Gluten free biscuits x2!

Last night we had some friends over, and I wanted to make strawberry shortcake for dessert. I've made a GF shortcake before (as far as I'm concerned biscuit style shortcakes are the only proper shortcakes), and it was pretty good. But not really good, you know? So last night I wanted something different.

Now we have egg allergies in our house, and a lot of GF baking relies on eggs to provide the structure that gluten provides in traditional baking. Sometimes egg substitutes works, sometimes they don't. Hell, sometimes GF works, sometimes it doesn't. The combination of GF-EF = lots of trial and error.

So anyway, yesterday I read about a dozen GF shortbread recipes and finally combined what I'd read into my own thing. And it was good! It was so good that I told the kids I'd make them cheese biscuits for lunch today. Again, I created my own recipe, and again it was good! I think the yogurt might be part of the secret for these two...it helps leaven the dough and provides a bit of structure.

Biscuit recipe A (rolled biscuits)

1.5 cups of GF flour blend (I used a combination of brown rice (from Dakota Mills) flour, potato starch and tapioca starch)
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 T sugar
2 tsps Ener-g egg replacer powder
Mix all that stuff up (I used a food processor), then add:
4 T cold, unsalted butter
and blend until the butter is all worked in. Then add:
1/2 c milk (I used soy)
2 T vanilla yogurt (or plain if you don't want a sweet biscuit)

Blend into a dough, then pat out, cut into circles and bake at 350 for about 15 min :)

Biscuit recipe B (dropped biscuits)

1. 75 c GF flour blend (I used same as above)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp xanthan gum
Mix that all together. Then add:
4 T unsalted butter
1/3 c grated parmesan cheese
Blend until the butter is mixed in and then add:
2/3 c milk
1/3 c water
2 T plain yogurt
Blend until it forms a wet sticky dough. Fold in some grated cheese of whatever kind you have/like. I used colby jack. Then drop onto a greased baking sheet (you can make the biscuits whatever size you want! I made mine about 2") and bake at 400 for about 15-17 min. They're fluffy! And delicious.