Better ‘Bisquick’

I might have mentioned before that my grandparents were bakers. Bakery bakers. So I blame my love of all carby things that come out of an oven squarely on them. Biscuits, for example.
As much as I enjoy biting into a hot, fresh biscuit, sometimes there just isn’t time to whip up a batch from scratch. Enter Bisquick. Nah, too many chemicals. Enter homemade Bisquick. Simple, delicious, and convenient.

Here’s how to make it:
Gather your ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and shortening (or butter!). See? Simple.

Whisk dry ingredients

Add shortening with a pastry blender. (I used a split of half butter and half shortening). Mmm, butter.

See the coarse crumb look to the mix? That’s what you want. Now you’re done! Easy peasy. Store in an airtight container until you’re ready to make biscuits. Since I added butter to the shortening, I’ll store mine in the fridge, but if you use just shortening, it can go in the pantry. Scoop out some mix and add milk to make biscuits, and milk and eggs to make pancakes.

These are amazing with butter. Or honey. Or butter and honey. My husband likes to dunk them in stew. And we’ve made cheesy versions, too, with sharp cheddar and herbs.
Homemade ‘Bisquick’
9 ¾ cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp salt
½ cup baking powder
¼ cup white sugar (can be omitted, but we like it)
2 cups shortening (can substitute butter, which tastes fantastic, but must be kept in fridge/freezer)
In very large bowl, whisk dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender (or two forks), cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Just like making pie crust! Store in airtight container.
You can use this mix just as you would store-bought Bisquick…for biscuits, pancakes, pot pie topping, dumplings, etc. Delicious!
Biscuits: 2 ¼ cups of mix plus ¾ cup milk or buttermilk. Roll about ½ inch thick, cut, and bake at 450F about 10 minutes. I’m actually a bit lazy with this part, and I just use my hands to roll 2-inch diameter balls of dough, and smooch them down a bit on the baking sheet.
Pancakes: 2 cups mix plus one cup milk plus 2 eggs. Mix and pour into heated pan. Flip pancake when it starts to show bubbles.

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