Buckwheat Biscuits Recipe: Easy & Gluten Free

Buckwheat biscuits can be tricky. Many gluten-free versions turn out dense, dry, or crumbly, especially when they rely on flour blends with add-ins like xanthan gum that you aren’t even sure you need for this particular recipe.

These biscuits keep things simple. Made with 100% buckwheat flour, they bake up tender, hearty, and surprisingly light, with a rustic texture that feels right at home on a breakfast table or beside a cozy dinner.

This recipe is also refreshingly straightforward. With just a handful of ingredients and no complicated flour blend, these buckwheat biscuits are easy enough for a weekend bake but special enough to make again and again.

Whether you’re gluten-free, trying something new, or just love a biscuit with a little more depth, this recipe delivers a delicious homemade option.

Why This Recipe for Buckwheat Biscuits?

These buckwheat biscuits are gluten-free and dairy-free. Buckwheat brings a naturally earthy, slightly nutty taste that gives these biscuits more character than average biscuits, while still pairing beautifully with both sweet and savory toppings.

While I like them best as an accompaniment for my lunch or dinner, they also make decent bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits in a pinch. They’re also great slathered with sausage gravy, or just topped with butter and jam if you want to keep it simple.

Equipment for Buckwheat Biscuits

Most of these items should sound familiar if you do a lot of gluten-free baking! If not, they’re usually easy to find wherever you normally buy your baking supplies.

• Digital food scale
• Large mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Pastry blender
• Sturdy mixing spoon
• Plastic wrap
• Parchment paper
• Rolling pin
• Biscuit or cookie cutter
• Baking sheet
• Cooling rack

Note: The digital food scale is quite indispensable for gluten-free baking! I will insist on measuring some ingredients, like the gluten-free flour, by grams because gluten-free baked goods are finicky about getting exactly the correct amount. Even a few grams too much or too little flour can cause the texture to come out wrong!

About These Ingredients for Buckwheat Biscuits

Curious about any of these ingredients? Most of them should be fairly straightforward, but that doesn’t mean I don’t nerd out about a few of them! Here’s a quick rundown.

Light Buckwheat Flour

320 grams (about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups) light buckwheat flour

Light buckwheat flour is a variation of buckwheat flour made from buckwheat kernels with their hulls removed. (The other variation, dark buckwheat flour, was made with kernels that still have their hulls.)

Baking Powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

Baking powder is an important chemical leavening that reacts with other ingredients to produce air bubbles. This helps give the biscuits the texture you want.

Baking Soda

1 teaspoon baking soda

Baking soda is another chemical leavener that reacts with acids in many baking recipes. This gives the biscuits an additional boost in their texture.

Why include both? Baking powder and baking soda do work slightly differently! Baking powder usually includes sodium bicarbonate, an acid that it can react with, and a starch that keeps it from reacting with itself before it is added to a recipe. Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate that only activates when exposed to acids in other ingredients.

Granulated Sugar

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

The granulated sugar adds a small amount of sweetness to these biscuits. Because it’s not needed to feed a biological leavening agent like yeast, we don’t have to use as much of it here.

Salt

3/4 teaspoon salt

Salt supports many of the chemical reactions that make these biscuits flavorful. The trick is to avoid accidentally adding too much so the biscuits don’t taste too salty.

Vegan Butter

1/3 cup vegan butter

The vegan butter adds necessary fats to the biscuits. I like to use a brand like Country Crock that makes plant butter sticks with olive oil. Olive oil tends to contain a good amount of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.

In this case, it’s not necessary to bring vegan butter up to room temperature or soften it. You’ll get pretty firm with it with the pastry blender anyway.

Almond Milk

1/4 cup almond milk

I like to use almond milk because it’s a dairy alternative that makes a decent substitute for dairy milk. Almond milk provides the creamy richness that makes these biscuits tasty. It may also add a slight nutty flavor because, of course, it’s made with almonds.

Vegan Sour Cream

185 grams vegan sour cream

Vegan sour cream usually gets the acid that baking soda needs to react with from a plant-based source like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. This helps the chemical leavening agent work properly and also adds a slight acidic flavor to the biscuits.

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How To Make Buckwheat Biscuits

Let’s jump right into making these biscuits. They really are easy!

Step One: Mix Dry Ingredients

Mix buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

Step Two: Cut Butter Into Flour Mix

Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Step Three: Add Almond Milk and Vegan Sour Cream

Stir in the almond milk and sour cream with a sturdy spoon until completely combined. Don’t forget to scrape the bottom of the bowl with the spoon to make sure the dry ingredients don’t slide to the bottom unnoticed.

Step Four: Chill Dough

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Step Five: Preheat Oven

While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 degrees Celsius)

Step Six: Prepare Baking Sheet

Spread some parchment paper on your baking sheet.

Step Seven: Prepare Work Surface

Sprinkle a little buckwheat flour or spread a piece of parchment paper on a work surface.

Step Eight: Roll Out Dough

Use the rolling pin to roll out the dough until it is a 1-inch-thick sheet. Resist the urge to make it too thin, as the biscuits may not become as thick as you would like if you make them much less than 1 inch.

Step Nine: Cut Out Biscuits

Cut out biscuits with the biscuit cutter. Set the biscuits aside.

Step Ten: Lump Together Remaining Dough and Repeat As Needed

Lump together any remaining dough. Repeat Steps Seven and Eight until you can no longer get any 1-inch-thick biscuits from the remaining dough.

Step Eleven: Place Biscuits on Baking Sheet

Place the biscuits on a baking sheet. They should be evenly spaced apart and not touching. If you doubled the recipe, use a second baking sheet.

Step Twelve: Bake Biscuits

Place the baking sheet holding the biscuits in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown on top.

Step Thirteen: Allow to Cool

Transfer the biscuits to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool for a few minutes.

Step Fourteen: Serve With Favorite Toppings

Serve these biscuits with your favorite toppings. Butter and jelly are classic.

Substitutions and Variations for Buckwheat Flour Biscuits

You can use dairy butter instead of vegan butter, dairy-based sour cream instead of vegan sour cream, and dairy milk instead of almond milk. It just won’t be dairy-free.

You can also use yogurt as a substitute for the sour cream. Just don’t use fat-free yogurt.

Teff flour is the closest substitute for buckwheat flour. We have a handy guide for substituting buckwheat flour.

You can cut the salt amount in half if you’re on a low-salt diet.

To make drop biscuits, use a large spoon to spoon the dough onto the baking pan. Bake for an extra minute or two.

What to Serve with Gluten-Free Buckwheat Biscuits

Once you’ve baked a batch of biscuits, pairing them with the right dish can turn them into a full meal. These recipes are simple, satisfying options that work especially well for breakfast or brunch.

• Gluten-Free Biscuits and Gravy Recipe
• Gluten-Free Breakfast Sandwich With Egg and Cheese
• Easy Meatless Gluten-Free Sausage Casserole

Whether you want something hearty, savory, or easy to pull together, these recipes make gluten-free biscuits even better.

FAQs About This Buckwheat Biscuit Recipe

While these buckwheat biscuits are pretty straightforward to make, we do get the occasional question! I try to answer some of the most commonly asked questions here. If you think of one we haven’t answered yet, feel free to ask in the comments section.

How are these biscuits grain-free when they obviously contain flour?

It’s an easy thing to wonder because buckwheat sounds like it would be a type of wheat, but it is not actually a grain. Buckwheat is considered a pseudograin, which means it is used like a grain in cooking and baking but comes from a different kind of plant.

When ground into flour, buckwheat works a lot like traditional grain flours, which is why it can seem confusing. The big difference is that buckwheat is naturally gluten-free and is not part of the wheat family.

So even though these biscuits contain buckwheat flour, they can still be considered grain-free because buckwheat is not a true grain.

Why did my biscuits come out a more brownish color instead of the yellow color in your photos?

It’s possible that you got some dark buckwheat flour, which is made using the whole buckwheat kernel and has a darker color than light buckwheat flour.

I noticed that 320 grams isn’t exactly 2 1/2 cups! Why is that?

Good point! Measuring ingredients in grams can be tricky because each ingredient is different. Measuring 320 grams of flour will give you a different amount in cups than 320 grams of sugar, for instance.

Even converting between grams and cups for different types of flour can give you different conversion rates. For buckwheat flour, 120 grams per cup is a pretty good rule of thumb. Seriously, though, I often just use my kitchen food scale so I won’t have to do math in my head.

Why did my biscuits come out too dry or too gummy?

One thing that’s really important here is the flour’s ability to absorb moisture. Besides giving the leavening agents time to work, the chill time lets the buckwheat flour soak up the liquids. If you used too much flour or too little liquid, the biscuits can turn out too dry or crumbly. They may also come out dry if they were overbaked.

If you use too little flour or too much liquid, the biscuits can come out gummy because the flour cannot absorb all the moisture. They might also be underbaked. A good way to check is to insert a toothpick into the center of a biscuit when you think they’re almost done baking. If the toothpick comes out clean, the biscuits are done.

I’m going to have guests. Is this recipe easy to double?

I often double this recipe whenever I’m having company over because these biscuits are a hit. It’s super easy!

I may have made too many biscuits! Am I in trouble?

Not necessarily! If you doubled the recipe and didn’t use them all, they’re easy to freeze until the next time you need biscuits. Just don’t forget they’re in your freezer!

Baked a Batch of These Buckwheat Biscuits?

I’d love to hear how they turned out for you. Share your results in the comments, along with any swaps or serving ideas.