These Keto Biscuits are flaky, tender, and also totally plant-based! Made the classic Southern way, these are perfect for biscuits and gravy and breakfast sandwiches!
These Keto Biscuits are sponsored by our friends at Bob’s Red Mill.
If there’s one food that’s near and dear to both mine and Alex’s hearts, it’s biscuits. Our mutual love for biscuits stems back to our childhoods where we both adored the holiday tradition (on my part), and the weekend tradition on Alex’s, of our grandmothers making homemade southern biscuits smothered in creamy sausage gravy. It’s funny, I feel like as I get older, these traditional Appalachian recipes are tugging at my heart to be shared. I feel like I’ve seen this trend among my peers in the culinary world as well. It seems we all tend to reach a point sometime passed our twenties where we veer back to our heritage. It’s something we may have been trying to distance ourselves from as we were younger and trying to find our own way in the world without the stigma of our individual cultures and customs. When I was younger I felt like I wanted to expand my palate and that Appalachian food wasn’t classy enough or “culinary” enough, whatever that means. As I get older, I’ve felt the pull to create my own versions of the southern classics I grew up on. Chow chow, apple butter, collard greens, hand pies, pickles, and yes, most of all – biscuits. Now, we have a Keto Biscuit that totally fills the void while eating lower carb.
Back early 2021 after almost a year of shuttering ourselves away from the world, I decided to pursue some graduate classes at UCLA in Food Studies. While I realized a few short months later that a graduate degree wasn’t in my wheelhouse at the moment, I still immensely enjoyed learning more about food justice as well as the anthropology of food. I started to see Southern cuisine in an entirely new light, one not dominated by vast amounts of butter (looking at you Paula Dean) and sugar and the stigma of not being “classy” enough. It also helped that a few months prior Alex and I had made the decision to go plant-based and I started to recreate some of those recipes with plant-based whole food ingredients and also sometimes low-carb ones too. I also feel like reclaiming my heritage is a simple but profound way to also claim back my identity beyond childhood trauma that clouds a lot of my memories from growing up. Remembering the good parts, which let’s be honest – mostly revolved around food, somehow softens the edges of the traumas and allows my inner child the freedom to remember where I came from and my past without so much angst. Food truly is healing in so many more ways than one.
Truth be told, I perfected my not low-carb, gluten-free and vegan biscuits way before these Keto ones. These Keto Biscuits are truly fantastic but my regular biscuits? Those are what dreams are made of. Creating the texture I wanted in a low-carb version proved difficult, especially since I wanted to keep them plant-based without using eggs but also wanted to create that flaky texture and pillowy interior that a true biscuit should have. The key was a mixture of all my go-to Bob’s Red Mill staples. I ended up with a combination of their Super-Fine Almond Flour, Organic Coconut Flour, Organic Golden Flaxseed Meal, and their Xanthan Gum. The result is a tall, fluffy, flaky, and tender biscuit that’s perfect for smothering in gravy, making breakfast sandwiches with, or even adding a little sweetener to the biscuits and then topping with some macerated berries and coconut whip. Truly versatile, truly a staple. Let’s get to some more in-depth guidance on how to create the best Keto Biscuit!
First things first, yes, you can skip the coconut flour
After I nailed this recipe, my first thought was that I needed to test it again without the coconut flour. Anytime something has coconut flour in it we field a ton of comments and messages asking for swap options. Two things:
- We’re using very little coconut flour in this recipe, mainly for texture and bulk, and while the coconut flavor does come through a bit, it’s not as overwhelming as a 100% coconut flour baked good. If you’re not vehemently opposed to coconut flour, try the recipes as is and see what you think. Personally, I love the combo of almond flour and coconut flour and find the texture to be the closest resemblance to all-purpose flour there is in the low-carb world.
- Yes, I have tested this recipe without coconut flour and it works. The result is a little more crumbly but I believe it’s a nice trade-off for you folks who would rather not use coconut flour at all. To nix the coconut flour, I used 3 cups of almond flour + 3 flax eggs instead of 2, plus an extra teaspoon of xanthan gum bringing the total xanthan gum to a tablespoon. I’ve noted the option in the recipe card as well. Let cool completely before serving.
If you end up trying both ways, we’d love to hear your thoughts and preferences in the comment section!
Yes, you really do have to use frozen butter
Beyond the ingredient combo, one of my tried and true tricks for ensuring the perfect texture is by using frozen butter that’s been grated into super small shreds then simply stirred into the flour, not mushing the two together with your hands. These little frozen butter pockets are what help create that insanely airy texture. Is you use just cold butter, the butter is going to smush into the flour and be warm and melted by the time you bake, this will lead to a dense not tender biscuit and no one wants that. I always keep to a block or two of butter in the freezer so I can make biscuits in a flash.
A note on the types of butter. This recipe has only been tested with Miyoko’s Creamery plant-based butter as it’s what I use exclusively. Palm shortening would be my next go-to but there are other dairy-free butter options, just be sure to use a block or stick kind and not a softened tub like option. Obviously, if you’re not dairy-free, simply use regular butter, again, just not the softened tub kind.
Yes, you really have to sift the dry ingredients
Don’t have a classic flour sifter? I simply use a fine mesh sieve, works like a charm. See the video at the bottom of the recipe card to see it in action.
No, a cast-iron sheet-pan isn’t necessary.
Like each and every recipe on Cast Iron Keto, these Keto Biscuits can be baked on any type of sheet pan, oven-safe skillet, or baking dish. We simply love the lifetime heirloom quality of cast-iron, its even cooking, and its eco-friendly + non-toxic benefits. Have a stainless steel sheet pan or ceramic baking dish? Feel free to use them!
No, you can’t use eggs
As this recipe hasn’t been tested with eggs, I can’t say for certain if swapping the flax “eggs” for real eggs would work. Since the flax is also providing some textural element apart from binding, I don’t think this recipe would work at all with that swap and it would end up being a completely different recipe with different amounts of flours. Classic biscuits never contain eggs so when you see them included on most keto biscuits, it’s usually just so that the biscuits rise, a hack of sorts. Since we’re cutting the biscuits to the height we want them, we’re able to keep to the traditional way that biscuits are made and keep these plant-based. It’s a win-win!
Yes, these Keto Biscuits can be frozen!
🎉 🙌 😁 Yes, yes I know. This is GREAT news. I love to make a double or triple batch of biscuits and freeze them for future mornings where my stomach is craving a biscuit but my mind is craving a break from cooking. I simply freeze the cut out biscuit dough on a sheet pan for 2 hours then plop the frozen biscuits in a freezer-safe container.
To cook from frozen, you’ll want to add an additional 5-7 minutes to the total baking time.
How to Store and reheat a cooked Keto Biscuits
To store: let the biscuits cool completely then transfer to a lidded container and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
To reheat: wrap the biscuit in a clean tea towel and microwave for 15-30 seconds until soft and hot.
Keto Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups Bob's Red Mill Super-Fine Almond Flour
- 1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour see notes for substitutions
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons Bob's Red Mill Xanthan Gum
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup plant-based butter block frozen and grated, or regular butter if not dairy-free
- 1 cup cold plain unsweetened almond milk
- 2 tablespoons Bob's Red Mill Organic Golden Flaxseed Meal + 1/4 cup hot water
Instructions
- In a large bowl, sift together the almond flour, coconut flour, xanthan gum, and sea salt.
- Use a box grater on the large grating side to shred the frozen butter into small pieces. Using a fork, stir the frozen butter into the sifted flour making sure to not overprocess.
- Make a well in the center of the bowl and add in the flax "egg" and the almond milk. Stir well and until combined.
- Dust a clean surface with a bit of almond flour and dump the dough onto the surface kneading one or two times until the dough comes together. Flatten the dough into a 2" tall disk and use a biscuit cutter or tall-sided measuring cup to cut out (while pressing straight down and not twisting) 4 large biscuits or 6 smaller ones depending on the size of your cutter.
- Place the biscuits on a sheet pan and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425° F.
- Transfer the sheet pan to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for 30 minutes before serving.
I love everything you make but 571 calories is crazy for one biscuit, and 8 net carbs. Sorry I could eat a lot of food for that many calories.