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Pictured: Sour Cream Raisin Biscuits, made with Quick Mix.
Make Quick Mix! Have an endless array of biscuits, muffins, and pancakes at your fingertips, as fast and easy as with a storebought baking mix (like Bisquick, for example), only better because it’s homemade. I love one recipe that can do a thousand things, like my Grandmother Bread. Quick Mix is the quick bread solution.
Here’s how!
How to Make Quick Mix:
5 cups all-purpose flour (may subsitute 1-2 cups whole grain flour as part of the mix)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
Combine in a large bowl. (I use a large spoon and a whisk to blend the ingredients well.) I like to make this mix in 5 cup batches because that quantity fits easily into my mixing bowls for blending. I make multiple batches at once and store it in a large canister on my kitchen counter. (Store as you would flour.)
How to Make Basic Quick Mix Biscuits:
Per 1 cup of Quick Mix used, add–
1/4 cup shortening, butter, or lard
1/3 cup milk or buttermilk
Using a pastry cutter, cut in the shortening before adding the milk, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (Just as you would when preparing pie crust–using a pastry cutter for biscuits is one of my secrets to perfect biscuits!) Add the milk and knead your biscuit dough. (Another secret to great biscuits–knead the dough lightly, a few times, adding a pinch of flour if needed to keep dough from sticking to your hands.) Roll out on a floured surface and cut into shapes–circles or triangles are my favorites). Bake at 450-degrees for 10-12 minutes. (Depending on the size of your biscuit cutter, this makes approximately 4-6 biscuits per recipe using 1 cup of mix–double, triple, as needed. I usually make a triple recipe to feed my hungry horde.)
You can use either milk or buttermilk, and either shortening or butter (or even lard, yes, I said LARD, there’s a reason our grandmas made great biscuits). And that is just the beginning! Oh, the creations you can bake with this one recipe!
Based on the 1-cup mix recipe, bake garlic-cheese biscuits (add 3/4 cup grated cheese of your choice and one pressed garlic clove, or even two, or use a teaspoon of garlic powder).
Garden biscuits (add 3/4 cup finely chopped veggies of your choice).
Herb biscuits (add 1/4 cup fresh herbs or a tablespoon dried herbs).
Hot or mild pepper biscuits (add 3/4 cup chopped jalapenos or other peppers).
Bacon or sausage biscuits (add 3/4 cup cooked, crumbled bacon or sausage–make bacon or sausage cheese biscuits! cut the bacon/sausage to 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup cheese).
As you use Quick Mix, adjust the quantities of the add-ins to suit yourself. Mix and match any and all of the ideas above and come up with new ones! The world is your biscuit! You can do anything with these biscuits, including add three tablespoons of sugar and 3/4 cup fruit or berries to make sweet biscuits.
Have a picky eater in the family? Make your Quick Mix in 1-cup batches and make biscuits to suit everyone. Or awe and amaze company with several different types of biscuits. They’ll wonder, “How can she make so many different kinds of biscuits? Did she slave all day?” They don’t have to know you have Quick Mix!
Could one biscuit mix possibly do more? Yes, yes, it can!
How to make Basic Quick Mix Muffins:
Per 1 cup of Quick Mix used, add–
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil
Add sugar, egg, milk, and oil all at once. Stir just till moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400-degrees approximately 15 minutes. Makes 8-10 muffins.
But wait, there’s more!
Per 1-cup batch, add 3/4 cup blueberries or other berries of your choice for berry muffins. (Fold gently into mixed batter just before filling muffin cups.)
Add 1/2 cup mashed banana and 1/4 cup chopped nuts for banana-nut muffins.
Add 1/4 cup pureed pumpkin, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, and 1/4 cup chopped nuts for spicy pumpkin muffins.
Use only 3/4 cup mix and add 1/4 cup oatmeal for oatmeal muffins.
For cheese and sausage or bacon muffins, leave out the 3 tablespoons sugar and add 1/2 cup shredded cheese and 1/2 crumbled sausage or bacon.
Again, the varieties are endless, limited only by your imagination and your tastebuds. Get creative!
And there is still more!
How to make Basic Quick Mix Pancakes:
Per 1 cup of Quick Mix used, add–
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
3/4 to 1 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil
Add sugar, egg, milk (adjust to make a good pouring batter), and oil. Stir just till moistened. Pour batter onto hot, lightly greased skillet or griddle, turning to cook second side after first side bubbles on the surface. The 1-cup recipe makes approximately 6 pancakes.
Add fruit, berries, nuts, cinnamon and nutmeg, and anything else you like for variations!
See my Quick Mix Cookbook here for more recipes.
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Tags: biscuits, breakfast, mixes, muffins, pancakes, quick breads
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good looking pancakes by the way
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http://lifeislikechampagne.blogspot.com/
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If you haven’t tried it, I urge you to do so. When all our children were at home, it was a huge timesaver during the week at breakfast. And now, when they come home with their families, we get ready by making enough to fit in the two gallon zip-locks!
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I was thinking about your chickens this morning. If you plan to use the liter from their yard, be careful with it. it’s really strong.
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I just copied your post and pasted it into Word so I can print it out and it it to my recipe box.
Have a lovely weekend.
Toodles~
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I gain weight when I read your blog!
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Coco is so precious – oh I just love that pup! :mrgreen:
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You really are a West by G. Virginian , as they are all exceptional cooks !
A W.V. ex-pat. who really enjoys your blog and your dog , and your chickens,
Kellynkaty
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Blessings from Ohio…
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I’m a non-cook so I hope it turns out for me!
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I love your blog. I wanted you to know I was just on MaryJanes Farm website and I was going to purchase her Budget Mix now I don’y have to. I can make my own! Have you ever made tortillas with your quick mix?
Thank You,
Denise
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I spent a whole hour searching for a quick mix recipe that I had seen long ago. Your recipe is the first one I found, and I must say that your recipe looks better than the other one had. I am a young wife, and have just recently begun my love of cooking. I am always looking for new tricks and recipes to add to my remarkably small recipe book. Thank you so much for such fun ideas. I never knew that one could do so much with just one recipe! I am exited to look through more of your recipes!!!
THANK YOU!!!
Kay
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that picture was what tempted me to try one last time to make biscuits! Anytime I had tried to make them before they either came out like hockey pucks or were more work and mess than they were worth… THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!
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Have you made cinnamon raisen biscuits? I’d love to know you’re technique if you have.
Thanks
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I was sure I had Bisquick. Working on a recipe this evening, and, nope, no Bisquick. I remembered you had given us this recipe and made it and was able to continue on without any problems.
Thanks!!!!
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The QUICKEST way my mom made really good biscuits was a bit different from the usual recommendations but worked (and works for me) really well:
Put about half your intended amount of flour (using SELF-RISING flour) into your bread-making bowl. Make a well (depression) in the center. Pour in the total amount of milk (regular works great) in center of the flour and mix just until all flour is dampened. THEN pour on and quickly/lightly mix in about 1 TBSP of bacon grease (cooking oil works, and so does olive oil!)…. or 3-4 TBSP grease/oil if you want really tender, flaky fall-apart biscuits. Then use a heavy spoon (wooden is best) to work in just enough more flour (the half you reserved, but not all at once, in case it’s too much) so that the dough begins to NOT STICK to the sides of the bowl. When the dough is pulling together and away from the bowl, you know you have JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT of dough to make biscuits that will rise tall and not be sticky to work with.
At that point, sprinkle a bit of flour on your hands, dust the waxed paper or dough board with flour, and turn out the dough onto the paper/board. Sprinkle a bit of flour onto the dough. Then quickly begin lifting the edges of the dough blob and turning them up, to center, over. Repeat just a few times, until the dough is in a nice blob and not sticking to everything. Use your floured hands to flatten the dough to about 1 or 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut a biscuit and set aside on the paper/board. Tuck under the odd-shaped piece left by the cutting. Cut another biscuit. Repeat until all dough is used. You won’t have leftover dough pieces you’d need to re-knead and add more flour and end up with tough biscuits.
Be sure your pan already has ample oil/grease in it so you can lay in one biscuit, quickly turn it over, so both top and bottom are greased. Place biscuits in pan NOT TOUCHNG, if you want both top and bottom well browned and crusty, with “done” sices and no doughy parts anywhere when the biscuits finish baking.
BEST KEY: Bake REALLY HOT, and have that oven to the right temperature before the biscuits go in!….about 475 to 500 degrees, only 9-10 minutes; 11 max. If placed with spaces between, your biscuits will be well done, tender, and well browned in just this much time.
NOTE: If your oven heats irregularly and the time is up and the biscuit tops are not nice toasty-crisp-brown, change “bake” to “broil” for 1-3 minutes, watch carefully, and pull out those perfectly browned biscuits.
Try it; you’ll like it. And the more times you try, the more you’ll get “the feel” of perfect dough that makes perfect biscuits.
My instructions may “Sound” complicated, but this method truly is fast and easy and foolproof. Just try it and see.