Vegan Biscuits

Laura's dad loves biscuits.  When Liz, Laura's mom, found out about it she set her sights on learning how to make fluffy and delicious biscuits for him.  So Laura grew up eating biscuits.  She loves them.  As in, loves them so much she won't share.

I learned all of this last winter and have been baking biscuits every couple of weeks or so in hopes of perfecting them.  I started with Betty Crocker's recipe, veganized, and have altered it more and more until I think I've got it.

The first thing to know about biscuits is they're a quick bread, and shouldn't be messed with too much.  Once you've mixed the wet and dry, there shouldn't be a lot of fiddling around with them.  Roll 'em out, cut 'em, bake 'em.  Done.  Seriously. 

The second thing is, roll the dough out once, fold it in half over itself. Then, do it again.  This will get the nice layered biscuit.  Also, don't roll the dough out too thin.  Tall biscuits with lots of layers, are the key, I think.

2 cups flour (plus 1/2 cup or so for rolling out the dough)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup plain soymilk

Heat oven to 450º.  Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Spoon the vegetable shortening into the flour mix as you use two butter knives in a scissor motion to break it up and mix it.  If you've done pie crusts it's the same thing.  If you've never done it, no big deal, you'll get the hang of it.  Just try to get it as small as you can, but don't work it too much.  Once you've got nice, relatively consistent crumbs of shortening and flour mix pour in your soymilk.  Mix this up until you've got a dough, then put it on your counter and start rolling it out.  Roll it out to about an inch or so thick, then fold it in half on itself, and do it again.  Then grab a biscuit/cookie cutter, or glass and start cutting biscuits.  For your extra dough, I roll it back into a ball, and start over.  Roll it out to an inch or so, fold it over, and roll it out again.  I use a spray on oil and a cookie sheet, and toss them in the oven.  I want to say it's about 12-15 minutes, but I usually just eyeball them.

I've had to practice them, that's for sure.  But they're delicious, and come out really fluffy usually.  Amelia loves them.  Well, except for that time she put them in the dishwasher, but that's a different story. 

Comments

[mahsa]

I made these for thanksgiving and they were a hit!! They turned out so flaky and delicious! Thanks for the recipe!

[SJ]

This is a wonderful recipe! Just made these biscuits for the second time.

[Amazonminknits.wordpress.com]

Thanks for the recipe! We threw in some Italian spices and the biscuits turned out great!

[Jonesgoinggreen.wordpress.com]

I see that I have once again found an older post using google!! lol.. but I did just make these.. in fact, they are in the oven. The dough felt very different, I think they will turn out well. Time will tell... another 7 minutes, to be exact! Thank you for sharing this! :)

[Thursday29]

I'm giving this recipe a try, right now. Two batches -- we are going to take them camping! The first batch came out and the 'sample' (the small, odd shaped, leftover biscuit) was super yummy!

Thank you for sharing this! I think, this is the closest I've gotten to my Grandmother's infamous super easy biscuits. Her birthday would be on Saturday - quite fitting!