Sometimes the simplest things are easy to do, but hard to do really well!  I would venture to say gluten-free biscuits fall into that category.  For a while now, I've been making good gluten-free biscuits, but not amazing ones.  They are more than passable, but still didnt stand up to the wheat-based biscuits I make.

Part of the shortcoming, I think, is in the taste-memories I have of biscuits, fresh from the oven — some things imprint on the brain fairly emphatically, and I think biscuits are one of those.  Consequently, I've been muddling around with various flour combinations for a while, off and on, to come up with something that comes close to the buttery, flaky biscuit "gold standard" I have clearly bookmarked in my brain.

These come pretty close,  In my noodling around, I've been using amaranth flour more and more — partly for nutritional benefits, but also because of the taste, and hit on a combination the other day that came pretty close to the mark!.

A couple of helpful hints here

1.   Make friends with your pastry cutter!  Maintaining the structural integrity of the butter chunks is critical to creating flaky layers of biscuit — think pastry, only moister!  The pastry cutter is the most efficient way of doing this.  Yes, you can use a food processor, BUT for most home cooks, a batch of biscuits is small, AND the chunks of butter get processed almost too small (AND you will have a food processor to wash, as opposed to one bowl!)

2.   A silpat or silicone mat helps tremendously in the rolling/patting out phase — well worth it especially if you make gluten-free pastry for pies.

…and so, to the biscuits!

These can be made with or without dairy products — for this iteration, I used Earth Balance buttery sticks and Mimicreme Cream, But you can easily substitute an equivalent amount of real butter and buttermilk .

Gluten-free Millet, Amaranth Biscuits

• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup sweet rice flour
• 1/2 cup millet flour
• 1/2 cup amaranth flour
• 1 1/4 tsp xantham gum
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (increase to 3/4 cup if using unsalted butter)
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 stick Earth Balance buttery sticks (8 Tablespoons) — or an equiavalent amount of unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl,  mixing well with a whisk to combine.  Cut in the Earth Balance buttery sticks with a pastry cutter or two knives, until the mixture resembles oatmeal.  Some slightly larger pieces of shortening are good.

Meanwhile, take

• 1 cup non-dairy cream substitute – I like Mimicreme cashew and almond based cream.  Add
• 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar and let stand 10 minutes to make clabbered cream.  (You can also substitute 1 cup buttermilk at this point if you are including diary)

Mix with a spatula until just moistened and the mixture comes together.  Dust a silpat mat with amaranth or millet flour, turn out the dough onto the silpat, and give it a couple of turns, kneading very lightly.  The dough will feel very soft and moist — resist the urge to add more flour!  Pat the dough out with floured hands to 3/4" thick, and cut into 3-inch biscuits.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.  let cool at least 15 minutes before eating.

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Janice

Janice Mansfield is a personal chef who specializes in creating customized catering and baking for people with food sensitivities. A recipe developer and baker by day, by night, she enjoys delving into the history of classic cocktails and created a line of cocktail bitters for no other reason than she wanted chocolate bitters in her Manhattans! In her spare time, she documents the antics and unbearable cuteness her two Shiba Inus over at Life in the Shiba Shack.

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