4.1 Biscuits

Technically biscuits are more versatile than just using them for biscuits and gravy, but what’s the point?

Source: MinimalistBaker

Ingredients:

Ingredients

Tools

1 cup almond milk

Mixing bowl

1 1/2 - 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Measuring cup

275 g flour (~2 cups)

Mixing spoon

1 tbsp baking powder

Knife/Dough scraper

1/2 tsp baking soda

9x9 pan

3/4 tsp salt

4 tbsp butter

Preparation:

  1. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
  2. Mix the almond milk and lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. This will simulate buttermilk. Let it stand for at least 5 minutes.
  3. Whisk together dry ingredients.
  4. Cut the butter (if you used sticks, which I suggest) into small chunks and mix it in with the flour. Just use your fingers to smash the pieces further and try to incorporate it as well as possible. The more distributed it gets, the better. But don’t use melted butter, and try to work quickly so that the butter doesn’t melt from your hands.
  5. Pour in the “buttermilk” mixture. Stir until just slightly combined, the dough will be very sticky.
  6. Dump it out onto floured surface, dust the top with some flour, and fold the dough over itself a few times (5-6 should be fine). You’ll probably want to dust your hands with flour now and again. Your hands WILL become a sticky mess. DO NOT KNEAD THE DOUGH. Handle the dough as little as possible. Otherwise you lose fluffiness and biscuits become more hard (I think).
  7. Form the dough into a rough square/disk approximately 3/4 - 1 inch thick. Use a dough cutter, knife, or cookie cutter to cut out the biscuits. Place them in greased baking sheet/pan. They should touch slightly (this helps them to rise).
  8. Brush tops of biscuits with melted butter (another 1/4 - 1/2 tbsp) and gently make a small divot in the center (using 1-2 fingers). This helps prevent “dome” forming from biscuits.
  9. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the biscuits are fluffy and turning golden brown.
  10. Eat those bad boys while they’re warm! Preferably with sausage gravy.

Variations:

  • Cinnamon roll biscuits are pretty good. I actually like them better than “ordinary” cinnamon rolls.
  • You can use whole wheat flour instead of white. I tried 100% whole wheat flour once. It worked, but the biscuits were a bit more crumbly, so it was hard to make, e.g., a breakfast sandwich. A 50/50 blend worked pretty well. You may want to increase the amount of milk slightly, as the whole wheat flour seemed to absorb a bit extra liquid.

Notes:

  • Of course, swap out the butter for dairy-free butter to make this fully dairy-free.
  • The original recipe was for vegan biscuits, hence the almond milk in the instructions. If you don’t are about being vegan or dairy-free, you can swap out both of those ingredients for buttermilk.