An example is her take on biscuits, a Southern comfort-food favorite that Owens makes both vegan and gluten-free, using almond flour, sorghum flour, butter-flavored coconut oil and coconut yogurt.
“The best Southern-style vegan butter biscuits ever,” she enthused on her blog. “Guys, these are so good! My aunt, Betsy Bairstow, is a biscuit connoisseur, and even she approves! She couldn’t believe they were gluten-free and vegan, too!”
Owens based her recipe on a similar recipe from California’s Sweet Laurel Bakery, tweaking it and changing up the ingredients before finding what she thought was the perfect combination.
“Sweet Laurel is awesome,” she said. “But, we made their biscuits, and, to me, there was something missing. I’m from the South, and we take our biscuits pretty seriously down here, so there was some room for improvement.”
Here are some of Cat Owens’ gluten-free biscuits, fresh from the oven. Courtesy of Cat Owens Cooks
Credit: Cat Owens
Credit: Cat Owens
GLUTEN-FREE SOUTHERN-STYLE BISCUITS
Cat Owens recommends Sprouts and Whole Foods as good sources for vegan and gluten-free ingredients. She serves her biscuits with homemade apple butter or local honey.
Gluten-Free Southern-Style Biscuits
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- ½ cup sorghum flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons Nutiva butter-flavored coconut oil
- ¾ cup unsweetened coconut yogurt, such as So Delicious
- 1 egg beaten for a wash, or 1 extra tablespoon melted coconut oil for vegan
- Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the coconut oil and cut it in, using a pastry cutter, until a meal forms.
- Stir in the coconut yogurt. Loosely form the dough into a ball and place it on a sheet of parchment paper.
- Cover the dough with a second sheet of parchment, and press it into a ¾-inch-thick rectangle. Fold the dough over onto itself in three or four sections. Pat down the dough again, until it is ¾ inch thick, and repeat this entire process two or three times. This creates the fluffy layers in the biscuits!
- Press out the folded dough until it’s 1 inch thick, and cut out the biscuits with a 3-inch round cookie cutter or the rim of a juice glass. Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheet.
- Using a pastry brush, lightly coat the top of each biscuit with the beaten egg, or melted coconut oil for the vegan version.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, or until they are golden, and the tops begin to crack.
- Allow to cool, or serve warm. Makes four to six biscuits
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per biscuit, based on 4: 241 calories (percent of calories from fat, 61), 5 grams protein, 19 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 16 grams total fat (13 grams saturated), 52 milligrams cholesterol, 551 milligrams sodium.
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