In my pre-gluten free days, I used to make a pretty mean biscuit. The kind that Aunt Bee would serve to Opie. The kind that you could use to clean your plate after a meal. The kind that were great for dinner, brunch, or breakfast, topped with cheese and jam or just a dab of butter. I missed those. I’ve tried to convert my old recipe, and it just did not work well. But, since I’ve been playing around with the scones recipes lately, I realized that I could tweak that recipe to make some great big, fluffy, gluten-free biscuits to go with our soup. And it worked. 
Big, Fluffy, Gluten-Free Buttermilk Biscuits
Author: Jeanine Friesen
Recipe type: Brunch
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 9
The type of light & fluffy gluten-free biscuit you can serve for dinner, brunch, or breakfast, topped with cheese and jam or just a dab of butter.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 4 teaspoons xanthan gum (UPDATE – I’ve made with 2 tsp, and it worked GREAT)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
- 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into chunks
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup buttermilk
- milk for brushing the tops of biscuits before baking, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and sprinkle with some brown rice flour. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the dry ingredients. Pulse to combine. (If you don’t have a food processor, combine all dry ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl.)
- Add the butter and pulse until the butter is the size of a lentil/pea. (Or, use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients, being sure to work quickly, because you want your butter to stay cold).
- Add the eggs and buttermilk, and run the food processor until the dough comes together in a ball. (Alternately, you can use a wooden spoon and stir until the dough comes together).
- Turn dough out onto the parchment lined baking sheet, and flour your hands with more brown rice flour. Working quickly, pat the dough down into a square shape, approximately 10″x10″, and 3/4-inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut into 9 biscuits.
- Gently rearrange the biscuits so they are not touching and have room to grow while they are baking. Gently brush the tops of the biscuits with milk, and sprinkle with course salt (optional).
- Bake in preheated oven for 14-16 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on a cooling rack before serving. Store remaining biscuits in an air-tight container.
lolol! Awesome looking biscuits girl… but I think you mean the kind that Aunt BEE would serve to Opie!
Ha! And that is why you should never do your blogging early in the morning, before the kids are awake.
those are fantastic looking biscuits. now i need to work my dinner plans around making these tonight!! thanks
Ok, I made these biscuits tonight and have to say they are fantastic. Fluffy inside, slightly crisp on the outside, with a nice flavor. I served them with Vegetarian Curry Soup and they were a hit. My family is dairy free, so made a few changes: used Earth Balance in place of the butter. Also made my own dairy free buttermilk by using about 1/3c Almond Milk and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice {let it sit for about 5mins before adding to the recipe}. Instead of brushing them with milk, I just sprayed them with cooking spray!!
Everyone wanted more. Thanks for the recipe. I will def. make these again.
Thanks so much for the comment, Becky! I know others will find your substitutions very useful (and I’m excited to know that they worked too!).
just a quick question as we don’t have biscuits like these in Australia (biscuits here are like cookies), so what is the difference between a scone and a biscuit?
Hi Rachel, great question! I’m not a pro (I’m a home cook), but I see the scone and the American biscuit being very similar. The only differences I can see are:
Biscuits are more savoury with less sugar.
Scones are usually sweeter with add-ins (like currants or other dried fruit) and drizzled with a glaze.
However, they both use a similar process & similar ingredients when being mixed and baked. Great question! Can anyone else add to this?
Biscuits and scones are very similar but scones don’t use eggs. They should be lovely and fluffy still, but you’re right in that our Aussie scones are served mostly sweet especially with jam and cream like a Devonshire Tea.
Your biscuits certainly would be lovely with a big bowl of warm soup, yummm…
I never have come up with a good gf biscuit. But I didn’t make good biscuits before. I was famous (or should I say infamous?) for my crunchy biscuits. I’ve never used eggs in buscuit dough before — will have to give your recipe a try.
These are impressively fluffy! You typically use superfine brown rice flour, right? Did you use that here? Thanks for a great looking recipe!
I love that fact that these biscuits are gluten free and fluffy. Perfect compliment with many meals
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I just made these biscuits for the second time. They are SO good! They are great with just butter, but I also used this recipe for chicken and biscuits and were perfect!
Mmm…chicken & biscuits! Sounds fantastic! Glad that the recipe worked well for you!
As I so often do with your recipes I double them right off the hop because I KNOW they will be good – what with getting all the extra stuff out for GF baking – makes baking for a GF family worthwhile. I made one batch plain and the other savory with garlic pwd, shredded old cheddar and some well blotted dry sliced olives. Both were amazing especially right out of the oven. I have tucked the rest into the freezer to go with chili this weekend when we are moving our son. Don’t tell him he gets to keep the MCC thrift store crockpot the chili will be heating in while we clean and pack! (Can’t send out for pizza!)
That is so awesome, Heidi! I hope moving went well, and great way to think ahead of meals!
Thank you for a wonderful recipe! Even my DH who doesn’t have to eat GF ate 3! LOL. I highly recommend doubling this recipe. If you’re lucky enough to have any left over they make great mini sandwiches too.
Thanks, Stacy! Glad to hear this. Needing some reassurance after others have had trouble with this recipe. lol
Just what I was looking for!! Thanks so much, now I’m off to make hubby some sausage gravy and your beautiful biscuits! Ali
Hi, I found your recipe on pinterest. I made them, and they looked super fluffy and wonderful in the oven. When I took them hot to cool, however, they started to deflate. Now they are flat. They still taste good, but just wondering why this would be happening. Thanks!
Hmm…did you make any substitutions? The only thing I can think of is that they needed more time to bake, if they are under baked in the middle, they would fall. I haven’t had that problem with mine though, and I’ve made these numerous times. Is your oven temp correct?
I just made these and they tasted like sand. They were so dry. Maybe I did something wrong but I followed the recipe exactly and they came out horrible…
If the texture is “sandy”, I would definitely double check your rice flour. Not all flours are created equal, you may need to look for “superfine” brown rice flour if the texture is gritty.
Mine came out quite dense, flat and sandy – but that’s likely my mistake as I used cornstarch instead of tapioca. Do you know what kind of difference it makes to bake with one or the other flour? What kind of constituents do they offer to gluten-free baked goods?
tried making these biscuits today and they turned out amazing. I used they whey from making homemade yogurt instead of buttermilk, turned out great, tasted good too!
Now that’s a great use for whey! Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth!
These came out great! Thank you for the awesome recipe. I try to cook all homemade for my family so I’m sure I will be here quite often.
D
That’s great, Cindy! My family loves these biscuits too – feel free to add different herbs or cheese too, a very versatile recipe.
My family loved these! Especially my husband who loves wheat bread…he said they were the BEST biscuits ever!! Thank you for a great recipe.
These look great. Question…as Im still a newbie….can you sub all of this:
•1 1/4 cups brown rice flour
•1/4 cup tapioca starch
•4 teaspoons xanthan gum (UPDATE – I’ve made with 2 tsp, and it worked GREAT)
•2 teaspoons baking powder
•1 teaspoon baking soda
for a baking mix already packaged or a gf all purpose flour (adding the baking powder and soda of course)?
Hi Mykel! If you have an all-purpose that has xanthan included already, you’re welcome to sub 1 1/2 cups of the all purpose flour in place of the brown rice & tapioca. I haven’t tried it myself, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.