The Most Amazing Biscuits (gluten free, egg free, dairy free)

Gluten free, egg free, and dairy free biscuits for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks - my idea of a well-balanced diet. Ok, well, not exactly. But these biscuits are definitely hard to resist. We polished this batch off in less than 24 hours. Just the two of us. If I made these on any kind of a regular basis (daily would be lovely), my jeans would be long gone and instead I'd be wearing yoga pants 24/7.

This recipe yields 8 gluten free biscuits. Of course, it will depend on the size of your ice cream scoop (which will also impact the length of time you bake the biscuits). Just for measurement purposes - so that you'd know the size of the ice cream scoop I used - the amount of water that my ice cream scoop holds is the same amount of water that a 1/4 cup measuring cup (the kind you use for measuring solids not liquids) holds. Very scientific:).

You might notice that the amount of the flours and starches are listed both in cup and ounce measurements. I'm following in Gluten Free Girl's (Shauna Ahern) footsteps and beginning to lean towards weighing the flours and starches I bake with. It's kind of like being in Chemistry 101! And it's amazing to discover how much more or less a cup of one flour or starch weighs than another.

Gluten Free Biscuits (gluten free, egg free, dairy free)
click here for printable recipe

1 c. almond flour (.3 3/8 oz)
1/2 c. brown rice flour (.3 oz)
1/4 c. potato starch (.1 1/2 oz)
1/4 c. tapioca starch (.1 1/8 oz)
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2/3 c. soy milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce (measured in a solid measuring cup)
1/4 c. canola oil

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2. Whisk all of the dry ingredients from almond flour through sea salt in a medium-sized bowl.

3. Add lemon juice to milk. Keep chilled until ready to use.

4. Whisk applesauce into the oil.

5. Add the applesauce/oil mixture to the dry mixture. Stir well. Then add the milk/lemon juice mixture and mix.

6. Using an ice cream scoop, place the biscuit dough on the prepared pan.

7. Bake for 12 minutes.

PLEASE NOTE: I am adding this note after making these biscuits a second time and correcting the weights listed in the ingredient list. I had left out a few decimal points which would definitely make a difference in the weight of the flours/starches. Thanks to Ricki of Diet, Desserts, and Dogs for pointing that out to me! When I made these biscuits for the second time, I once again weighed the flours and starches AND measured them in solid measuring cups, just like I did the first time. What I found was that the slightest difference in the ingredients measured onto the scale didn't look very different in the cup. If I sprinkled just a little more tapioca starch, for example, onto the scale, to bring it to .1 1/8 oz, the weight measurement changed immediately on the digital readout - it was very sensitive to even the slightest change in the tapioca starch added. But when I poured the tapioca starch into the measuring cup, it seemed to be fit into the cup, no matter the lesser or slightly greater amount of tapioca starch. No matter how carefully I level the tapioca starch with a knife, I bet the amount of tapioca starch in the measuring cup could be off by just a slight amount if I were to reweigh it on the digital scale!! My hypothesis is that when you measure ingredients WITHOUT a scale, and only use solid cup measurements, it's seems that the final baked result could be different from one batch to the next. This just goes to prove that weighing ingredients is so much more precise and I believe could make a big difference in the final result of your baked products. I haven't had a lot of experience with weighing ingredients, but I am more and more inclined to do so now.

This recipe is included in the Gluten-Free Wednesday 10/27/10 carnival hosted by The Gluten-Free Homemake, in Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free's Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, and in a little bit of Spain in Iowa's Whole Foods for the Holidays.