My family loves biscuits. We like them for breakfast and lunch, but also enjoy them as part of many dinners. We especially love them with gravy.
After all what kind of Oklahoma family would we be if we did not enjoy a good meal of biscuits and gravy?
I had already figured out a good gluten free sausage gravy that we love, but gluten free biscuits have taken me a while to figure out.
I tried several recipes that were from gluten free cookbooks or websites. None of them were very good.
Seriously, some gluten free recipes that I have tried are really terrible and gluten free biscuits are some of the worst that I have tried. I knew I could not get a light and flaky biscuit like we were used to, but seriously I would rather not eat something that resembled a hockey puck, and some recipes that I made were that bad.
However, I was determined to get them right since my family enjoys biscuits and missed them
I finally decided to go back to a tried and true biscuit recipe that I had made many times before going gluten free. I used that as the base for figuring out a gluten free version.
Several months and several, actually many tries later, I came up with a gluten free biscuit that we love. This is really close to the original recipe that it is based on.
This recipe contains baking powder, baking soda, and yeast, so it is not a typical southern style flaky biscuit. This is an angel biscuit, but the combination of the three leaveners is what makes this adapt well to gluten free and give you a great biscuity taste and texture. Perfect for breakfast, dinner, or a big bowl of gravy.
Recipe
Homemade gluten free biscuits are easy with this drop biscuit recipe. These biscuits rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours which helps make them light and fluffy.
- 2 teaspoons yeast
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 cups rice flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 cup sweet rice flour
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
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In a small bowl mix together warm water and yeast. Set aside for about 5 minutes.
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In a large bowl mix together rice flour, cornstarch, sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
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Add remaining ingredients and yeast mixture to dry ingredients.
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Mix well until combined.
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Let rise about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This will not rise a lot, but it does need to rest this long.
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
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Drop about 2 inch balls of dough onto a cookie sheet. I use my cookie scoop to do this.
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Bake for 12-15 minutes or until done.
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Serve and enjoy!
You are so right about some g.f. recipes being really terrible! “Hockey puck” was the description I heard, too, about some of those biscuit recipes I tried. Your Angel Biscuits look wonderful!
Yep … some of my attempts at GF cooking have turned out pretty bad and that makes it hard for me to be disciplined about staying GF. These look really good…
I’ve never made a biscuit with yeast. They look delightful.
Wow. These are really good!
I don’t normally comment about a recipe until I have tried it and I have now made these twice. So easy to put together. Seriously do not like the 1 1/2 hour wait for the rise but the end product is so very, very worth it. My gluten eaters said that these are the best they have eaten so far. My mother-in-law tried to take them away from me because she thought I couldn’t eat these because they were so good they must have gluten. Good job Lynn. You have far outdone yourself yet again.
Question: What does number 4. Mix well until combined.?
The first time I made these I did just that. The second time, I went by my old standby for bread making (4 minutes) in the kitchaid. These are still rising so I don’t know how they will turn out with the extra mix time. Biscuits normally are handle as little as possible so that they are not tough. Is that the same premise, because they are biscuits even though they shouldn’t get tough because they are GF? Still learning all the ins and out of GF baking so any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Lynn
I am so glad that you liked these! Thank you for letting me know. I love to hear it when regular eaters enjoy gluten free baked goods, so thank you for sharing that.
On the mixing part, I agree that with regular biscuits over mixing and over working the dough is a problem. I do not find that to be as much as a problem with gluten free. It seems like these gluten free biscuits are a little harder to mix everything together, than I remember the original version being, so I do think I have to mix them a little more to combine everything well. But, I have never really kept track to the amount of time I mixed and how they turned out. I would be curious to know if you notice a difference.
Hi, I’m not crazy about the typical grittiness of rice flour. Do these biscuits turn out gritty? Have you tried another flour mix in these biscuits? Thanks.
Bari
Well, we did not think these were the typical gritty that you sometimes get from rice flours. I think it is because they rise for such a long time and it helps soften the flours. This is the blend of flours that I think work best. I tweaked with the amounts and different flours and these were by far the best that I made. You could try substituting a flour blend that you like in them though and see if you like it. You might try just 1/2 the recipe and see what you think.
Hi there – do you have any experience with substituting tapioca starch or arrowroot powder for the cornstarch in gf recipes? I’d love to try the biscuits (with your wonderful sounding sausage & gravy recipe) but cannot eat corn. My husband would be over the moon to see biscuits and gravy on the table once again.
Thanks so much for all the wonderful recipes.
I have not done much with arrowroot, but I think tapioca starch might work okay in this. I definitely think it is worth trying. I would love to hear if you try it and it works for you.
Thanks for sharing your recipe! I tweaked it a little by substituting 1/4 c of Philadelphia’s Savory Garlic Cooking Cream in place of 1/4 c of the buttermilk. I also added some shredded cheese. I love all biscuits, but had a taste for some garlic cheese biscuits. I think next time I make these garlic cheese ones, I will also add some rosemary. I also didn’t have the sweet rice flour on hand and substituted tapioca in its place. I can’t get over how great the texture and taste are with these! Very versatile recipe! Thanks again!
Have you tried freezing the dough instead of baking right away? I know that would be a huge time saver. I’ll give it a try if I can resist baking them all tonight!
I have never tried freezing it, but if you try it I would love to know how it works.
about how many biscuits does this make? I’m hoping to half the recipe since I don’t have 2 cups of flour, but I really want to make them!
It has been a little while since I made them I think it makes 12 or so depending on the size I make them.
Okay, I have to ask what the batter is like prior to rising and cooking. Mine currently looks like a thick gravy rather than a biscuit dough. Not sure if that’s right or if I measured wrong somewhere.
It it s sticky biscuit dough, so not like the kind that you can roll out. I hope that helps.
LOL! Well, I made these biscuits last night and they were delicious; however, they were not “biscuits” for me. Rather they were crispy pancakes. In the bowl they actually rose a lot, but in the beginning I kept thinking, “this is way too wet.” Well, the minute I touched the dough it deflated into a big bowl of wet again, looking like a thick gravy. Nothing like a normal drop biscuit dough. I made them anyway and loved the flavor.
I have no idea what I did wrong. I made my own buttermilk with milk and vinegar and instead of xanthan gum I used a slurry of ground flax (which I’ve done in other recipes before with no problem). I guess maybe not having the gum is what did it? Either way everyone one my house loved it! I will be trying it again and hopefully they will come out more biscuit like. If not, that’s fine, too. Thanks for the recipe Lynn!
Just made my first batch of these Angel Biscuits. Very easy to make. and very tasty with light texture. It is a large batch and am wondering how well they keep and freeze. Next batch I would increase the salt a bit and increase the sugar a bit. Thanks for thes great bisculits
I am glad you enjoyed them! They freeze great after baking. I have frozen them and my kids love to take them out and heat them up for a quick breakfast.
Hi Lynn,
Ah, the adventures of gluten free baking. Used your recipe this evening after another gluten free “hockey puck” biscuit disaster this morning. I was very excited to try your recipe. But I had another disaster. The batter rose in the bowl. But was not thick when “spooned” into the pan – I was a bit worried at that point. The biscuits taste great (better than this mornings “hockey pucks”), but they are as flat as pancakes. I looked back over the recipe, seems I followed all the directions, but am wondering about the 1 1/4 cup of buttermilk… in the comments, someone mentioned only using 1/4 cup. Any suggestions? I plan on trying again – with perhaps less liquid… after we finish the pancake biscuits from this evening.
Gluten free baking is in adventure isn’t it! I am sorry the recipe wasn’t what you expected. Gluten free biscuits aren’t going to be light and fluffy like regular biscuits because they are missing the gluten. But when I make these they are not flat either. What brand of gluten free flours did you use? Sometimes that can make a difference? I do use this amount of liquid, but if you liked the flavor of the biscuits and just thought they were too liquidy I would stir less liquid into the batter and see if the texture is better for you. Sometimes different brands of gf flours can make a difference on how much liquid they absorb. I hope that helps.