Vegan Southern Biscuits

When I was a girl growing up in North Carolina….JUST KIDDING! I wouldn’t do that to you. But I will say that the milk is really important here. I’ve been making these biscuits for over 20 years and have tried every variation you can think of—from adding vinegar to make ‘buttermilk’ to every plant milk available on the market, and I’ve found that the milk listed in the recipe is by far the best. Soy milk is a close second choice, as you need a thick and almost fluffy plant milk for the best result.

Bonus: Ripple Kids packs a nutritional punch with extra protein, vitamins, and minerals, which is a feature often lacking in biscuits. Ripple is a great tasting product and my go-to for my recipes that call for milk.

This recipe can easily be halved or doubled.

The Recipe:

Yield: 12-14 biscuits, depending on the size of your cutter.

Ingredients:

4 cups AP flour
2 tbsp. baking soda
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
16 tbsp. (two sticks) Earth Balance butter
2 cups Ripple Kids Milk (milk needs to be cold)

Process:

Preheat oven to 400º

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar. I just use a whisk, but you can use a sifter or a fork as well.

Add your stick of butter. You can take the time to slice or cube it, but I just drop the whole stick in there and press down firmly with my fist to break up the stick. Using your hands, squeeze the flour and butter together until only small lumps remain and the flour makes a loose ball when squeezed in your hand. It should have a pea-like texture, but you do want to keep some small lumps. Don’t overwork the butter.

Add in the 2 cups of milk and use a spatula to mix it together until dough starts to form. Using your hands, finish forming the dough until all flour is incorporated.

Transfer your dough onto a floured surface. Using floured hands, press your dough into a rectangle and fold, gently press it out again and fold in half again. Repeat this folding process 5-6 times, being careful not to knead the dough and dusting more flour on the dough and your surface as needed.

After folding is complete, press the dough out until it’s about 3/4” thick.

Cut the dough into biscuits using a cookie cutter, being sure not to twist the cutter on the way down.

Reform leftover dough and press and fold once before pressing out and cutting.

Repeat until all dough is used. The biscuits from the end of the process won’t look as good as the ones from the first go and they’ll be slightly less fluffy, but they’ll taste delicious!

Transfer desired amount of biscuits to cookie sheet (you can line your sheet with non-stick foil for easy clean up, but do NOT use parchment) and bake in 400º oven for about 20 minutes.

Leftover biscuits can be frozen for up to 3 months. Reheat frozen biscuits in 400º oven for 23-27 minutes.

Notes:

Cooking times will vary depending on your equipment.

Have questions about this recipe? Reach out to me.