Coconut Milk Biscuits with Salted Molasses Butter

**By Chadwick Boyd**
Photo by Kelly Mihalcoe

The Most Simple Vegan Biscuits You Can Bake From Scratch

My dear friend, Kristen Hartke, introduced me to these biscuits. She and I have worked together on many biscuit projects, and when we were creating a menu for a special wine dinner at Williamsburg Winery, these coconut milk biscuits completed the dinner perfectly.

They are light and airy in taste and texture, and rise really tall. And they are quite impressive behold, too. The ingredients, though, are quite simplistic - there are just a few tricks you need to know to make them successfully.

The key to this recipe is a can of full-fat coconut milk that is chilled very well in the refrigerator. Once cold, the fat from the coconut milk replicates what butter typically does to make biscuits tall and tender. And but using coconut milk, these biscuits become vegan…though no one will know when they bite into them.

I like to roll out this biscuit dough and cut it with a biscuit cutter, but you also can make these as simple drop biscuits. Rather than rolling out and folding, just use a ¼ cup measuring cup, or something similar, to drop the dough on the baking sheet.

The salted molasses butter is something I learned from my longtime Atlanta friend, Chef Linton Hopkins, and the recipe has become a go-to especially when I am making biscuits for a dinner party.

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Chadwick’s Checklist

What you need to know before you cook.

The can of coconut milk must be very cold for this recipe to work. The solids of the coconut milk fat help the biscuits rise.
Make sure you use full fat coconut milk; low fat doesn't have enough fat to help these biscuits rise
You can make the dough up to 8 hours before baking, then cut and bake the biscuits just before serving

Serving Size: 8-10 Prep Time: 20 mins Cooking Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups full-fat coconut milk, chilled (it’s very important that it’s cold)
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.
Add the cold coconut milk and lemon juice to a small bowl. Whisk well so the mixture is creamy, but still has visible small pieces of the coconut cream.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the coconut milk mixture. Stir together with a fork until a slightly sticky, shaggy dough forms. NOTE: if the dough is too wet and loose, add more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the dough is workable and just tacky to the touch. Refrigerate in the bowl, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured, clean surface, sprinkle with some flour, and roll out to 1-inch thick with a floured rolling pin. Fold the dough in half and roll out to 1-inch again. Repeat this 3 more times. Dust with flour as needed.
Flour a 1½- to 2-inch biscuit cutter and cut out the biscuits. Place them on the parchment paper. Bring the remaining dough together, roll out to 1-inch thick, cut out more biscuits, and place on the prepared pan. Using your hands, shape any leftover dough into another biscuit to use it all up.
Place the biscuits in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the biscuits are tall and medium golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet before serving. Serve with the Salted Molasses Butter (see recipe below)

Salted Molasses Butter

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients

1 stick (8 tablespoons) vegan butter (preferably Miyoko’s Creamery) or 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons black strap molasses
Kosher salt to taste

Directions

Place the butter and molasses in a small bowl and mix until fully combined with a fork. Season to taste with salt as needed and refrigerate until ready to use.

Chadwick’s Changeups

Switch things up. Have some fun! Do more.

Stir in a teaspoon of vanilla to the dough and top with sprinkled sugar to make a sweet biscuit
Lemon zest to the dough brightens up the flavor. Omit the molasses butter and dust with powdered sugar.