Biscuits: Whole Wheat Vegan Style

Inspired by the movie “Julie & Julia”, I decided to pull out one of my cookbooks-“Vegan with a Vengeance” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I passed the fist 8 recipes in this book because I don’t like tofu or texturized vegetable protein (whatever that is). We didn’t have any sweet potatoes so that took me to the 9th recipe: “Baking Powder Biscuits”.

Biscuits sounded good for the weekend and I would try mine with whole wheat flour and Earth Balance vegan oil sticks. Oops, I didn’t have any rice or soy milk, so I just used water.

The dough tasted a bit salty but before making a judgment, I’d wait to see how the biscuits turned out. At first I thought I’d never get 12 biscuits out of the dough, but I did. I just kept reincorporating the dough after I’d cut out as many as I could, re-patted it out and cut a few more. No rolling pin necessary-thank goodness b/c I don’t have one. I hate recipes that include “roll the dough out”. It always sticks no matter what. This dough didn’t!!!

12 minutes in the oven….come on, come on…

As soon as I opened the oven door, my heart sank. They didn’t rise. They just looked like tan hockey pucks. Vegan biscuits, who am I kidding. They cooled, we tried them, and I got a “they taste salty”, and “I don’t like them”. As he reached for a glass of water, my husband said, “they’re a bit mealy”. Under normal circumstances I’d reply, “BUCK up people”, but I didn’t like ‘em either.

Back to the drawing board. I was reminded later that day by one of my foodie friends at Whole Foods that baking powder has to be fresh in order to work and when baking without eggs, that’s the only thing you’re relying on to get a rise. Ah Ha! I bought a new can of baking powder and renewed my zeal.

Here we go again and this time, I cut the amount of salt, used whole wheat pastry flour and tried again.

Not bad, in fact they were good and they rose! Add some honey, eat them hot and you got it. Now, I’m not gonna lie to you, these ain’t no Paula Deen biscuits but if you want vegan biscuits or are running short on ingredients, here’s the recipe for you:

Biscuits: Whole Wheat Vegan Style
*2C whole wheat pastry flour
5 tsp fresh baking powder (hint: buy the smaller cans instead of the larger so you’ll use it before it goes bad)
*1/ 2 tsp sea salt
*5 TB Vegetable oil sticks (I used Earth Balance Vegan buttery sticks)
*2/3 C water

* denotes changes from original recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance

Preheat oven to 450˚

Sift dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut the 5 Tb of oil sticks into the dough with a pastry knife or your fingers (easy here b/c if you work the dough too much you’ll get tough biscuits. Just do this enough to incorporate the oil). Add water and gently stir until a soft dough forms. Turn it out onto a well floured surface and softly pat the dough out until it’s about ½ inch thick. Use the rim of a small juice glass or cookie cutter to cut out 12 rounds. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake 12-15 min. Cool slightly but eat them warm. Enjoy!

© 2009 The Everyday Organic