Is it possible to make vegan biscuits without butter? Alex and I set out to crack the code to the best ever plant based biscuits. Biscuits get their flakiness and buttery flavor from rich butter. So could it really work with only plant based ingredients? Lucky for you–and us, our experiment was successful. Here’s the recipe for the best vegan biscuits with that signature layered look, a buttery flavor, and a flaky interior! And, you can bake them in up 30 minutes. They’re the perfect side for soups, or baked good to top with strawberry jam.
The secrets to the best vegan biscuits
What are the secrets to making the best vegan biscuits: sans butter? After lots of experimentation, we learned that the recipe works best with, wait for it…vegan butter! While most recipes we eat are plant based, vegan butter is not something we normally cook with. But we learned in this recipe that it’s essential to a good biscuit. Today, you can find vegan butter options that are minimally processed (see the section below). Here’s what we learned in our trials:
Vegan butter has the best flavor and moisture (vs coconut oil). You won’t often find us using vegan butter here at A Couple Cooks. Coconut oil was our top choice or this recipe. But after several tests, it yielded biscuits that tasted great but became dry and crumbly about an hour after baking. Vegan butter had the perfect buttery flavor and the right moisture level.Freeze the butter before using. Vegan butter melts easily, so it’s important to freeze it for 5 minutes prior to making the recipe. This gets the perfect layered texture. We also use this trick with dairy-based butter in our Flaky Homemade Biscuits.Almond milk is the best non-dairy milk (vs oat milk). Oat milk is becoming more available as a non-dairy milk. But when we tried it in these vegan biscuits, it had much too sweet of a flavor. Unsweetened almond milk is your best bet here.
How to find a good vegan butter
As much as we love vegan recipes, Alex and I have been wary of using vegan butter. We eat a mostly whole food plant based diet and most vegan butters in stores are very processed. Our typical butter substitute has been coconut oil, which works perfectly in most of our main dish and plant based dessert recipes. However, it didn’t make the cut in our vegan biscuits! So, Alex sent to the store and searched for a good vegan butter. Here’s what to look for when you’re shopping:
Minimally processed using real ingredients. Check out the label of your butter and see what kind of ingredients list there is. We ended up using Miyoko’s Vegan Butter, which is made mostly with cashews and coconut, which fit our definition of “real ingredients”. If there are lots of hard to pronounce words and ingredients you don’t know, we’d steer away.Organic if possible. If you can, it’s nice to find an organic vegan butter to know that there are no chemicals in the process.
Are there other brands of vegan butter you love that are minimally processed with real food ingredients? Let us know in the comments below.
The only tool required: a biscuit cutter
To make a good biscuit, the only unique tool required is a biscuit cutter. (You do need a rolling pin, but we assume you have that!) For these biscuits, we used a 3-inch round cutter. Here’s a link to buy biscuit cutters online if you don’t have one yet! You’ll find it comes in handy for baking cookies, too.
How to store biscuits
What’s the best way to store vegan biscuits? It’s a great question, since the texture of baked goods can be hard to preserve after the day of baking. Here’s the best way to store biscuits:
1 to 2 days: Store biscuits for 1 to 2 days at room temperature, either covered with a towel or in an airtight container1 week: Store biscuits for 1 week in the refrigerator. Allow to come to room temperature before serving, or reheat in a 350 degree oven. 3 months: Freeze in a sealed container for up to 3 months. Reheat in a 350 degree oven.
Top 10 ways to serve vegan biscuits
These vegan biscuits are so tasty, you’ll want to eat them with just about everything! Here are our top ways to eat these vegan biscuits.
This vegan biscuits recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free. 5 from 1 review
