Are you looking for a low fodmap homemade biscuit?
I devised this low fodmap homemade biscuit from the recipe on the back of a package of White Lily brand self rising flour. Why White Lily and not other better known and trusted flour brands? Because White Lily is the brand that southern cooks have used since 1883, to make their feather light, melt in your mouth morning biscuits.
Biscuit Versatility is A+
Fill them with breakfast sausage and smother them with sausage gravy and you will think you are spending the day in Savannah, or Atlanta or Charlottesville, VA (my home town for over twenty years.)
What Does a New Yorker Know About Biscuits
Do I know why this brand delivers the biscuit goods? No. I was a Yankee girl transported to the south basically kicking and screaming. But once there, the siren call of southern biscuits and gravy, chicken and biscuits, chipped beef and biscuits, and finally the granddaddy of all biscuit recipes that appeared on the buffet of every southern hostess no matter what else she was serving – ham biscuits- swept me away and soothed my homesick soul.
Doesn’t Sound Low Fodmap?
BUT hold on! Can’t homemade biscuits contain fodmaps, too much fat, and lactose from dairy? Of course they can. These are ingredients that can send us to the Loo for days, so I had to find a way to change the ingredients to fodmap friendly for IBS folks like me.
Trying to Keep the Homemade Biscuit Integrity
It wasn’t hard to change up the ingredients, but I worried about having to change the method while still getting the same result of fluffy biscuits that could stand up under gravy, chipped beef, gobs of safe “butter” and jam. Happily, this recipe delivers. Even though I cut the butter amount in half, substituted yogurt for the other half, and used lactose free milk with vinegar to replace buttermilk, the biscuits still came out light, fluffy and crusty.
White Lily Whaaat?
White Lily flour is self rising flour, which means the baking soda, baking powder and salt are already sifted into the flour. However, since it is white wheat flour, it still contains gluten and fructan. If you are sensitive to those ingredients, then this biscuit recipe might not be for you. OR you might want to experiment with GF flour. Here is what King Arthur Baking suggested you try as a substitute.
Using GF Flour
When I called King Arthur flour and asked if I could make their Measure for Measure GF flour into self rising, here is what they said. They don’t recommend using Measure for Measure because it is not made like self rising flour; however you might try substituting King Arthur GF Mix for the White Lily flour. It is like Bisquick and more like White Lily except it is gluten free. I have not tried this yet, but if you do, be sure to let me know if it is a viable option.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups White Lily self rising flour (See note above about using King Arthur GF Mix if you need your flour to be gluten free because it acts more like self rising flour than KA’s Measure for Measure GF flour.)
1/8 cup cold butter, or alternative margarine, cut in small dice.
1/8 cup lactose free Greek yogurt or plain yogurt.
***Use non-dairy yogurt to substitute for dairy or eliminate yogurt and just increase margarine to 1/4 cup.
3/4 cup lactose free milk or other alternative milk such as almond or coconut
2 tsp white or apple cider vinegar (to add to the milk and make “buttermilk”)
1 tbsp. salted butter, melted, to brush the tops of the biscuits after they come out of the oven.
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 475°. Lay parchment paper on a baking sheet. Set aside.
- Pour the milk into a glass measure. Add in the two teaspoons of vinegar and let sit for five minutes so it can curdle. This is your substitute for the buttermilk called for in the original recipe. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, place the two cups of White Lily self rising flour. If using GF flour Add in the diced up chunks of butter ( or margarine) and, with the mixer on low, work the butter into the flour until it resembles small peas. (I had to stop the mixer and test the flour and butter with my hands.) If the pieces of butter seem too big, take out your pastry blender or use a fork to work the flour mixture until the flour is incorporated with the butter and resembles small peas.
3. Continue running the mixer on low and add in the yogurt. The flour butter yogurt mixture will now start to form a dough, so start slowly adding in the milk. If the dough winds around the paddle, stop the mixer. Scrape off the dough on the paddle. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
4. With your hands bring the mixture together into a ball. It might seem too dry or too wet. If too wet, turn it out onto a floured wooden board and sprinkle the dough ball with a bit more flour. Gather it into a ball and smooth it into a ball. If it is still too wet, sprinkle a bit more flour. If too dry and you didn’t add in all the milk, throw it back into the bowl, run it on low and add in the rest of the milk. Place it back on the floured board and again sprinkle with a bit of flour as you try to form it into a ball.
5. Once the dough is formed, not too wet, not too dry, roll it out using a well floured rolling pin. (I now place a length of waxed paper under the dough and I use a length of waxed paper for the top and roll it out on top of the wax paper.) Roll it to the height of one inch. Using a biscuit cutter (mine is 2 1/2 ” wide) cut out 9 or ten biscuits and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. If you need to, gather up any scraps, roll them out and cut into biscuits.
6. Bake six to eight minutes, or until golden brown on top and bottom and when thumped on bottom, biscuit sounds hollow. (OK the thumping is my own method, so maybe you can’t tell if it sounds hollow. lol.)
7. Brush the tops with the melted butter after you remove them from the oven. Place the biscuits on a rack to cool or serve them warm with lots of butter and jam, or with sausage gravy or any way you want to eat them. If not eating them right away, place them on a cooling rack and put in the freezer until frozen. Remove them to a large plastic bag and keep them in the freezer.
