Light and fluffy and slathered with brown butter, these honeynut squash sage biscuits are fall in a biscuit.
Is there anything better than a warm, buttery biscuit fresh from the oven? These honeynut squash sage biscuits fresh from the oven, probably. Or sandwiched with scrambled eggs and bacon.
These honeynut squash sage biscuits have all the fall flavors we love — savory, nutty, and little sweet — wrapped up in golden-brown, flaky layers. The roasted honeynut squash, crispy fried sage and slather of brown butter after baking are DEFINITION cozy autumn. I’d eat these honeynut squash sage biscuits standing over the baking tray, but they’re great for a fall brunch, a breakfast sandwich, or Thanksgiving breakfast or dinner.
Even if you’ve never made biscuits before, this biscuit recipe is quick and easy to make. We use a SUPER simple lamination method to get extra tall biscuits with lots of flaky layers. And we crisp up the sage IN the brown butter, to give the brown butter a little extra sage flavor.
This post is all about honeynut squash sage biscuits with brown butter.
Honeynut Squash Sage Biscuits with Brown Butter
What Is Honeynut Squash?
Honeynut squash is a smaller, sweeter and more flavorful cousin to the butternut squash. I first learned about it from the team at Blue Hill at Stone Barns (the farm-to-table fine dining restaurant in the very first episode of Chef’s Table). Their head chef and co-owner Dan Barber worked with Cornell agriculture professor Michael Mazourek to develop a version of butternut squash that ACTUALLY tastes good on its own and doesn’t need maple syrup and butter to be delicious.
That variety of honeynut squash entered US markets in 2015, but has gained a TON of traction in the last few years. More farmer’s are growing it and we’re seeing it at farmer’s markets, Whole Foods and many grocery stores.
The first time I roasted honeynut squash I was shocked. I roasted it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, that’s it. Then I scooped out the flesh, mashed it, and ate it, jaw gaping open, with my fiancee. A squash that doesn’t need butter and extra sugar to taste good is a true gift to this earth. I hope you feel that way when you stir honeynut squash into these perfect, sweet savory biscuits, too.
Ingredients
To make these sweet-savory honeynut squash sage biscuits, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter: Butter is a KEY flavor in biscuits, so opt for a quality butter that’ll really make these biscuits sing. You can use an American or European style (like Kerrygold) butter. I typically bake with Cabot, since it’s high-quality and affordable where I live.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk adds a great tang that complements the butter in all great biscuits. Buttermilk also has acid that reacts with baking soda, helping create tall, flaky biscuits.
- All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour gives these biscuits structure. I typically bake with King Arthur All-Purpose Flour.
- Baking powder and baking soda: These leaveners work together to make the biscuits rise beautifully.
- Salt: Salt enhances teh flavor of all the other ingredients in the biscuits.
- Granulated sugar: Just a little sugar brings out the natural sweetness of the roasted honeynut squash.
- Cubed and roasted honeynut squash: I peel and cube the squash, then coat with 1-2TBS. of neutral oil (like canola) and salt. Roast 425 for about 30 minutes until cooked through, flipping halfway through. If you can’t find honeynut squash, use a mini butternut squash or half of a regular butternut squash.
- Fresh sage: Crisped in brown butter, sage adds an earthy, savory note that works perfectly with the squash.
How to Make Honeynut Squash Sage Biscuits
This is a high-level overview. Please go to the recipe card below for the full details!
1. Brown the butter: Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, adding the sage at the end so that it gets nice and crisp. Place the sage on a paper towel-lined plate, and set the brown butter aside.
2. Make the dough: Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then pinch cold butter (no pastry cutter needed) into the flour mixture until you get coarse crumbs about the size of a pea. Stir in cold buttermilk and three-quarters of the roasted squash. Then spread onto a parchment paper covered work surface and knead the dough briefly to incorporate the butter. Then we’ll cut the dough into 4 pieces, press them one on top of the other, and cut into 6 biscuits. You don’t need a biscuit cutter – a knife or bench scraper works great!
3. Bake: Chill the dough in the freezer for 15 minutes to set the butter in place, then brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and bake at 425 for 10 minutes to kick start the leaveners and help the biscuits rise, and then 400 until the biscuits are golden on top and a deep golden brown on the bottom.
4. Whip the brown butter: While the biscuits bake, put the brown butter bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice and whisk until the butter solidifies.
5. Eat up: Enjoy the biscuits warm with the whipped brown butter! Store at room temperature in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap.
Tips for the Best Biscuits
- Properly measure your flour:
- Kitchen Scale: I always use a kitchen scale to measure my ingredients and include the measurements in grams in the recipe so you can, too. You can get a pretty cheap scale on Amazon (I used a $12 scale for years and now use a $28 KitchenAid scale).
- Cup Measure Method: If you’re using a cup measure instead of a scale, first fluff the flour in its bag, then use a spoon to place it into your measuring cup. Level the flour off by scraping the flat edge of a knife across the top of the cup measure.
- Keep it cold: Cold butter is KEY to flaky biscuits. When we pinch the butter into the dry ingredients, we want the butter to be cold so that we get very small pockets of butter throughout the dough. When the biscuits bake, the butter melts and releases steam, creating layers. If the butter is too soft or warm, it will blend too much into the dough, giving you denser biscuits without layers.
- Roast the honeynut squash the day before: This will help make the day-of prep easier since you won’t have to wait for the squash to roast and cool.
Can these biscuits be frozen?
Yes! Place unbaked biscuits on a baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen, transfer to a freezer-safe bag, squeezing all the air out. Bake as instructed directly from frozen, adding a few extra minutes to the bake time.
FAQs
Honeynut squash is smaller, sweeter and more flavorful than butternut squash. It’s also and higher in beta-carotene.
Yes! Since butternut squash is larger than honeynut, I would use just half of the squash or look for a mini butternut squash.
Similar to delicata squash, honeynut squash has a thin, edible skin. However, in this recipe, we peel the squash and then cube it so we don’t have the texture of the skin in the biscuits.
Cold butter and lamination are the secrets to a GREAT biscuit. Pinching cold butter into the dough creates pockets of steam when the biscuits are baked, giving you flaky layers. Laminating the dough by just cutting it and placing it on top of each other gives you more layers of butter and thus more flaky layers to the biscuits.
Sure! Bacon or a little cheddar cheese would be great.
More drool-worthy recipes
- If you’re looking for more fall bakes, check out pumpkin spice cookies, dirty chai cinnamon rolls and pumpkin crumb muffins.
- For classic bakes, check out salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies, almond frangipane blondies and salty fudgy brownies.
- For more breakfast recipes, try the BEST vegan banana bread, easy pistachio croissants, and carrot cake cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting.
If you make these honeynut squash sage biscuits, please leave a rating and review below and tag me on Instagram or TikTok at @loaves.and.such!
Honeynut Squash Sage Biscuits with Brown Butter
6
large or 12 small biscuits30
minutes30
minutesLight and fluffy and slathered with brown butter, these honeynut squash sage biscuits are fall in a biscuit.
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
- For the Sage Brown Butter
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter
6-7 sage leaves
1/4 tsp. fine kosher or sea salt
- For the Biscuits
3 1/2 cups (420 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tsp. fine kosher or sea salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 TBS. granulated sugar
1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
1 cup (237 milliliters) buttermilk, cold
1 honeynut squash, peeled cubed and roasted, COLD from the fridge (I roast honeynut squash with neutral oil and salt at 425 for about 30 minutes until cooked through)
Directions
- Prep: Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the cubed butter for the biscuit dough into the freezer and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Brown the butter: Brown the butter that you’ll spread onto the biscuits. Heat the butter on medium to medium-low in a saucepot. The butter will melt, then bubble, and then foam. Once it is foaming, add in the sage leaves and continually swirl the pan. Once you see a good number of brown specks on the bottom (the browned butter!), remove from the stovetop. Place the sage onto a paper towel to dry and pour the brown butter into a medium bowl, making sure to scrape the brown bits from the pan.
- Make the biscuit dough: In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and granulated sugar. Take the butter from the freezer and pinch it into the flour mixture until the largest pieces are about the size of a pea. Gently stir in the buttermilk and all but 10 or so pieces of the chilled honeynut squash.
Turn the dough out onto a parchment-lined counter and knead a few times to finish incorporating the butter and honeynut squash.
Pat the dough into a 1-inch-thick square and spread the remaining honeynut squash and crumbled fried sage on top. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the dough into four pieces. Stack one on top of the other, pressing down after you add each layer.
Cut the dough into 6 large or 12 small biscuits. Place onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and into the freezer for 15 minutes. - Bake: Space the biscuits 2 inches apart on a sheet pan. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and place in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400°F and bake until the tops are golden and the bottoms are a deep golden brown, 15-20 more minutes.
- Whip the brown butter: While the biscuits bake, place the medium bowl with brown butter into a larger bowl filled with ice. Whisk until the butter sets, and then scrape into a container to serve it in.
- Enjoy! Eat warm from the oven with the whipped brown butter or make into a breakfast sandwich.
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