These vegan sourdough biscuits are buttery, flaky, easy and delicious. You can start a batch the night before to reap the maximum benefit of sourdough, or make 'em minutes before you're ready to eat. And you can make them with your sourdough discard. A vegan, soy-free and nut-free recipe.
If you are as obsessed with flaky, buttery vegan biscuits as we are, take that obsession just a little bit deeper with these scrumptious and easy Vegan Sourdough Biscuits.
These are quite perfect, with the slight tang of sourdough and you can make them either with sourdough discard or with your well-fed sourdough starter.
I used sourdough starter I'd fed the day before to make these, but because these biscuits have added leavening in the form of baking powder and a dash of baking soda, you can make them with sourdough discard with results that are just as good.
The main purpose of the sourdough here is to add flavor, but I like making the dough the night before just so that the sourdough has some time to work on the flour, digesting the starches. You can certainly skip the overnight resting time and make 'em right before you eat 'em. They are especially great for breakfast.
How to make the best sourdough biscuits:
- You can make your biscuits either with sourdough fed about 12 hours earlier, or with sourdough discard.
- Make sure your butter is very cold when you add it to the flour, and don't overhandle it--use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour and leave some big, pea-sized pieces. The process is similar to that of making a pie crust--you want pockets of butter that will melt in the oven, causing the biscuits to become flaky.
- If you make your dough the night before, like I did, make sure you refrigerate it. That's because you don't want the nuggets of vegan butter to melt before they hit the oven, or you won't get the flakiness that makes biscuits so special.
- Add just enough sourdough to the flour until it holds together, then wrap it in cling wrap, shaping it into a disc as you go. Don't make direct contact with the dough as much as possible because your hands are warm and you want your dough to be as cold as possible so the butter doesn't melt. Try not to overmoisten the dough because it could encourage the formation of gluten in the biscuit dough. I needed a full cup of sourdough but you might need less or a little more depending on the hydration of your starter.
- In the same vein, don't overhandle your dough when you roll it out and cut the biscuits.
- You do need to add baking powder and baking soda into the recipe for the perfect results. Don't leave them out or your biscuits won't have the desired lightness.
- Roll the dough to a thickness of around ¾ths of an inch, then cut into biscuits using a round or square cookie cutter. My cookie cutter is around two inches and I got 12 biscuits from the dough.
Ingredients for vegan sourdough biscuits
- All purpose flour
- Sourdough starter
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Vegan butter
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Vegan Sourdough Biscuits
Vegan Sourdough Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt to taste
- 8 tablespoon vegan butter (cut into small cubes, very cold)
- 1 cup sourdough starter
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
- Add the very cold butter cubes into the flour mixture and, using a fork or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until you have a grainy mix with some pea-sized pieces of butter still in it.
- Add the sourdough starter, a little at a time, mixing with the fork until you have a dough that just holds together. Don't get the dough too moist, but it should be able to ball up, with little bits of butter visible throughout. You may not need all of the starter, depending on the hydration of your starter, or you might need a little more than a cup.
- Dump the dough into a square of cling wrap and wrap tightly, using your palms over the cling wrap to shape the dough into a disc. At this point you can refrigerate for either 15 minutes or, for the best results, overnight.
- Remove the cling wrap and roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to ¾ths inch thickness.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F
- Use a round or square cookie cutter to cut out biscuits. After cutting biscuits, push the dough together to form a rectangle, roll again to ¾th inch thickness, and cut more biscuits. Repeat until all the dough is gone.I used a 2-inch cookie cutter, which gave me 12 biscuits. A larger cookie cutter will yield fewer cookies.
- Place the biscuits on a baking sheet, two inches apart. Bake 23 minutes or until golden brown on top and bottom.
- Place the biscuits on a rack. Serve warm.
Nicola
I don't even keep white flour in the house -- that's what commercial-baked bread is for. There might be some in an old canister, but I wonder if and how to modify your recipe to use whole wheat flour (add liquid, more starter, or something else.) Also, can you advise if I should use w/w bread flour, as I've been using for my starter, or w/w pastry flour, usually used for lighter, non-yeast baked goods?
Vaishali
You can make these with whole wheat bread flour. They will be a bit more dense but should turn out fine. Make sure your sourdough starter is robust and was recently fed.
Nicola
Thanks for your answer. I'm still wondering if, like in other whole wheat adapted recipes that I've seen (and used) I should use more than the one cup of starter called for, or add some milk or water to the dough, to help with the density and the thickness I think the dough might have.
I'm sorry to seem so pedantic, but I'm only a "newbie" just starting with sourdough. And my homemade biscuits in the past haven't been thrilling, so of course, I'm kind of nervous about this.
Marge
I just took my biscuits out of the oven. Im disappointed!! They didn't rise at all and are hard. I used my discard sourdough from day 6. When making the biscuits, I substituted some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat fine and spelt flours and used butter instead of vegan butter.
Can you tell me what is not working? When I removed the dough from the refrigerator this morning, should I have left the dough to rest a bit and warm up?
Vaishali
Hi, you will get dense biscuits with whole wheat and spelt flours than you would with all purpose, because these are wholegrain flours. The butter won't make a difference. Using sourdough discard is fine here because it is here more for flavoring than for leavening. Sounds to me like using the wholegrain flours might have been the problem and also you might want to check your baking powder and make sure it's not old.
Charu
I followed this recipe but used Bob Red Mill 1 to 1 All Purpose Gluten Free flour. My starter was bubbly but for some reason my biscuits did not rise and get fluffy 🙁 What could have happened?
They still tasted great!
Vaishali
Hi Charu, did you add gum to the recipe? You do need the help from gum if you use gf flour. Also gf biscuits won't have the same lightness as those made with wheat, but they should taste fine.
Lucas
I am so impressed! I haven't had a biscuit since before I was vegan and this surpassed my expectations.
Vaishali
So happy to hear!!
Rachel
Hi! I’m in the process of baking these right now. I’ve made sourdough biscuits before, but never with vegan butter so I’m excited to try these! 🙂
Quick question regarding the Nutrition Facts... how did you calculate the calories for the sourdough starter in this recipe? Did you just calculate the flour percentage in your starter and take that number?
Thanks!
Vaishali
Yes! Please keep in mind that nutrition info on recipes is calculated using an online calculator, so use these numbers as a rough guide. I try and match ingredients closely, but exact options are not always available and I don't include info for, say, sodium in most recipes because I usually ask people to use salt per their taste.
Happy you're making the biscuits. 🙂
Jb
Made them and they turned out great! Very fluffy! My sourdough starter is all whole wheat, and I grind my own flour. I used soft wheat flour in this instead of unbleached, but I sifted out the germ (or is it bran?) and dusted the tops of the biscuits with it just before baking.
Thank you so much for posting such an easy go-to recipe! This will be so helpful when I’m short on time!
Vaishali
So great you make your own flour. Inspiring. ❤️
Rebecca Mann
Can you use regular butter if you don"t have vegan butter?
Vaishali
Yes.
Julie Burge
Vaishali - Wow, these are amazing! I made the dough yesterday with 1 cup of my husband’s sourdough discard. The dough was super dry, so I added about 4 tbsp. oat milk. My big error today when baking them was to bake on the bottom shelf underneath another pan, so they didn’t get that hot oven rise.
These biscuits are wonderfully flavorful and flaky - sadly just not as high as yours. This time! Next time, top rack. Thank you for this delicious biscuit recipe. I’m going to make chickpea pot pie this week, and may make a batch of these to top rather than my pie crust. Excellent, easy to make, go-to biscuit recipe.
T S
These look really tasty.
Could you include weights in grams in your recipes? I'm sure a lot of your European subscribers would appreciate it.
Cassandra Fralix
We are so excited to try these biscuits. My husband made the sourdough starter because we couldn't find yeast. I tried your kraut--perfect. Thank you so much for great recipes that are detailed and delicious!!
Vaishali
Hi Cassandra, so happy to hear that! 🙂
Deb
These look fantastic! Do you think it would work with your gluten-free sourdough starter?
Vaishali
Yes, absolutely. Use all purpose gluten-free flour with the gf starter and add a teaspoon of xanthan gum if the flour doesn't have it added already.