquick. Since I can remember, my family has always made Sausage Balls using Bisquick baking mix, but I don’t buy it very often and I had a pound of ground pork that I wanted to cook. In my mind I knew that I could figure out how to make the recipe happen.

I decided to try to replace the Bisquick for regular flour, salt and baking powder and to my surprise the Sausage Balls turned out really well. If I had used my usual spicy breakfast sausage these would’ve been so similar to our Bisquick recipe that I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell that I used flour instead.

Sausage Balls are standard appetizers for all of our group events. We make them for baby and bridal showers, graduation parties, New Year’s Eve parties, Super Bowl Sunday, and any other get together where appetizers are fun to have around, but they’re also delicious as a breakfast item. I like to serve them with cheesy scrambled eggs and a fruit salad.

I didn’t have fennel seeds, but if you have it in your spice cabinet, then I would recommend adding a little fennel for the sausage to be even more flavorful. I like these a little spicy, if you don’t enjoy spice foods then leave out the red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper.

To make my life easier I use my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. You can mix these by hand, but it will take a while to mix everything up. Don’t give up if you feel like the dry ingredients will never fully incorporate add a little oil or melted butter to help move the process along.

I hope that you’ll make these today and leave a comment below. Also, for daily updates follow @lifeabovethecafe using the social media icons found on this page.

Ingredients:

• 1 & 1/4 cups of All Purpose Flour
• 1 & 1/4 tsp. of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 1/4 tsp. of pepper
• 1/4 tsp. of red pepper flakes
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. of sage
• 1/4 tsp. of thyme
• 1/2 tsp. of parsley
• 1 & 1/4 cup of sharp cheddar
• 1 pound of ground pork
• 1 – 2 Tbsp. of oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a large baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper or foil.  Fit your mixer with the dough hook.

In a large stand mixer or large mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and all of the spices together.  Add the cheese, pork, and oil to the bowl and mix until everything comes together.

I start with 1 Tbsp. of oil in first and add the rest of the oil if it’s needed to completely incorporate all of the flour into the mixture. Sometimes by letting the pork sit out for a few minutes to warm up a bit it will mix better than when it’s cold.

Once everything is fully incorporated use a Tbsp. size cookie scoop to portion out the mixture.  I drop them onto the parchment paper and then roll them out into a smoother round shape.

Bake for 15 – 18 minutes.  Don’t over bake or they will be dry.  My sausage balls were ready at the 15 minute mark.  If you make larger portions they will more likely require a little more time to bake.

Refrigerate leftovers.

This recipe made a little over 3 dozen.

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