Devilishly Good Angel Biscuits: With Vegan Option

 Angel Biscuits: light, fluffy, sweet, and rises to meet the heavens

Devilishly good Angel Biscuits. Light, fluffy, slightly sweet, with a soft interior they resemble a roll on the inside more than a biscuit. But it's the crisp top, bottom, and pan edges that earn them the biscuit title. Set into a cake pan greased with Crisco the edges crisp perfectly. Triple leavening of baking soda, baking powder, and and active yeast ensure the high rise. Sugar, shortening, and butter give them decadent sweetness and fat content. 

I flipped these two biscuits over to show how they crisp on the bottom thanks to greasing the pan with Crisco. For a lighter option try my parchment paper option below.

CHILL 1/2 cup (95 g) shortening in the freezer

Mix together

4 1/2 teaspoons (2 packages or 14 g) active yeast

into

3 tablespoons warm water (110 to 115°F)

Set aside

Mix together

5 cups (700 g) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (50 g) white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons baking soda

Cut into the flour combination

1/2 cup (115 g) butter**, cold

1/2 cup (95 g) shortening from the freezer. I use Crisco butter flavor which is vegan!

It’s easiest to chop into cubes the butter and shortening. Mash the fat into the flour with a pastry blender or with your fingertips.

Pour 

2 cups buttermilk** (Make your own with 2 TBSP Lemon Juice plus enough whole milk to equal 2 cups) into the now frothy, thick yeast and water mix.

Add milk / yeast mix into the dry mix

Mix well, combining until the dough is wet.

Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead a couple of times. Not too much, just enough to mix together.

Fold over twice.

Pat dough to 1 inch thickness.

Grease two 9 inch cake pans with Crisco.***ALTERNATE below

Cut dough into circles using two inch biscuit cutter.

Reshape as needed to use all the dough. Place biscuits in the pans with sides touching. I was able to put a ring of biscuits around the edges and one in the center. Top lightly with melted butter.

Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for an hour. At 45 minutes in, preheat the oven to 400F. At one hour remove saran wrap and place in the oven for 16-18 minutes.

They come out hot, well risen, with crisp bottoms and sides where they touched the pan. The insides are light and fluffy, sweet and delicious.

Devilishly wicked good Angel Biscuits come out of the cake pan as a group. I was able to make a batch of 16 biscuits from this recipe with two cake pans.

**VEGAN OPTION

    I replaced the buttermilk with 2TBSP Lemon Juice plus enough Oatmilk to measure 2 CUPS total. I used Chobani Extra Creamy Plain Oatmilk. Shake the milk well before pouring. I do not use Almond Milk because of the water demands for growing almonds and its thinness. Formerly a Full Fat Lactose free milk drinker, my allergies/intolerance have ramped up and the only suitable substitute I have found for gut tolerance and creaminess is the Chobani Extra Creamy Plain Oatmilk.

     I used one stick of Country Crock Dairy Free Vegan Plant Butter with Avocado Oil as a butter substitute. And I used melted margarine to top the biscuits before baking. 

    Whether the Winter chill or the substitutions, these needed a few extra minutes to rise before baking. It also seemed that the biscuits didn't brown as nicely with this vegan formulation so I added an additional 2 minutes onto the bake time. The insides came out perfectly.

***AN ALTERNATE TO CRISCO COATING ON THE PAN

    I have experimented with the final step and can now offer a fabulous alternative to using cake pans. It results in a similar bottom but lighter in color. I prefer this method.

    I used a 9x12 glass casserole pan and an 8x8 glass casserole pan for the excess biscuits. I lined each with parchment paper, squaring out the corners of the paper so the bottom and the sides are lined. If you find this difficult to do, reverse the pan and use the bottom of the pan to fold the paper to meet the edges of the bottom. Flip the pan over and place the paper in the bottom. Then secure the sides of the paper with springy clothes pins. Spray the lining with Pam cooking spray.

Place the biscuits in the pan. I was able to fit 3 rows of 5 biscuits in the 9x12 pan. The excess went into the smaller pan, also lined with parchment paper. The lesser number should be grouped together. You want these biscuits to rise with their sides touching. It encourages a higher upward rise.

    When the biscuits are in the pans, remove the clothes pins and trim away the excess paper which rises above the sides of the pan. Trimming the paper makes it easier to place cling wrap over the pans. Do not skip the plastic wrap stage. It allows the biscuits to rise higher because of the yeast.