Fake-It Yourself Bisquick

One of the first things I noticed in the grocery store in New Zealand was the absence of Bisquick…or anything remotely related to a biscuit mix.  My hubby LOVES Bisquick Pancakes, so I had to find a way to rectify this situation post-haste!  I went online to find recipes, and after a bit of tinkering, this is the one I think tastes most like, and cooks most like, Bisquick.  Here in the US, it’s still worth my while to make up a batch to save a few bucks!

Ingredients:
1 Bag of Flour (5lb. bag)
5 Teaspoons Salt
20 Teaspoons Sugar
2/3 Cup Baking Powder
2 Cups Shortening (Crisco Style, no butter or margarine)



Oh, and you’ll need a BIG Bowl!

First, dump the flour into the bowl and add all of the other dry ingredients.  Using a whisk, mix the dry ingredients together.



Next, measure out the 2 Cups of shortening and put it on top of your dry ingredients.



Take your rings and your watch off, cause it’s time to put your hands into it!  Mix the shortening into the dry ingredients using your hands.  This doesn’t take as long as you might think.



Keep mixing and rubbing the shortening in until there are no visible pieces of shortening left and the mixture seems uniform.  Don’t forget to dig deep and get the dry ingredients on the bottom of the bowl, too!  I like to put some of the mixture in between my hands and rub them together to achieve uniformity and to feel for small bits of shortening:



You can tell it’s done when the mixure has the texture of cornmeal and it can form a ball when pressed together like this:



That’s it!  Now you can put it into storage bags.  I divided mine into three bags of 8 Cups each, which is the same amount you get in one regular box of Bisquick.



Fake Bisquick can stay in your pantry for up to one year…just like the real thing!  Use it as you would in any Bisquick recipe…or split it up into individual Shake’N'Pour Pancake Mixes* (see below).

The Fake-It Yourself Breakdown:

Fake Bisquick, Yield 24 Cups (Aldi Flour $1.78, Shortening $1.00, Baking Powder $1.14, other ingredients are too small in amount to count)

Fake-It Yourself Cost:  $3.92

Real Bisquick, 3 Boxes ($3.59 each)

Total Fake-It Yourself Savings:  $6.85

*If you wanted to use your Bisquick solely for making pancakes, you could scoop 2 Cups of mix into a Quart Size Mason Jars, yielding 12 jars of Fake Shake’N'Pour pancake mix!  Compare to Bisquick’s Shake’N'Pour at $2.59 each and you’ve got a Fake-It Yourself Savings of $27.16. 

To make Shake’N'Pour pancakes, add 1 Cup Milk and 2 Eggs to the jar and SHAKE!