I grew up in Oklahoma, where Sunday meant family, football, and biscuits. Big, flakey, and ready for any number of toppings – nothing could beat a good biscuit. Being vegan doesn’t mean I have to forgo those towers of gluten or mounds of gravy, it just means it’s taken me 12 years of trying to FINALLY crack them. And here they are – these vegan biscuits are light, flakey, buttery, and really freaking good.
How to make the best vegan biscuits
My biggest hurdle in biscuit-making has always been the layers. I was perfectly adept at making biscuits which, on first inspection seemed fine. They were good enough and covered in mushroom gravy, you couldn’t really tell that they lacked layers and flakiness. But this year, my mom told me the secret. For starters, you just can’t roll a biscuit. You can’t even pat them flat and start cutting (which was what I had been doing. For a good vegan biscuit – you HAVE to fold them. Not just once, but two or three times for good vegan biscuits. Folding provides pockets for the fat to cuddle in, creating those beautiful flakey layers. This process of folding is called lamination and it’s straight-up crucial for bomb-ass vegan biscuits.
When making vegan biscuits, it’s also important to work QUICKLY. Good lamination is predicated on not only many layers, but also that the fat doesn’t melt before it hits the oven. The process of the fat melting in a very hot oven creates steam, which lifts the layers making your biscuits oh so flakey.
These Vegan Biscuits come together in less than thirty minutes, making them perfect for a lazy Sunday morning, or for impressing the pants off your friends at Brunch. I love using Bobs Red Mills One to One Gluten-Free flour to make these biscuits gluten-free.
The Most Perfect Vegan Biscuits
Ingredients
Vegan Buttermilk
- 1 cup unsweetened PLAIN non dairy milk soy, almond, oat -any will work
- 1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
Dry
- 2 ½ cup all purpose flour more as needed
- 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cold vegan butter 8 tablespoons
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (232 C), and add the apple cider vineger to the non dairy milk to make the buttermilk. Set aside while oven preheats. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredents (except the butter).
- Add your cold butter to the flour and work with your fingers until the butter is around the size of small peas. Try to do this as quickly as possible to keep the butter from melting too much.
- Make a little well in the butter/ flour mixture and add your buttermilk slowy. Mix with a wooden spoon or your fingers untill it just comes together. You may not need to add all the milk! Stir till it's just coming together.
- Dump your dough to a floured surface and flatten into a rough rectangle shape. Fold in half, like your folding a sheet of paper for an envelope. Gently pat down with your palms untill it's around the same width as before and fold once again. Folding provides the lamination (trapped fat in flour) that makes them fancy flakey layers. Pat flat again untill you have a rectange about 1 inch thick.
- Using a 1-inch thick biscut cutter, water glass, or wine glass, push down through the dough and give it a tiny twist. Repeat and place your biscuts on the parchemnt lined sheet – close enough to touch a bit. This helps them rise. Once you've made your prettiest biscuts, fold your dough once again and cut one or two more – however many you can get. You should have 8 or 9 in all.
- Brush the tops with melted vegan butter and place into your preheated oven.
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. You're looking for a lightly golden top, and a slightly darker bottom. Cover them babies with jelly or gravy, and eat immediately.
