Can A Biscuit Be Vegan?

Biscuits. I’ve never been a fan. I know. I know. That sounds so unAmerican but it’s true. First, I’ve never been a huge bread eater and second, I absolutely loathe gravy so the very thought of biscuits and gravy makes me want to vomit. Third―and without a doubt probably the biggest reason I’ve never liked biscuits is the very word, “biscuit.” I mean come on … is it just me or shouldn’t it be spelled biscut? Or buscut? But biscuit? What even is that? And I mean thank God for Google because there’s absolutely no way I would have spelled it correctly in this post had I not had an instant dictionary at my fingertips.

Caveat, as much as it pains me to admit, I suppose there was a time in my distant (waayyyy distant) past that I did enjoy a Kentucky Fried Chicken biscuit every now and then. Shhhhh … you have things in your past too so don’t judge.

Anyhoo, look up how to make the perfect biscuit and you’re going to find umpteen recipes on umpteen sites that are all basically the same as far as ingredients go, only the methods vary. Do you cut in the butter? Is the butter salted or unsalted? Is it cold or room temp? Can you substitute margarine? Etc. And you might find a few sites that swear up and down that you can use almond flour (or coconut flour or whatever kind of plant-based based flour you have on hand) and still make a drool-worthy biscuit that’s gluten free. But seeing as I have yet to try any of those recipes, I’m going to skip the gluten free part and just concentrate on the vegan part, meaning no dairy, hence no butter.

But first, a note about gluten … because I get asked, yes, I do eat gluten. Sort of. I don’t go out of my way to avoid it necessarily, I just naturally don’t eat a lot of foods that have gluten. I don’t eat pasta. And I don’t really eat sweets so cakes and cookies aren’t a source of gluten in my diet. And for the most part, I don’t eat bread. Yes, occasionally I may have French bread or a bagel (truth be known I am CRAVING–like DYING for–an everything bagel right now but not the store bought kind, no, I want the hard on the outside, soft on the inside, still warm, fresh from the oven from a small bakery in the city … that kind of bagel) but that’s about it. No pancakes. No crackers. So again, I don’t go out of my way to avoid gluten per se, I just don’t eat the foods that have gluten.

How can you make a delicious biscuit without butter? Dairy sourced butter, that is.

Now back to the vegan, or dairy-free part of this post … is it possible to make a gravy-worthy, drool-worthy biscuits using a plant-based butter? Why yes, yes it is. And it’s easy … honest, just choose your favorite premixed biscuit mix, like the ones you buy from the store, make as directed BUT substitute plant-based butter that’s been frozen. YES. FROZEN. Why? Because plant butters tend to melt really easy and I find they separate faster than regular butter. Meaning they get watery when melted. So if you freeze it first, then you’re good to go.

I like Miyoko’s plant butter and this amazing mix from the Loveless Café in Nashville, TN. I used a Cuisinart to “cut” the frozen butter in and found that dropping the mixture turned out better than using an actual biscuit cutter … because once again, plant butters melt easily and when you roll out the dough it gets warm and the consistency just isn’t as good. So give it a whirl. And no, you don’t have to use that mix … try any mix in your local grocery and I promise, you’ll be super amazed by the results. 


Oh, on a side note, in case you’re still reading … about that bagel I’ve been craving. I was out of town for a few weeks and stopped by one of my fav bagel joints (which will go unnamed because I am still reeling from disappointment) for an everything bagel not once, but three times and all three times they were out. Imagine my eye roll!! Anyway, after complaining about it to Eric on the phone a gazillion times, guess what he did … yea, he went to the store and bought some so they’d be waiting for me when I got back. Yea, he’s all that. And he’s all mine ; )

Irish Soda Bread

Non-dairy buttermilk makes this Irish soda bread vegan AND makes it uber delicious.

On Being a Flexitarian

3 Comments

  1. Gastro Gabe

    Best biscuits ever! Ok maybe second to Popeye’s (I swear I haven’t had theirs for at least 3 years)…but these are so good with the guilty pleasure of biscuits and gravy. Ok, I need to go jump on the Peloton. I feel myself needing to loosen my belt.

    Like

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