Vegan Buttermilk Biscuits

I love making homemade biscuits, it makes me feel accomplished and the end result is far better than store bought stuff. It is also very difficult to find canned gluten free biscuits. I’ve spent a good deal of time with this recipe, trying to perfect it and get the right combination of flakiness and density, like you have with a regular old biscuit. These guys are pretty well there, and are an excellent Saturday morning comfort food.

That being said the recipe come with a few specifics that are important to highlight:

• I used coconut milk or my coconut butter milk (recipe here) in this recipe. The fattiness helps keep the biscuits moist and dense. I do the same thing if I am making scones (English or American). I find there really isn’t another milk that you can substitute.
• The biscuits rely on baking powder/soda + ACV for a bit of leavening, and flax and corn starch for binding
• You have to layer and fold the biscuits in order to get that desired flakiness, as if you are making croissants. While cutting in the butter does help, stacking achieves those nice flaky layers we all love
• This is true with both regular and GF/Vegan biscuits: do not turn the cutter or cup when cutting out the biscuits. This will crimp the edges and they will not rise as nicely

Okay. Now that we got that cleared up! This recipe makes 5 to 6 biscuits. Not a huge amount, but enough for biscuits and gravy for 2! You can of course increase the recipe if you like more biscuits, or better yet, would like a full biscuit feast!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tbsp. corn starch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp. ground flax seeds
• 3 tbsp. + 1/4 cups of coconut buttermilk (or milk)
• 1 tbsp. water
• 4 tbsp. vegan butter
• 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. agave or other liquid sweetener

Instructions

1. Mix flax wit 3 tbsp. coconut butter milk and 1 tbsp. water – set aside to gel
2. Preheat oven to 375 F
3. Combine all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk together
4. Cut butter into the dry ingredients using a fork or pastry blender (you can also use a food processor) until it resembles a rough crumble
5. Create a well in the middle of the dry mixture, and add in the remaining wet ingredients. Fold until the mixture comes together, you may need to use your hands.
6. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead 2-3 times, then cut into 3 equal sections
7. Roll or press each of the sections out to be about 1/4 of an inch thick. Layer them on top of each other and press down slightly to get them to stick together
8. Fold the dough in half and press down again, the dough should be around an inch thick
9. Use a round cookie cutter or drinking glass to cut out biscuits. Collect the dough and repeat the rolling and folding process again until the scraps are too small to use
10. Place the biscuits on an oiled baking tray. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
11. Serve with gravy, or jam, or as a breakfast sandwich!

Enjoy!