Description
These vegan biscuits are everything you ever dreamed of in a biscuit, flaky, buttery, and melt-in-your-mouth good. They’re just like the real thing – only dairy free!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (6 3/4 oz)
- 1/2 cup oat flour (2 1/4 oz)*
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- Heaping 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 5 Tbsp chilled vegan margarine, cut into 1 cm cubes (I used Earth Balance sticks)*
Instructions
- Soak the cashews in the hot water for 30 minutes, or up to 8 hours.
- Place the cashews and their soaking liquid in a blender and blend in 30-second bursts until creamy. This takes me about 2 minutes total in my non-fancy blender. Refrigerate 1 hour, or overnight.*
- Combine the flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor (or a large mixing bowl). Pulse (or whisk) to combine. Add the cubed margarine, then pulse until the flour looks like sand, with some pea-sized chunks remaining (I pulsed for about 30 seconds). If you’re using a bowl, cut the butter in with a pastry blender or two knives. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can do this with a fork. They’re lying.
- Measure out your cashew cream – you should have 1 cup. Add water if necessary to get it all the way there. Transfer the flour mixture to a large bowl and add the cashew cream. Use a fork to mix the flour into the cream as best you can – it’ll feel a bit dry.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface and knead just a bit until most of the flour is incorporated (don’t overdo it – about 3-4 press-and-folds of the dough).
- Gently flatten the dough until it’s about an inch tall, then fold it in half (use a bench scraper if it’s sticking, then dust the surface with flour) and flatten again. Repeat once more, then flatten again and use a 2-inch biscuit cutter cut out your circles* and arrange in rows on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Very gently press the remaining dough back together, flatten, and cut until you get about 12 rounds in total. Be aware that the more you work the dough, the less flaky the final product will be. Discard any remaining dough.
- Refrigerate the prepped dough for 15 minutes. During this time, preheat your oven to 425°F.
- Bake the biscuits for 13-15 minutes, until golden brown on top. Remove from the sheet pan. If you want, melt an additional teaspoon of margarine and brush it over the top of the baked biscuits before serving, for a more polished look.
Notes
- I like the addition of oat flour in these, but you can sub with all-purpose flour if you don’t have any.
- I recommend the Earth Balance sticks for this recipe. It’s much easier to measure, and I think they perform better in baking than the tub butter does.
- This recipe is heavily inspired by Sam Sifton’s biscuit recipe, featured in the New York Times. If you’re not vegan, you can probably make these instead, with good results.
- You can make these while the cashew cream is still warm, but I recommend letting it cool at least to room temperature before incorporating with the dry ingredients. Cold is even better, since it will help to keep the margarine cold.
- If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, you can make these square instead. Just flatten your dough into a square or rectangle, cut off the edges with a knife, then cut into equally sized squares.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Biscuits
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Vegan
Keywords: vegan, biscuit, dairy-free biscuit, egg-free