To be fair, you ought to make these biscuits with freshly ground flour. Of course, I don’t have a grinder and you probably don’t have one either. It’s not like they’re a mainstay in a modern kitchen. The fridge–yes. The oven–yes. The grain grinder–NO! But if you have one, use it. If you don’t have a grinder, use whole oat flour.
The key to these biscuits is overnight soaking in buttermilk. Not only does buttermilk enrich the flavor and texture of the biscuits, but it also facilitates the release of phytates which are anti-nutrients naturally found in grains, legumes and nuts. Freshly ground flour is richer in phytase an enzyme which gobbles up the phytates and releases the full power of the grain’s natural nutrients. So, if you use freshly ground or pre-milled oat flour, you need to soak your flour because soaking improves the bioavailability of nutrients in grains and it also improves their digestibility.
This recipe serves about 6 give or take. It costs approximately $0.50 per serving.
Enough prattling. On to the recipe!
To make these Buttermilk Oat Flour Biscuits, you’ll need:
- 3 Cups Organic Oat Flour
- 2 Cups Organic Buttermilk
- 1 ½ Teaspoons Unrefined Sea Salt (see sources)
- 2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
- 2 Tablespoons Organic Butter from Grassfed Cows
Instructions:
- Measure 3 cups of your oat flour and sift it into a mixing bowl. “Why sift?†you ask. Well, sometimes flour–particularly whole flour–forms hard clumps that you don’t want in your final product.
- Now, pour 2 cups of buttermilk into the flour and mix away until the flour and milk are well blended.
- Now that your flour has soaked overnight, you can resume cooking. Chop two tablespoons cold butter into a ¼-inch dice.
- Preheat your oven to 350 º F. (Note that I live at 10,000 ft elevation, you may wish to reduce this temperature if you live at a lower elevation.)
- Now it’s time to mix in the butter, 2teaspoons baking soda and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in with your soaked flour. Mix it thoroughly.
- Pat down the dough and roll it out until it’s about ½-inch thick.
- Now that your dough is all rolled out. Invert a glass or jar and begin cutting out your biscuits until your dough is all used up. Place your biscuits on a baking sheet and bake at 350 º F for about 25 to 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes at 350 º, pull them out of the oven and resist the urge to gobble them all up right away. You’ll burn your mouth, silly! Five minutes is usually sufficient, and you can use this time to collect the butter, preserves and honey for serving.
- Now serve them up with butter and other goodies, or as my toddler insists, “With Honey Too!â€
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Awesome, thanks for much for the recipe, this is just what I was looking for
Susan
Thanks so much for posting this recipe, complete with pictures. I’ve been wanting to try a soaked flour biscuit, and you’ve given me inspiration. I’ll let you know how they turn out. How long do you find that it takes, including prep time.
Ok Everything went well until I tried to roll the dough. The recipe does not specify what type of flour you used for dusting the counter etc. so I ground some more oat flour but what a mess. My biscuits do not look as lovely as yours, rather they are a gooey glob that I had to work into a biscuit shape with a knife. I can cook honest but these will take another try. They are still in the oven so we’ll see if they are ok. I just looked and they seem to be baking up nice if a little spread out. I admit I did not measure the butter so maybe a bit too much but I think my spidey senses tell me these will be delish no matter what. Thanks for the recipe!
Bummer, Janice! I wonder if it could be excess butter. It sounds like the problem maybe hydration. Do you live in a moist or humid climate? It’s pretty arid here so perhaps my dough dried a little more overnight than yours did. I do use oat flour for dusting the counters. Another thing you could try is refrigerating the dough for an hour or so before you roll it out. I haven’t found it to be necessary, but it might help. Alternatively, you could do drop biscuits. Let me know.
The biscuits turned out fine just a little flatter. They were worth making! It has been raining for days so could be the humidity and also instead of buttermilk I used a combo of yogurt and water. Next time I will use more yogurt and less water as this could have made quite a difference. Overall a hit, thanks!
We would like to feature your biscuits on our blog. Please email haleyglasco@gmail.com if interested. Thanks
Haley
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Haleys last blog post..Cocoa-butter Cupcakes
Hi,
I am an inexperienced baker but was inspired by your blog so we tried the buttermilk oat flour biscuits. They did not rise and turned out as little hockey pucks (still tasty). I am wondering what could be wrong. We live in Hawaii (humid, sea level) so not sure if that makes a difference. Thanks for all the great ideas!
Megan
I made these this morning (11am-ish) after having done the night before mix and leaving it on the counter. Mine were so much goo that even cutting them with a knife was out of the question. I just scraped blobs off the counter and plopped them on a (sprayed) cookie sheet. They were *not* beautiful like your photos but they were *really* good! The first two I cut so we could make sandwiches (delicious!) and the second I cut the same way to toast them to serve with a chopped salad. I’m in *love* with these biscuits, but I really would like to know why they the dough was pure goo. Was it too long after mixing the night before (about 12-13 hours) or was it leaving it on the counter overnight? Also, I used pre-packaged oat flour; next time I’ll be making my own. Thank a bunch!
OK, I just made them again. Left them on the counter for 8 hours this time. The dough was thick but still VERY pasty. They’re in the oven now but I’m getting frustrated. How can I make this dough so that it behaves? HELP!!!
Christine! That stinks! What I would recommend is using more flour in the kneading process. I’m very generous with adding flour during kneading, and that might just be the trick you need to make the biscuits stiffen up a bit. Try that and let me know how it goes!
My husband and I just got some whole oats from a friend who was moving; we had fun grinding them up with an old Universal food grinder (not a grain grinder). We played around with different grinder “blades.” I’m cooking up some oat groats (basically cracked oats) right now (Joy of Cooking tells how). In the meantime I’ve been looking for oat flour recipes. These biscuits sound very intriguing. One note: My understanding is that you should always cut biscuits with a SHARP edged tool like a biscuit cutter, not a rounded tool like a jar or glass. The latter compresses the edges so the biscuit can’t rise as much. You can always use a sharp knife and cut the biscuits into diamonds as you would for scones. Once when I was making biscuits at a house where there were no biscuit cutters I used the bottom of can filler–it worked really well. I’ll let you know how the biscuits turn out. :^)
This sound so good. Do you think this dough would work as drop dumplings?
Well…I thought this sounded great so I tried it for Thanksgiving. I have had some formal chef’s training & real life experience making biscuits & scones & such, so the process actually worked out fine for me. They did not rise very much (which could be because I did not let the mixture soak as long as I could have) and they still seemed a bit uncooked when I served them. I have always seen biscuits & scones baked at a much higher temperature, at least for the first few minutes…something to do with that initial blast of heat making the rise a bit better…. also I think 30 minutes is a long time to bake something like that…
I froze some (raw) so I will try baking frozen & hotter & faster next time & let you know how that goes… my husband LOVES biscuits & gravy so ‘m determined to find a great nourished recipe that he’ll like…
Today I’m working on converting my favorite Banana Bread recipe, using Rapadura & all Whole Wheat Flour….wish me luck!
Please let me know how that goes! I’m wondering if altitude has much to do with the rising. I think a couple other people had trouble with rising. I’m at about 10,000 ft which presents remarkably different conditions for baking.
Jenny,
Loved this recipe, but substituted with Shiloh Farms Sprouted 100% Whole Grain Spelt Flour because I can’t digest unsprouted flours. Did you have a chance to check it out? PS The recipe was delicious!
Hey Jenny,
These biscuits were great! I made a few changes for lower elevation. I added about a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon aluminum free baking power to help the rise, also I shortened the baking time to 20 min. I used a 2″ biscuit cutter so my biscuits were smaller. This could account for the shorter bake time. My kids gobbled them up right out of the oven, “with Honey Too!”. I can’t wait to try them with other dishes calling for biscuits. My Granny says the dough should work well for dumplings at the before kneading stage. I’ll let you know. Thanks again for the recipe.
Awesome, Lisa! I’m so pleased they worked for you and that you were able to make suitable adjustments. Baking is so dependent on elevation, humidity and other environmental factors. I might have to make these for breakfast tomorrow.
Exactly what I was looking for for my 13.5 month old little munchkin who is teething …and despises spoon feeding! thank you