Oaty Drop Biscuits (Multiple Baking Options)

I created this recipe quite a few years ago, when I first became interested in keto diets and soon after learning about oat fiber powder. Oat fiber powder, not to be confused with oat flour or oat bran, has no net carbs and adds a mild oaty flavor to the biscuits which helps them taste more like "real biscuits." I'm not sure how I came up with the combination of flours I've used here, but it works. I know it's a bit extensive. My apologies. Over the years, I have attempted small adjustments to the recipe and the only thing I've changed is the optional addition of xantham gum. Other tweaks have never given as good of results as my original recipe. However, I have added some variations in baking options. Please read the notes for more details about using the air fryer and microwave options. These biscuits are a favorite of mine, and one of the few recipes I find myself making over and over again. They have a comfort-food quality for me, reminding me a bit of my mother's whole wheat buttermilk biscuits, and I hope they bring you as much comfort and home-baked familiarity as they do me.
Yield: 5 smallish biscuits
Macros (per biscuit): 125 calories | 5.5g protein | 10g fat | 1.5g net carbs
Prep: 10 minutes | Bake: oven - 23 minutes, air fryer - 11 minutes, microwave - 6 minutes | Cool: at least 10 minutes with oven or air fryer and 2 minutes with microwave. Fully cool before storage.
Storage: at room temperature in an airtight container (once fully cooled) for up to 36 hours, and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Microwave biscuits do not store well and will become dry very quickly.
Warning: keto baking can be very finicky. I strongly suggest using a kitchen scale to weigh all ingredients for which gram and milliliter measurements are provided. For soymilk, milliliters equals grams. Sift flours and powders if lumpy.

Dry Ingredients:
  • 3 tablespoons (23g) fine almond flour
  • 2 tablespoons (15g) coconut flour
  • 2 tablespoons (15g) golden flaxseed meal ✎
  • 2 tablespoons (15g) oat fiber powder ✎
  • 2 tablespoons (14g) plain pea or soy protein powder
  • 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • heaped ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • a pinch (half of a ⅛ teaspoon) xanthan gum (optional) ✎
Wet Ingredients:
  • ½ cup (120ml) soy or pea milk ✎
  • 2 tablespoons (30ml/27g) light olive oil, melted coconut oil, melted butter, or neutral-flavored oil of choice
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or vinegar of choice
Directions:
  1. If using an oven, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). If using an air fryer or microwave, prepare 5 small pieces of parchment (about 3 inches [8cm] square is a good size for the air fryer and about 4 inches [10cm] square is a good size for the microwave).
  2. ​In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
  3. In a small bowl or cup, whisk together the wet ingredients.
  4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a small silicone spatula or spoon until no dry patches remain. If xantham gum is not being used, a whisk will also work here.
  5. If using an air fryer, preheat it to 350°F (175°C).
  6. If using an oven, dollop 5 roughly equal-sized portions of dough (about 50g each) on a non-stick, parchment, or silicone-lined baking sheet. If using an air fryer or microwave, dollop the dough onto each of the 5 pieces of parchment. For nicer/rounder looking biscuits, you can use the tip of a spatula to shape as desired. See picture below for clarity.
  7. For the oven, bake for 23 minutes. For the air fryer, bake for 11 minutes. If your air fryer has a wand that moves contents around, remove or disable this feature. For the microwave, place 2 biscuits opposite each other, either side of the center, on the microwave plate and microwave for roughly 1½ to 2 minutes. If doing all biscuits in the microwave, microwave the last one for only about 1 to 1½ minutes. ✎
  8. For all baking options, once baked, remove the biscuits and transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Allow the oven and air fryer ones to cool for at least 10 minutes and the the microwaved ones to cool for at least 2 minutes.
  9. Enjoy slightly warm or fully cooled. Warm biscuits from the oven or airfryer may seem quite moist, especially if xanthan gum hasn't been used, but this lessens once fully cooled and if they have been stored for a few hours or overnight.
Tip: if you like these biscuits and think you'll make them often, prepare jars of the dry ingredients in bulk to save yourself measuring these ingredients out each time you want to make biscuits. Or, you could make a single bulk container of dry mix and use 89g of this mix each time you want to make a batch.
Notes:
  • This recipe has multiple baking options, which are each slightly unique. The oven one is quite straightforward. If using an air fryer or microwave, I suggest using a small piece of parchment paper under each biscuit. With the air fryer, something is necessary to prevent sticking. It is possible that you could put all biscuits on a single piece of parchment, but this may affect airflow. You don't want to make the pieces too much larger than the biscuits because the edges will blow around. For the air fryer, you could also put the biscuits in parchment or silicone muffin well liners. For the microwave, the parchment pieces also prevent sticking while allowing air flow. The biscuits will spread quite a bit in the microwave and be much flatter than if done in the oven or air fryer. To prevent this, biscuits can be put in silicone muffin liners, but this will result in wet sides and bottom because of lack of air flow. They will still taste fine if done this way. Biscuits done in the microwave will be drier, especially after fully cooling and storage. If you're eager to eat bicsuits asap, but won't be eating/serving them all, I'd suggest doing 1 or 2 in the microwave and the reamainder by another method. I have not tried making more than 2 biscuits in the microwave at a time, but have found with other recipes that having too many items in the microwave doesn't work out. As such, if doing all biscuits in the microwave, they should be done in 3 rounds (2+2+1). Because microwave power varies, it's hard to give an exact time for all microwaves. You'll have to do a little trial and error to figure out what amount of time works best in yours.
  • This recipe can be made with brown flaxseed meal if you don't mind the flavor. Golden flax tends to be milder and more pleasant tasting.
  • Unfortunately, I do not have any substitution options for oat fiber powder. If you have success with an alternative, please let us know. Oat fiber powder is not oat flour or oat bran. These are different ingredients.
  • Xanthan gum helps to hold the biscuits together a bit better and makes them slightly less moist when still warm. However, the recipe works without it, you just have a more delicate and initially moister biscuit.
  • This recipes has only been tested using soymilk at this time. The vinegar slightly curdles and thickens a protein-rich milk. Using a thinner low-protein plant-based milk or water may or may not work. It hasn't been tested. If you try another type of milk or water, please let us know how it turns out.​
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from oat fiber powder (NuNaturals), plain pea protein powder (Now Foods), nutritional yeast flakes (blend of Bob's Redmill and Foods Alive unfortified), and xanthan gum (Now Foods).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.