Why I love these dairy free biscuits
The base for this recipe comes from my strawberry blueberry shortcake recipe. It started as a sweeter biscuit meant to be topped with seasonal fruit and loads of whipped cream, but I decided that it would be perfect for a quick, traditional biscuit, too.
In place of the butter, I used vegetable shortening straight from the freezer. It’s my favorite swap for baking because I always have it on hand, but you could easily use whatever butter substitute you like.
Just make sure whatever you use is super cold, and don’t forget to check out my favorite options for dairy free butter. Other than the butter, I just needed to swap the milk, so I used full fat, canned coconut milk, but any dairy free milk would work.
More dairy free biscuit recipes: easy drop biscuits / cheddar bay biscuits / vegan soda bread / apple scones
Ingredient notes:
- Vegetable shortening – This is used in place of butter, traditionally when making biscuits the butter should be cold – and so should your shortening. You can also use dairy free butter or lard.
- Coconut milk – Make sure to choose the full-fat, unsweetened coconut milk. I’ve also had great results with unsweetened, plain coconut yogurt (I might actually even like that better since it acts as a vegan buttermilk).
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Frequently asked questions
As long as you’re using unsweetened coconut milk, you shouldn’t have any issues with these biscuits being sweet. If find they are too sweet for your liking, I recommend using a little bit less sugar (try 1 tablespoon instead), or adjusting the salt amount to balance that out.
What else can I do with these dairy free biscuits?
Use them to top homemade peach cobbler or berry cobbler. Split them in half and make some blueberry shortcake. Top them with some sausage gravy for a southern style breakfast. Put them on top of chicken pot pie.
Dairy Free Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 6 tablespoons vegetable shortening, or vegan butter, chilled
- 3/4 cup full-fat canned coconut milk, or dairy free buttermilk
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, for rolling
- 1 large egg, optional, for egg wash
Instructions
- Prep. Preheat oven to 450˚F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk the dry ingredients. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk to incorporate.
- Cut in the fat. Add the cold shortening to the bowl of dry ingredients and, using a fork or pastry blender, cut in the shortening. It should form into small crumbs, resembling a sand type texture.
- Mix in the liquid. Stir the coconut milk into the mixture until a dough is formed. Removed the dough ball and place on a floured surface for the next step.
- Knead the dough. Push, fold and turn the dough, repeating a few times without overworking the dough. Roll out the dough on the floured surface and cut the biscuits into equal sizes (or use a circle cutter). Place each biscuit on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake the biscuits. Place the baking sheet into a 450˚F preheated oven and bake for 12 minutes or until the biscuits have golden tops. Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Serve warm.
- Top with egg wash. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with a few tablespoons of water until smooth. Brush over the tops of your biscuits before baking.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
LOVE the addition of coconut milk! These sound and look fantastic.
Hi Melissa! Thank you so much for fixing the issues with viewing this recipe! I’m so excited to try it out but had two questions for you. First: do you think lard would be an acceptable substitute for the shortening in these? I was thinking of getting and trying them with lard because I’ve read that a lot of traditional biscuit recipes will include lard for the fat content. Second: would these freeze well if I wanted to bake them and make individual sausage biscuits? Thank you!! I appreciate the time you take to make these recipes available.
Hi Rachel! I absolutely think lard would work for these. You should be able to swap it 1:1, but I would recommend doing a little googling just in case. I also think they would freeze well. Just make sure you wrap them well! I hope you love them!
Lardy Lardy no pork please😂
I don’t understand how the fat content you have listed can be zero, with 6 tablespoons of vegetable shortening plus the 3/4 cup of full fat coconut milk. (?)
It was a glitch from when I changed to a new recipe format. This recipe didn’t have nutrition info in it before, so it just generated zeroes. I’m doing my best to get through all my old recipes and add it, but I hadn’t made it this far yet! Sorry about that!
Finally, a non dairy biscuit that my hubs will eat! I didn’t use vegetable shortening because I forgot to chill it but dairy free margarine works well too!
I was dairy free for a couple months while nursing and really wanted some biscuits. So I came across this recipe and loved it! Previously I always made biscuits out of a can, but this is now my go to for biscuits, even though I can have dairy now. I recommend doubling the recipe to use one can of coconut milk. They freeze well
Please recommend an apporpriate vegetable shortening….I generally use olive oil…but wouln’t refrigerate it.
Any vegetable shortening would be fine. It is nice to buy in stick form for measuring purposes though!
Does coconut milk make them sweet? I want to make for thanksgiving dinner so my daughter in law who is nursing can enjoy them. I was going to use a plant based butter, such as country crock with olive oil and cashew milk, which I think is richer? thank you Kathy
Make sure you purchase unsweetened coconut milk, there should not be any extra sweetness with that.
What can I substitute the coconut milk and shortening with ?
That’s basically half of the ingredients. You might want to find a different recipe if you don’t like this one.