Truly great gluten free quick breads are a thing of beauty. As we roll into the holiday season, we want to arm you with as many go-to recipes as we can, for the holidays and beyond. This one has so many advantages. Aside from being dreamy and perfect, it’s simple, straightforward, and requires no special equipment or exotic ingredients. If you keep a gluten free pantry, you probably already have everything except for the buttermilk on hand. If you also already have the buttermilk, well, that’s just showing off.
The secret to the melt-in-your-mouth texture of these biscuits is a rather cool trick from Cook’s Illustrated that involves stirring melted, slightly cooled butter into cold buttermilk. The cold liquid resets the butter into little shards that distribute throughout the finished dough. Our process is a little more streamlined (no pastry cutter or rolling pin necessary), and gets the biscuits into the oven even faster. How’s that for quick bread? Score!
We used a greased 1/4 cup measuring cup to portion them on the baking sheet – no need to fuss with rolling out the dough and cutting it into portions. Just pack the measuring cup lightly with a level amount of dough, plop it onto the prepared baking sheet, and repeat until it’s all used up.
As the dough bakes, the butter steams up in the oven and it makes the most beautiful biscuits. They’re fluffy on the inside and golden and crispy on the outside, just like you would want them to be. When they’re finished baking, you can practically hear them calling out for pats of sweet butter, ready to soak up those last pools of gravy from your Thanksgiving plate.
One other tremendous and time-saving advantage to this recipe is that once the biscuits are portioned, they can be bagged, sealed and frozen until you need want them. AND, they bake off just as well directly from the freezer. Just be sure to add a couple of minutes to the baking time. This makes them an ideal make-ahead item for the big day. You can even bake them off after the turkey comes out of the oven. The bird should be rested and ready to carve at the same time that the biscuits reach their perfect, fresh baked deliciousness. When you take a bow, try not to bump your head on the table. Been there.
Should any of these little lovelies survive beyond Thanksgiving Day (or you could just bake off more), they make a great gluten free mini bun for turkey sliders if you’re looking for a fun way to use up some leftovers. Shred up some dark meat, spoon on a little gravy and a dollop of cranberry sauce, crack open a bottle of cider and dig in!
Adapted from the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook.
- 2 cups (10 ounces) All-Purpose, Gluten-Free Flour blend
- 1 tsp. xanthan gum
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. sugar
- ¾ tsp. table salt
- ½ ts. ground black pepper
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475°F. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, pepper and cheese in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps.
- Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated. Using greased ¼-cup dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment (or Silicone mat)-lined rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1½ inches apart.
- Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.
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