You will LOVE these extra fluffy gluten free biscuits! Easy to make with simple ingredients, they are thick, fluffy, + delicious!
These gluten free biscuits are everything you dream of in a gluten free biscuit! Buttery, flakey, thick, and oh so fluffy. Plus, they are easy to make with simple grocery store ingredients!
This recipe has been in development for over a year because I didn’t want to share with you some disappointing biscuits. Nothing gummy, flat, or icky here!
The secret to these biscuits comes from a sneaky ingredient: Ricotta cheese! This lends a subtle sweetness to the dough and helps to keep them nice and fluffy.
Free from: wheat, gluten, soy, fish, shellfish, soy, sesame, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, corn, celery, and more
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Ingredients for Fluffy Biscuits
These biscuits come together pretty quickly! There are a few steps you need to take to ensure extra fluffy biscuits.
Butter - To keep things fluffy, freeze your butter stick and then using a grater, grate your butter. This sounds weird and like an unnecessary step but I pinky promise you that this will result in the BEST gluten free biscuits you’ve ever had.
Good Gluten Free Flour Blend - Use your favorite gluten free flour blend. I prepare mine without potato flour so there is no chance of things getting gummy or rubber-y. Need a good one? Check out my homemade gluten free flour blend.
Chickpea Flour - This flour adds structure, protein, and helps to lift up the layers of the biscuits. You won’t taste any bean flavor in these after baking, so don’t worry!
Baking Powder - To help lift these up.
Golden Flax Meal - Flax is a great ingredient in gluten free baking as it helps to bind the flour together, making your baked goods stick together and not crumble after baking.
Sugar - To keep things a bit sweet! You can make this sweeter or omit entirely if you like.
Egg - Again, this is a way of adding structure, protein, and binding to the biscuits.
Buttermilk - There is nothing better than a buttermilk biscuit. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make your own! Check out this recipe for dairy and dairy-free buttermilk substitutions.
Apple Cider Vinegar - Mixed with the milk or buttermilk, this helps to create a reaction with the baking powder to lift these up!
Ricotta Cheese - The Secret Ingredient! This lends a subtle sweetness to the dough, as well as helping it to not dry out in the oven. Don’t skip this ingredient! If you want to make these biscuits a little tangier (is that a word?) you can swap for an equal amount of cream cheese.
How to Make Them
Begin with a frozen stick of butter. Grate the butter and place back in the freezer until ready to use. This helps to evenly distribute the butter and create all the little pockets of butter in the final biscuit.
In a large bowl, sift together the gluten free flour, chickpea flour, ground flax seeds, sugar, and salt.
In a separate small bowl, mix the buttermilk, apple cider vinegar, egg, and ricotta cheese. Mix until fully incorporated.
Add the frozen butter to the sifted flour and gently (but quickly!) mix. It’s important to work quickly here as you don’t want the butter to warm up.
Pour the milk mixture into the butter and flour, mixing with a large spatula until just combined.
Turn out onto a floured parchment covered surface. Using your hands, gently pat out into a rectangle. Fold the dough over onto itself and repeat patting out and folding over for 3 or 4 times. This is how the layers get developed.
Pat out the dough for a final time, making sure to keep the dough thick, about 1 ½ inches in height. Using a 2 or 3 inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Alternatively, you can place smaller biscuits into a muffin tin to bake.
Fold the leftover dough and repeat patting and cutting out dough until no dough remains.
Bake in a 450F oven for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool before enjoying!
Tips for the Best Biscuits
- Freezing and grating the butter is so important to this recipe. It helps the dough to stay chilled for longer, which results in a lighter and flakery gluten free biscuit. Take the extra few minutes to do this, I promise it’s worth it!
- Use fresh baking powder. Since these biscuits use the baking powder to help lift them up, it’s important to make sure it is as fresh as possible. Check the date on the bottom of your box and replace it if it’s more than a year old.
- Don’t use potato based gluten free flours. Potato makes baked goods taste rubbery and gummy. In this recipe we want the biscuits to be light and fluffy! Rice based flours work best in this recipe.
Did you make this recipe?
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Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, frozen
- 2 cups gluten free flour blend
- ¼ cup chickpea flour
- 2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon golden flax seed meal, ground
- 2 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoon whole milk ricotta cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside. Alternatively, you can place smaller biscuits into a muffin tin to bake.
- Begin with a frozen stick of butter. Grate the butter and place back in the freezer until ready to use. This helps to evenly distribute the butter and create all the little pockets of butter in the final biscuit.
- In a large bowl, sift together the gluten free flour, chickpea flour, ground flax seeds, sugar, and salt.
- In a separate small bowl, mix the buttermilk, apple cider vinegar, egg, and ricotta cheese. Mix until fully incorporated.
- Add the frozen butter to the sifted flour and gently (but quickly!) mix. It’s important to work quickly here as you don’t want the butter to warm up.
- Pour the milk mixture into the butter and flour, mixing with a large spatula until just combined.
- Turn out onto a floured parchment covered surface. Using your hands, gently pat out into a rectangle. Fold the dough over onto itself and repeat patting out and folding over for 3 or 4 times. This is how the layers get developed.
- Pat out the dough for a final time, making sure to keep the dough thick, about 1 ½ inches in height. Using a 2 or 3 inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Fold the leftover dough and repeat patting and cutting out dough until no dough remains.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until biscuits are a deep golden brown color. Let cool and enjoy!
Notes
Vinnie says
Question, why only a quarter cup of chickpea flour? Can All purpose flour be used for biscuits along with chickpea flour, since gluten is not a problem?? Toast chickpea flour?
Laura says
The chickpea flour is used in this recipe as an additional binder for the flour since there is no gluten. It also is higher in protein and provides a great depth of flavor since gluten free products can sometimes taste flat. If you are NOT allergic to wheat or gluten, I suppose that you could use wheat all purpose flour in this recipe. However, I have never tested it as such as this was written to be a gluten free biscuit.
Sue says
I followed the recipe as written; the taste is pretty good but I *did* think I could taste the chickpea flour a bit (or maybe it was the flax meal). My biscuits didn't rise as much as those in the picture. I bought brand new baking powder as you suggested, because mine was old.
I grated and froze the butter and though it was an extra step, I think it really helped with the buttery-ness. 🙂
They did crumble, so I'm not sure what I did wrong. Any suggestions are welcome!
Laura says
Hi Sue! I'm so glad that the biscuits worked almost perfectly for you! As for why they didn't rise up, what gluten free flour did you use? I find that different brands work better and worse in gluten free recipes. They may need more or less liquid as well depending on where in the world you live. I am currently in the Midwest (hello humidity!) so I don't need as much liquid as when I did living in Southern California. The difference of one or two teaspoons is all I'm talking about! Also, for this recipe I really recommending baking them in a muffin tin. That helps to get a more even rise as the heat is more concentrated all around the biscuit. I hope this helps! Let me know. 🙂