Crisp on the outside yet flaky, soft, and melt-in-your-mouth on the inside, these sprouted spelt biscuits are delicious slathered with butter and jam or dipped in chili! Make them in less than 20 minutes!
No matter when or how you serve them (my favorite might be hot out of the oven slathered with homemade cultured butter!), these are awesome biscuits!
My daughter took her first bite and then said, “Mom, this just crumbles all over my mouth.” (That was how she described the melting.)
I can imagine this dough being the basis for cookies, sprouted scones, and other pastries. This variation, Cinnamon Honey Spelt Biscuits {soaked or sprouted}, is just as delicious!
How To Get Flaky Biscuits
Oftentimes, when using a whole grain flour for baking pastries and other breads, you can end up with a dense, dry, and crumbly end result that no one wants to eat.
This recipe, however, uses sprouted spelt flour, which yields a much finer texture (some say it’s less “sandy” than other whole grain flours) and because it’s sprouted, we don’t need to soak the dough before baking since it’s already neutralized.
Then finally, the addition of coconut oil, the vinegar/milk (a.k.a. “buttermilk”) mixture, and cutting the biscuits into squares instead of using a pastry cutter (requiring the remaining dough to become overworked and tough) creates perfectly flaky buttermilk spelt biscuits.
These divine spelt biscuits were inspired by Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet. She starts with whole wheat pastry flour and soaks the dough (sans baking soda, baking powder, and salt) overnight.
Why Use Sprouted Spelt Flour?
Since I love spelt so much and since we’ve been successfully sprouting it for gluten sensitive members of the family, I use sprouted spelt in these biscuits. This means soaking the whole grains can be skipped entirely, as the sprouting does the soaking’s job.
Traditional recipes are always soaked, soured, or sprouted before eating like Soaked Spelt Banana Bread and Sprouted Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake. Each of these processes neutralizes the phytic acid in grains, and makes the end result easier to digest.
We like to use spelt because it’s an ancient grain and has a nice soft texture once ground.
How To Make Flaky Spelt Biscuits
Because we’re using soaked flour, these biscuits whip together in a flash and can be started and finished in just under 20 minutes. It’s worth the step of sprouting your grain ahead of time to have quick and easy recipes like this.
(Learn how to sprout grains and how long will sprouted grains last!)
1. Once you have your sprouted spelt berries, you’ll need to grind them into flour. (Find out why we love grinding grain in our Mockmill home grain mill.)
2. Grab a large bowl and whisk together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
3. Add the coconut oil to the bowl, then cut it into the flour using a pastry cutter, a fork, or your hands until the pieces of oil are the size of peas or smaller.
4. Add vinegar to your milk and let sit for 5 minutes or so (this creates a quick buttermilk substitute).
5. Using a wooden spoon, mix lightly until the dough just comes together (don’t overmix!).
6. Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly floured surface and roll the dough out into a rectangle about 1/2-inch thick. Pat the dough into a rectangle if any of your edges get too thin.
7. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut your biscuits into 2-inch squares. (Alternatively, you could use a biscuit cutter or even drinking glasses to cut your dough into circles, but cutting squares eliminates the need to overwork the remaining dough.)
8. Transfer squares to a well-oiled baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes in a 450 degree Fahrenheit oven.
Once these delicious sprouted spelt biscuits are done, slice them in half, slather them in butter, and enjoy!
What To Serve These Biscuits With
We love to serve these spelt biscuits up for breakfast topped with butter, or with pumpkin seed butter and this Instant Pot mixed berry chia seed jam (pictured above) or alongside this 30-minute classic chili recipe for lunch or dinner.
They’re also amazing with this homemade chicken pot pie soup or any of these blended soup recipes.
Sprouted Spelt Biscuits
Crisp on the outside yet flaky, soft, and melt-in-your-mouth, these sprouted spelt biscuits are delicious slathered with butter and jam or dipped in chili! Make them in less than 20 minutes!
Ingredients
-
2-1/4
cups
sprouted spelt flour
cannot be warm from grinding or will melt the coconut oil -
1/2
teaspoon
baking soda -
1-1/2
teaspoons
baking powder -
3/4
teaspoon
sea salt -
6
tablespoons
coconut oil
chilled if liquefied at room temp (like during the summer) -
3/4
cup
raw whole milk
OR coconut milk, or nut milk (or even pure water) -
1
tablespoon
raw apple cider vinegar
or lemon juice
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt.
-
Add the coconut oil, then cut it into the flour using a pastry cutter or a fork, until the pieces of oil are the size of peas or smaller.
-
Add the milk (or water) and vinegar mixture.
-
Mix lightly with a wooden spoon to barely combine the ingredients. Don’t overmix!
-
Transfer the dough to a clean, floured surface and roll into a rectangle about 1/2-inch thick.
-
Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut into 2-inch squares.
-
Transfer squares to an oiled cookie sheet, leaving space between.
-
Put sheet in oven.
-
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden brown.
-
Transfer to cooling rack.
Recipe Notes
- Mix the vinegar and milk together about 5 to 10 minutes beforehand to create “buttermilk”.
- Make sure your spelt flour is not warm from grinding or it will melt the coconut oil.
- If you don’t have sprouted spelt flour, use whole wheat pastry flour (but use 2-1/2 cups) or unsprouted spelt flour.
- For soaking instructions, visit the original recipe at The Nourishing Gourmet.
- These divine biscuits were inspired by Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet. She starts with whole wheat pastry flour and soaks the dough (sans baking soda, baking powder, and salt) overnight. We converted them to a sprouted dough for a quicker start to finish time.
Calories from Fat 99
Variation: Sprouted Spelt Scones!
This post was originally published and written by Wardee Harmon on 4/23/09. It was updated and republished on 4/24/20.
