Vegan Sweet Potato Biscuits

Finding the best biscuits on the planet is not as easy as finding the best hamburger buns, mostly because opinions are quite varied on the subject. Some like their biscuits, crumbly, some like them flakey and some prefer a tender, more cake-like crumb. The short of it, biscuits come in all kinds textures and flavors so it makes it rather difficult to find the best. So instead of finding very best, I’ll share the ones I really like.

The biscuits I’m sharing today are my vegan version of the sweet potato biscuits I found over at The Kitchn. They are tender and soft with just a bit of a crust. I thought the texture was actually fairly close to the KFC biscuits I’ve been trying to imitate but the flavor (obviously) wasn’t close, which is ok, because the salty biscuits at KFC wasn’t what I was going for either.

I’m seeing a lot of soup recipes being posted around and these biscuits would be a delightful pairing with just about any of them.

I’ve made these two ways; one with solid coconut oil and the other with earth balance soy free butter substitute….the version with the Earth Balance was my favorite. If you have a legume/peanut allergy or sensitivity in your family please be aware that Earth Balance Soy Free is made with pea protein. Because of that, I can’t use it for my family with legume issues. For the buttery taste, next time I think I’ll try soy-free Spectrum butter flavored palm shortening. 

Vegan Sweet Potato Biscuits

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Yield: about 18 2” biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour


4 teaspoons baking powder


½ teaspoon kosher salt


6 tablespoons chilled *Earth Balance Spread, cut into cubes


1 cup steamed and mashed sweet potato (approximately 1 large potato)


½ tsp lemon juice or vinegar

½  cup rice milk, plus additional as needed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Sour rice milk with lemon juice or vinegar and set aside (rice milk does not sour like cows milk so don’t expect the same texture)
3. In a large bowl, mix together all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry blender (or your fingers if you don't have one) cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter is a mix of pea-size balls and small crumbs.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the mashed sweet potato and rice milk until well-combined. Fold into the flour mixture, adding more (up to 4 tablespoons) rice milk if necessary. The dough should form a nice ball, and be just a bit on the sticky side, as opposed to crumbly and dry. Chill the dough for thirty minutes, if desired, although you can bake them off immediately if you would like. I happen to like the way the biscuits look when the dough has chilled (a bit more crackly on top), but the flavor is not affected by this step.
5. Pat out the dough onto a lightly floured surface to about a 1-inch thickness (do not roll out the dough with a rolling pin). Cut out rounds using a well-floured biscuit cutter. (I prefer a square cookie cutter so that I don’t have scraps.) Gather the remaining scraps and repeat until all the dough is used. Place the biscuits on a large sheet pan and bake for 15 minutes (or bake in batches).

Notes: The cooked biscuits will freeze beautifully and can be pulled out at a moments notice. Just bake at 375° until heated through.

*Any preferred butter substitute or butter will work just fine.

Source: Adapted from The Kitchn: Sweet Potato Biscuits

Gwenevere