These biscuits have a wonderful light texture from the soaking period and are nice and rich even though they are whole wheat. We enjoy them with eggs, or with hearty soups and stews and baked beans. I love how easy these are to make too! One morning, I was able to finish these up in 15 minutes (and that’s with cooking time).
I have always loved biscuits, but I thought my biscuit days were over when I learned about the soaking method that Sally Fallon outlines in Nourishing Traditions-at least biscuits like I was used too. Then when I took dairy out of my diet, it seemed like the final nail was being hammered into my biscuit coffin.
Not so!
I am very excited to say that these biscuits are both dairy free and soaked and are absolutely delicious. We should know because have eaten ourselves through many batches the last few weeks. My husband complains if I make them during the day because baby and I eat too many of them and he doesn’t get his fair share!
But you wouldn’t have to make these dairy free, you could definitely use buttermilk and butter for a more traditional and yummy biscuit goodness. Since buttermilk is thicker, you will need to use more then the liquid specified below.
You will notice Elena, my two year old’s arms and fingers in the following photos. She likes to help with this project, as it’s fun to make!
Fluffy, Whole Wheat Biscuits
Makes 20 small biscuits
I have used both palm oil and coconut oil with great results. The coconut oil gives a sweetness to the biscuits that is very nice, the palm oil is more neutral. But beware, coconut oil melts at a much lower temperature, so keep this dough “soaking” under 76 degrees (at which point it will melt). Otherwise, you should use palm oil which melts at 85 degrees. My house was between 65 to 70 degrees when I was testing this recipe.2 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour (you could substitute other flours for part of the flour amount too).
6 tablespoons palm oil or coconut oil
3/4 cup of coconut milk tonic, other dairy free milk or water (last time I made it with just water and it was very good! Just make it a scant 3/4 of a cup when using water.)
1 tablespoon lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt1-The night before, measure the flour into a medium size bowl. Using a pastry cutter, or a fork and knife with a cutting motion, cut in the palm oil or coconut oil into the flour. When the oil is the size of peas or smaller, you are done. Add the coconut milk tonic/water and lemon juice/vinegar, and mix in until just combined. Leave overnight at room temperature, well covered. This mixture will be wetter then your average biscuit recipe. This is so we can more easily mix in the salt and rising agents the next day.
2-The next morning, place the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 450. Press down the dough a bit right in the bowl.
Sprinkle the baking soda, baking power and salt on top of the dough,
then fold it in half, top to bottom
and press down firmly
Fold in half again from the side, and press down firmly again.
Starting at the top, repeat this process until you have folded the dough about 10-15 times (do so until you feel assured that the rising agents and salt have been well mixed in).
3-Now it’s ready to roll it out!
I found that because the folding process develops the gluten a bit, I didn’t need to use any flour. But if you need to, feel free to use some white flour or arrowroot flour when you roll this out. Place on a clean surface, and roll out into a rectangle.
It should be about 1/2 an inch thick.
4-You can use biscuit cutters to get nice round biscuits, but I like to simply cut it into squares as there is no waste this way. A pizza cutter works great here.
I cut them into small pieces, so I get 20 pieces. If you wanted to make bigger biscuits I recommend that you lower the temperature to 425 degrees and cook for a bit longer .
5-Place on an un-greased cookie sheet or jellyroll pan and pop it in your preheated oven.
Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the top and bottom is lightly browned and the middle is cooked all the way through. Remove to cooling racks when done.
Biscuits are best warm, but we certainly enjoy them cold too!
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I’m in live with these biscuits kimi, there great for the sugar free challenge, because most packaged whole grain breads have sugar so thnx sooooooooo much!
xoxo
A quick question: I won’t have time to soak them overnight will they still turn out?
Great, will have to make these! We call these scones in New Zealand, and what we call biscuits are what you call cookies.
Just got these out of the oven and they are fabulous. I’ve made these about 10 times now and they work out very well. I’ve learned to chill the dough after the soak which helps make a laminated dough. I use a rolling pin and the cold butter layers nicely. I do use dairy when I make these. What a great recipe.
Have you tried making them with sprouted flour?
I have some Shiloh Farms sprouted spelt… was going to try…
Thanks,
Tina
Is there any way to make this WITH dairy if we’re ok with that? I like coconut all right but I’m not too keen on it in my biscuits…
Thanks!
YES! Just use butter and buttermilk, leave out the vinegar. Also up the buttermilk to one cup.
Hi Kimi,
I finally made these last night – with raw milk (didn’t have any buttermilk) and vinegar. They were AWESOME!!
I’ve the Nourishing Traditions book but the soaking thing has always seemed like too much work. It wasn’t bad at all.
Thanks for sharing.
OM
This was my first attempt at soaking grains and it worked out great. I love the pictures added with the recipe, they really helped a lot. The biscuits didn’t rise as much as I thought they would, maybe I rolled the dough out to thin, or maybe it’s because I didn’t use fresh milled flour. I will make these again.
Made these today, and WOW! Thank you, thank you! They are the best whole wheat biscuits I’ve ever made – light & moist. I made mine with coconut milk/oil (until I get some more lard made up), and made them in my Cuisinart food processor. The dough was pretty moist this morning & I had to add more flour, but next time I won’t leave the dough next to the pot of simmering water (that we use to humidify the house). Thanks again!
These were great! What a lovely breakfast.
I used ghee, and next time I make them I’m going to try using kefir and palm oil.
Thanks!
gracie
Hi, I tried this recipe last night/this morning, and the biscuits did not rise. They also were still raw in the center after 10 minutes, despite being quite thin. I used bread flour instead of pastry flour–could that be the problem? I used rice milk and cider vinegar for the soak. And I used one cup unbleached white bread flour and the rest was wheat bread flour.
Mel,
That’s so strange! I wonder why? Is there any difference of altitude where you live?
I don’t think so…I live in the eastern half of NC. I read that bread flour contains a lot more protein, so I wondered whether that might just not be good for biscuits… The dough was also pretty dry…I did forget to cut the butter in before pouring in the liquid, so maybe that caused a problem too. But the dough seemed okay when I rolled it out…a bit tough maybe. I dunno. I’ll give it another try…maybe I worked the dough too much or something…
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