Did you know you can easily bake up some tender, flaky, southern style buttermilk biscuits, just like mom used to make, without any animal based dairy products? I know!! If you’re just switching to a dairy free or vegan lifestyle, having a go-to recipe for something you already love really helps ease the transition.
Growing up in the south, homeschooled, under the care of a stay-at-home mom, we were kinda spoiled with biscuits and gravy for breakfast multiple times a week. It was definitely one of our favorite breakfasts! I used to love watching and helping mom make them. My little niece now keeps up the tradition asks for it every time she’s at grandma’s house.
Whether biscuits were a staple part of breakfast or just a weekend treat in your house, it’s sad to think you might have to give them up – but luckily, you don’t have to! Gather a few simple ingredients and before you know it, you’ll be enjoying the tender crumb of these flaky layers for breakfast, lunch or dinner!
Ingredients:
The dry ingredients for this easy recipe are really so simple. All purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Plenty of baking powder! Maybe I should have named this recipe “Baking Powder Biscuits.” Oh well. Anyway, I know 4 teaspoons might seem like a lot, but don’t worry, it works. Just make sure its fresh! Sometimes older baking powder can be clumpy or give off a sour flavor in the finished biscuits.
As for the wet ingredients, you’ll need vegetable shortening and a dairy free butter. Try Earth Balance, Smart Balance, or my favorite, Country Crock Plant Butter. I loved this recipe so much a few years ago when plant based, vegan butter was harder to find and a lot more expensive, because it doesn’t take very much! Now, it’s easer and they are sometimes even cheaper than their dairy based alternatives. That’s a win for the vegan community!
You could potentially make this with all butter, no shortening, or vise versa, but for perfect biscuits, I like the combination of the two. An all butter biscuit will be more flaky, due to the delicious steam pockets the butter creates while baking. However, butter contains more liquid than shortening, so using shortening helps reduce the formation of gluten strands. You don’t want gluten strands to form in biscuit making, as this will make them tough and chewy, instead of soft and tender
You’ll also need a liquid to bring it all together. Most recipes call for buttermilk, naturally. Before going vegan, I would always use that handy substitute where you mix lemon juice or vinegar with regular milk to make it curdled and sour. It sounds gross, I know, but it works! We employ that technique here to make our own vegan buttermilk. You can use almond milk, soy milk, or coconut milk, but my favorite is oat milk.
If this is your first time making buttermilk, this is what you do: Add 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar to glass measuring cup. Top with your dairy free milk of choice until you have one cup of milk. Stir gently, and set aside for about five minutes. If some separation occurs, don’t worry. Different plant milks react differently, but it’s ok. Just stir again before using.
Method:
It’s very important to have cold butter and shortening, so start with that. Room temperature fats are the worst thing for biscuits! So measure those out and pop them in the freezer while you prep all the other things the recipe calls for. I set my shortening on a piece of wax or parchment paper, instead of leaving in a measuring cup, so it gets chilled from all sides in a short time.
Next, mix together lemon juice and milk to make your vegan buttermilk, set aside. Preheat oven.
Combine dry ingredients in a medium to large bowl and whisk to combine. If your baking soda is fresh and still has some lumps, you can sift it through a mesh strainer. Add butter and shortening to the flour mixture and use two knives or a pastry cutter to combine until you have a crumbly dough. (You can also pulse a couple times in a food processor if you’d like, just transfer to a mixing bowl to finish.) Make a well in the center and add buttermilk, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula until a soft dough forms. Do not over-work your biscuit dough!
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and turn the dough gently on itself a couple times, then pat gently into a rectangle. Now, this is important! My grandma taught me this trick for making extra flaky, fluffy biscuits. Imagine the dough is a letter you’re folding. Your rectangle should be roughly the same size as a piece of computer paper. From this, fold the bottom third up, then fold the top third down. Pat gently down. Rotate a quarter of a turn, and repeat folding in thirds. This should leave you with nine layers of flaky deliciousness!
Now, continue patting out until dough is a flat disc, about three quarter inch thickness. You can sprinkle a little more flour over your work surface as you go, if needed. You can also use a floured rolling pin here, but I usually find it unnecessary (and it’s easier to over-roll or over-work your dough if you do.) If you choose to, just make sure a work gently.
Use a biscuit cutter or a knife to cut into square biscuits. You don’t want to use something dull like an inverted glass, because this will seal the edges of the biscuit together and prevent the nice fluffy layers! Place biscuits on a cookie sheet or baking stone with the edges just touching. Gather remaining dough and fold gently together, then pat out and cut biscuits a second time. Brush the tops with melted butter and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
Serve hot with additional vegan butter and jam or jelly.
Sausage gravy was always a hit with these when we were growing up. I’m excited to try making a vegan version using The Minimalist Baker’s new Vegan Sausage Recipe!
Leftover biscuits can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container. Reheat by splitting in half and toasting on a hot oiled griddle.
Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits without Milk or Dairy
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp plant based butter, plus additional for melting see note
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening chilled
- 1 cup non dairy milk oat, almond, soy,
- 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Measure out butter and shortening, put in freezer for 5-10 minutes to chill well.
- Stir together lemon juice and non-dairy milk, set aside to curdle. Preheat oven to 400°.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Using a fork, pastry blender, or two knives, cut the butter and shortening into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Make a well in the middle of this mixture. Stir buttermilk and pour into the well. Stir with a large spoon until the dough just comes together. Knead in the bowl a couple times until all the flour is used up.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently, turning dough over on itself, until it is soft and smooth.
- Press out into a large rectangle, fold into itself in thirds, rotate one quarter of a turn, and fold thirds in again.
- Pat dough out gently until it's 3/4 inch thick. Use a biscut cutter or a sharp knife to cut out biscuits. Re-roll scraps and cut as many biscuits as possible.
- Place biscuits on sheet pan or baking stone with edges barely touching. Brush tops with a little additional melted butter, and bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes.
Notes
This easy homemade biscuit recipe is the best way to satisfy your craving when you need dairy-free biscuits!
