Here’s the best ever vegan biscuits recipe! They’re easy to make and come out perfectly tender and flaky, with lots of layers and buttery flavor.
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 container
- 1 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.
- Vegan Biscuits and Gravy. (So.good.)
- With Vegan Corn Chowder.
- Drizzled with maple syrup.
- Alongside Split Pea Soup.
- With strawberry jam for brunch.
- Along with BBQ soy curls. Intrigued?
- With Instant Pot vegan chili. (Yes, there are other sides to go with chili than just cornbread.)
- And Best Damn Lentil Soup.
- And Creamy Wild Rice Soup.
- As a side for a holiday dinner (like Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner).
This vegan biscuits recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.
Print
The Best Vegan Biscuits
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
Here’s the best ever vegan biscuits recipe! They’re easy to make and come out perfectly tender and flaky, with lots of layers and buttery flavor.
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter*
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil (grapeseed, vegetable, canola, peanut), plus more for brushing
Instructions
- Measure out the vegan butter and freeze it for 5 minutes.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450°F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, powdered sugar and kosher salt.
- Use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the vegan butter into the flour mixture until a crumbly texture forms (there can be small chunks of butter, but make sure the large ones are broken up). Stir together the almond milk and neutral oil, then pour into the flour and stir with a spatula until just absorbed. Do not overstir.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured counter and use your hands to form it into a rough ball.
- Gently pat the dough out into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle (about 8” x 10”). Fold the dough in half like a brick, turn it, and gently roll out until it is 1/2” thick again. Repeat the fold and roll 2 more times. Fold once more (the fourth and final time) and place in the refrigerator for 3 minutes. Then flour the counter again and roll the dough out into a 1/2″ thick rectangle.
- Use a 3” round biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits, pushing straight down (without turning the cutter) and transferring to a parchment lined baking sheet. Ensure the edges of each biscuit are touching on the baking sheet to improve rise (see the photos above). You should get 6 biscuits out of the first cutting, then re-roll the dough scraps for final 2 biscuits. Pack down the dough to try to get an even texture for these last 2 biscuits (otherwise they’ll be lumpy when baked).
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with neutral oil. Bake 13 to 16 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately. Store leftovers frozen for up to 3 months or refrigerated for a few days (reheat in a 350 degree oven until warm).
Notes
*We have tested this recipe with coconut oil, and it also works: however, it yields a drier biscuit. The best flavor and moisture is with vegan butter. Try to find a minimally processed vegan butter: we used Miyoko’s Vegan Butter, which is organic, minimally processed and made with cashews and coconut.
- Category: Biscuit
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Vegan Biscuits
Hello. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t recommend soy milk over almond. Its good for you and has a nice creamy consistency.
You’re welcome to use any plant based milk as a sub!
I follow recipe exactly, these didn’t rise at all.
So sorry they didn’t work out!
My suggestion would be to get new baking powder- I was having trouble with baking powder biscuits and it turned out my baking powder was just old!
★★★★★
I love biscuits, but I have a gluten-sensitive family member. Would these work with a One-to-One gluten-free flour?
That should work fine!