Southern Biscuits Veganized and a Quick Life Update

Can you believe Christmas is only a few days away?? I still have some shopping to do, and I haven’t wrapped a single gift yet, but I’m looking forward to spending the holiday with my mom’s family. It’s been a long time since we’ve all been together. I’m bringing a few things, and Mom is making some of her usual recipes vegan for us. She’s quite thoughtful in that way. Most of that side of the family is health-conscious, so even if they’re not vegan or vegetarian, they’re very open-minded about swapping out ingredients for healthier options. I’m so grateful for them.

This year has flown by, and it’s been pretty eventful for me. Between traveling for the band, making huge decisions like stepping away from my job of 12 years, and meeting the love of my life, 2018 has been pretty special. If you don’t follow my Instagram or Facebook pages, you might’ve missed my announcement this week…

I’m engaged!!

After Char’s dad and I split up, I didn’t think I’d ever consider the prospect of remarrying or having more kids, or any of that.  Sure, I liked the idea of sharing my life with someone, but that didn’t mean it needed to be in a “traditional” manner.  It’s funny, though, how the right person can make you reconsider everything.  If I’d made a list of everything I wanted in a partner, I still don’t think I could’ve imaged someone like David.  I won’t share too much, but suffice it to say that I’m extremely happy and can’t wait to see what 2019 brings.

I will add that one of our favorite things to do together is cook.  He has a knack for Thai food and has taught me so much about it.  Eventually, I’ll be sharing my recipe for Thai coconut soup, but I’m still perfecting it.  ;-)

Where he’s a pro with Asian food, I’m showing him ways to veganize a lot of our old favorites, such as scrambles, burgers, and breakfast foods.  I’ve recently gotten him hooked on tempeh bacon.  And nothing pairs with bacon quite like a great southern biscuit.  Before going vegan, I used to love making Alton Brown’s Southern Biscuits on weekends for myself and my brothers.  We were all big fans of his videos about the science behind recipes and their ingredients, but we were bigger fans of his actual recipes. 

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on making our favorite biscuit recipe without animal products, and I think I’ve finally gotten the right combo. I used this recipe, and I swapped out the butter and buttermilk for vegan options, but followed the same process. Here’s what I did:

Vegan Southern Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cold Earth Balance Buttery Sticks (spreadable won’t work. It needs to be cold and hard so it doesn’t melt into the flour as you mix it.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 cup chilled soy “buttermilk” (Add 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar to 1 cup of soy milk. It will curdle and sour just like buttermilk.)

Directions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Add vinegar to cold soy milk, stir and set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then whisk together to blend. Chop your cold Earth Balance into small chunks and add to the flour mixture. Add the shortening to the mixture next, then use your fingers to crumble the butter and shortening into the flour until the lumps are a fine, smaller-than-a-pea size. Make a hollow in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the soy buttermilk, and mix it with a fork until well combined. The dough will be wet and sticky. On a clean surface, sprinkle some flour and turn the dough out onto it. Sprinkle more flour on top of the dough, the fold it over a total of 5-6 times and gently pat out to a 1” thickness. DO NOT OVER KNEAD THE DOUGH. The key to getting these to rise is to leave air in the dough, so too much working of it will make for flat, hard hockey pucks instead of light and fluffy biscuits. Use a cutter, or if you’re like me, you can use the ring from a small mason jar lid, and cut out your biscuits. Place them onto a baking sheet with only about 1/2” space between them. Placing them close together gives them less room to expand outward and encourages them to rise upward instead. Bake for 15-20 minutes. For my oven, 15 minutes was perfect, but I also use a cooking stone, which gets super hot. On my last attempt, I cooked them 17 minutes, and they were too dry. It will just depend on your oven and baking dish.

These biscuits are so tasty and fluffy, a great bed for some jam or Earth Balance spread. They’ll also make an excellent breakfast sandwich with some tempeh bacon, tomato, and avocado, which I will likely be making shortly.