The Gluten-Free Homemaker

There is something about cut-out biscuits that I prefer to drop biscuits.  I guess it’s the fact that they are more uniform.  I like a neat round disk better than a lump or mound, and for that reason I’ve longed for a gluten-free cut-out biscuit.  I finally made one that I like.

Over the years, I’ve tried a number of different biscuit recipes, both drop and cut-out.  Since gluten-free bread dough of any kind is usually wetter than it’s gluten containing counterpart, drop biscuits just worked better.  My mistake in trying cut-out biscuits was thinking that the dough needed to be dry enough to be rolled with a rolling pin.  It always produced heavy and sometimes hard biscuits.

What I learned with my recent experiments is that you can keep the dough pretty wet and gently pat it out.  The trick is to give it enough liquid to keep the finished product light, but not so much that you can’t handle the dough.  This recipe worked beautifully for me and I hope it does for you too.


I made this recipe dairy free but have listed the dairy ingredients first.  Just keep in mind that I did not actually try it with real butter and milk.  I gave up on the idea of making a buttermilk biscuit because adding vinegar to almond milk to make a sour milk has never produced good results for me.  The milk curdles and separates so that I end up with a rather clear liquid on the bottom and white stuff floating on top.  Instead, I use cream of tartar in this recipe to provided the acid needed for the baking soda.  There is also an ample amount of baking powder to help this dough rise.

Gluten-Free Cut-Out Biscuits

Preheat oven to 400°

• 1 c. brown rice flour
• 1 c. potato starch + extra for working with the dough
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1 Tb. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 Tb. sugar
• 1/4 c. butter (I used Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks)
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 c. milk (I used Almond Breeze almond milk)

Preheat your oven to 400° and prepare a large cookie sheet.  You can line the sheet if you like (I use a silicone mat) and grease it with cooking spray or oil of choice.  Prepare a work surface for the dough such as a pastry mat or parchment paper that is dusted with potato starch.  You will also need a plastic baggie, biscuit cutter, and additional potato starch to dip your cutter into.

In a medium bowl combine the dry ingredients.  Cut the butter in chunks and work it into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender. 


Lightly beat the egg into the milk.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir gently with a fork.  Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula and make sure all the flour is incorporated, but to not over stir. 

Place the dough on your prepared work surface that.  Put your hand inside a plastic baggie and gently pat the dough into a circle about 7-8 inches in diameter, depending on how tall you want your biscuits.  They will not rise much in the oven.


Dip your biscuit cutter into potato starch then cut straight down through the dough.  When you pick up the cutter, the biscuit will probably be stuck inside, but will slip out easily onto your baking sheet.  Dip the cutter in potato starch between each biscuit.  Combine dough scraps to make additional biscuits.

Bake for about 15 minutes, depending on size.

My biscuit cutter is a little less than 3 inches in diameter.  My biscuits were about 1 inch high.  The recipe yielded 8 biscuits plus one small one made from scraps.

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I hope you all will join me for this month's biscuit challenge.

This post is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.

Labels: bread recipes