The Canned Ingredient You Can Combine With Flour For Easy Vegan Biscuits

Veganism may mean abstaining from dairy, but that doesn't mean vegans can't enjoy a fluffy flakey biscuit. Of course, you'll need to tweak a classic Southern biscuit recipe with alternatives to eliminate traditional dairy ingredients like buttermilk and butter. Enter, coconut cream. It's the single canned ingredient that'll substitute all dairy ingredients. The result? Vegan biscuits made from a simple two-ingredient recipe with decadent and comforting results that even dairy lovers will approve of.

Because coconut milk and coconut cream are canned products, it's important to know the difference. Coconut cream has a much higher proportion of coconut meat to water, resulting in a super thick, dense cream. Coconut milk has a much higher ratio of water to coconut flesh and consequently a much thinner consistency. If you've ever opened a can of full-fat coconut milk, you might have noticed that the fatty fleshy cream creates a cap over the watery coconut juice below. That creamy cap is, in fact, coconut cream. You need the density and fat content of canned coconut cream to recreate density of biscuit dough.

You'll mix one 15-ounce can of coconut cream with 2 ½ cups of self-rising flour with a rubber spatula until you reach a cohesive mass of dough. Then, you can roll the dough out into a ½-inch sheet, stamp out the biscuits with round cookie cutters, and bake them in a preheated 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 11 to 14 minutes.

Many of the tips you need to follow for dairy biscuits also apply to vegan biscuits. For example, if you overwork the dough before rolling it out, you'll sabotage the fluffy crumb biscuits are known for, so blend the two ingredients gently until just combined. Before blending, mix the coconut cream together to fully emulsify the water and fat content into a uniform consistency. Self-rising flour is also an important factor for two-ingredient biscuits because it contains all the leavening agents you need for the biscuits to rise. If you use all-purpose flour, you'll have to tack on baking soda and baking powder as extra ingredients.

Whether you're using cookie cutters like these or the mouth of a water glass to cut the biscuits into rounds, you want to make a single stamp in the dough sheet without twisting or turning the cutter as you lift it up and out of the dough. Be sure to dust the rolling surface with flour to avoid sticking. If you want to ensure those golden brown biscuit tops, brush some extra coconut cream over the biscuits before baking them. Coconut cream doesn't have a strong coconut taste, with a versatile richness you can take in savory or sweet directions. A dash of vanilla and a pinch of sugar will make sweet biscuits to serve with this simple strawberry compote. If you opt for salt and diced scallions, you'll have savory biscuits ready to garnish with your go-to vegan butter.