Once you try this Bisquick substitute, you won't want to go back to the store bought version. I sure don't at least... and I'm guessing you won't either after you get a taste of it.
I've always enjoyed cooking from scratch, so I can't believe it never occurred to me just how simple it would be to make some of my own mixes to keep on hand for convenience! Plus I love that I can control exactly what goes into the mix -- no more label reading.
I used real butter for my homemade Bisquick mix because I like the added richness that it imparts, but you could substitute vegetable shortening or lard to customize it to your own preferences.
Homemade Bisquick Mix
Ingredients:
- 6 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 3 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 cup cold butter
Directions:
- Measure the sifted flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Use a wire whisk to blend thoroughly.
- Cut in cold butter using a pastry cutter until thoroughly incorporated.
Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 months.
Perhaps you're wondering just how well the homemade Bisquick will work in your traditional recipes. I've successfully substituted it for store bought Bisquick in all of my favorite recipes, including these quick and easy 15-minute homemade biscuits.
These are the perfect side for any meal since they can be made in just 15 minutes start to finish if you already have your mix on hand!
15-Minute Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups homemade Bisquick mix
- 2/3 cup milk
Directions:
- Mix together homemade Bisquick mix and milk to form a soft dough.
- Roll the dough out to about 1/2" thickness on a flour-dusted surface. Cut out biscuits with a 2-1/2" cutter -- we use an empty Campbell's soup can with both ends cut out for this.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Recipe yields approximately 15 biscuits.
What are your favorite homemade mixes to have on hand? I'm eager to try new varieties after being so successful with this one.
Tara Kuczykowski is a married mom of three boys and two girls, ages 3 to 9 years, living in Columbus, OH.
{ 58 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s a great idea! So… could this mix also be used for pancakes?
Yep, you can definitely use it for pancakes. I’m planning to share my favorite pancake recipe that uses it very soon!
great idea! Thanks for sharing it!
I like that you get to choose the ingredients in it (I wonder if it would work with whole wheat?) We don’t have biscuits often, but we do have pancakes occasionally, and I really don’t like using box mix. Thanks!!!
I’d love to hear if you try it with whole wheat flour since it seems many people are wondering about it!
A simple and good pancake recipe. I have tried it and will again soon. Remaining batter will last in the fridge for several days. I left out some rules because since we are all cooks, I did not feel they were significant to the cause. You don’t need to be told to add more liquid to make a thinner pancake. you get the idea. I hope you enjoy the recipe if you choose to make it.
Ingredients
· 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 tablespoons sugar
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups milk
· 2 eggs
· 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
· 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions
1. In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.
2. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk.
3. Start with 1 1/4 cups milk, adding up to another 1/4 cup if necessary, as you mix it with the flour.
4. Add the two eggs, vanilla if using and oil, whisking until mixed but still a bit lumpy. You are ready to make your thick or thin pancakes.
I doubled the recipe, substituted whole wheat flour for half the white but substituted a couple tablespoons of that with wheat germ. It ended up being about 1.5c white flour, 1.25c whole wheat, and .25c wheat germ. I also used 2/3c powdered milk mixed with the dry ingredients and 2.5c water in place of the milk. They turned out deliciously tasty, light and fluffy textured.
Do you have a link to other “from scratch” recipes you use?
Almost all of the recipes I post here are “from scratch” — I’m not big on semi-homemade cooking. But as far as grocery staples from scratch, this is a new focus for me in 2011, so I’m planning to post several of these kind of recipes each month. You might also be interested in my sourdough starter post. I’m still searching for the perfect bread recipe to use it in, but I have one that looks promising that I’m planning to try tomorrow.
http://unsophisticook.com/how-to-make-sourdough-starter/
Do you think I could use whole wheat flour instead of regular flour? Just curious if it would taste okay still or not? What do you think?
I definitely think it will still taste wonderful, but wheat flour is more dense which so it would just depend on whether that is an issue for you. If so, you might try mixing half regular and half whole wheat.
When baking with wheat you will need to probably use some white flour in it. For example I made a much healthier version of a chocolate chip recipe. Instead of all the white flour I did half and half. Plus using splenda helped too.
@Megan
It does work. We have been making our biscuits homemade for years and we make up a big batch (not huge, just 10c’s) and we do 7 cups soft white wheat and 3 cups organic bread flour. We have done the whole recipe with just wheat but have yet to perfect the “fluffiness” they are rather dense with “just” the whole wheat!
Hope that helps.
This is a great idea. We have the items in our pantry anyway! This is the year for planning ahead and being more organized. Thanks for this tip
Oh, thanks so much for this recipe!! We use Bisquick all the time and it’s so expensive even with a coupon!! The ingredients are things we always have plenty of so my husband will be super excited about this, since he’s the cook ;)!
If it has butter in it, how come it does not need to be refrigerated?
Never mind! Sorry I see the answer now:)
Awesome, I was making biscuits the other day and was thinking that a homemade Bisquick recipe would be great and cheap. Thanks for sharing.
Oh wow! I am also a huge ‘from scratch’ cooker myself, but Biquick is something I never thought about. I buy it mostly for making sausage balls, but I bet they will taste even better with the baking mix being homemade too. I’m writing this one down. Thanks so much!!
For those wondering about using whole wheat, you can. Just subtract 1-2 Tablespoons for each cup of white flour to get the right consistency.
Or, you can use white whole wheat flour. It has all the good nutrition of whole wheat flour except some of the bran is sifted out. With this flour, you can use an equal amount to the white flour.
My family has used both of these substitutions for several months now, and we have yet to find a cooking or baking recipe it didn’t work for. Happy cooking! :)
Thanks for the fantastic advice, Angie!
I love this substitution. Recently I dabbled with cocoa mix and my sons love hot chocolate. I’ll share: visit my blog at http://harfordsHappyHomemaker.blogspot.com
Thank you so much for sharing this! It is the perfect opportunity to have something quick but to be able to choose organic and healthier! No more Bisquick at my house….you may cause a revolution, lol!
Any idea on how to replicate the Gluten Free recipe. It cost so much and makes about 1 batch for about $6.50 including the eggs, shortening, and almond milk.
Good question — I’ll do a little research to see if I can dig anything up, or maybe someone else will have some suggestions.
always wondered what would be homemade equivalent to bisquick – and now you made it easy! will give it a go. thanks!
Thank you–I am saving this because we go through a ton of Bisquick, making pancakes, waffles and cheesy biscuits. I’d love to see that pancake recipe you alluded to!
If you would like a gluten free bisquick mix, you could try brown rice flour or spelt flour. Spelt would make the mix a little heavier like whole wheat flour would. Spelt is great in bread so I would think it would be good in pancakes and biscuits also.
Spelt is not gluten free, it is simply another type of wheat. Thanks for the tip about brown rice flour though.
I’m new to all this…How do you cut in butter?
I use a pastry cutter similar to this one by OXO and you basically just use it to mix the butter into the flour until it’s just in tiny pieces like the image above. Alternately you can use two knives, holding one in each hand kind of like “crossed swords”, to actually cut the butter and incorporate it. If all else fails, use your hands. The final consistency should be kind of coarse like cornmeal.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! ! I just recycled our empty Bisquick box last week-after making a batch of Garlic Cheese Biscuits (similar to Red Lobster’s), and have often wondered how I could make my own mix-I didn’t think it could be that hard! I’m going to post a link to this on my blog! Thank you again!
Thanks so much for sharing! We use Bisquick a lot for various things and it is expensive even with coupons. I have used your recipe twice with great results. Your mix has a softer crust than BIsquick which is nice. Below is my husbands favorite Bisquick recipe. I think it is ok, but if we are short on time I can throw it together quickly with a veggie on the side.
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/impossibly-easy-cheeseburger-pie/8c78aa78-c368-40fa-8a88-1654640c7525
I used to make this frequently when my husband and I were first married. I don’t know why I haven’t made it lately — I bet the kids would like it. Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks for the recipe! I had been using one that calls for cream of tartar and powdered milk; looking forward to trying one that requires less ingredients. I love making the Impossibly Easy Pies too, with one change: I typically double all the ingredients except the meat. This stretches our expensive protein, and I have an extra meal for the freezer! Thanks again for all your great tips.
That’s a great tip, Renita — thanks for sharing!
Tara, thanks for this recipe. I have a taco seasoning mix I use. 2T chili powder, 5t paprika, 4.5t ground cumin, 3t onion powder, 3t salt, 2.5t garlic powder, 1/8t cayenne pepper. Combine and store in an airtight container. For taco meat, mix 2/3 to 3/4 cup water with 8t of mix and 1 pound of meat. Once you make your first seasoned meat recipe, then you might want to adjust for your famiy’s tastes.
Could I use whole wheat flour instead of white flour for the homemade bisquick recipe?
Hi, Tara. I love your site. I used your homemade bisquick mix to make Cheese Garlic Biscuits this weekend. They turned out awesome. If you want to try it, here’s the link for the recipe. http://myfavoritefinds.blogspot.com/2011/03/cheese-garlic-biscuits.html
Thanks for the awesome idead. I can’t wait to use it for pancakes soon.
Those sound delicious, Carrie — we’ll definitely be trying them. Thanks for sharing!
I just discovered your blog. Love, love, love it! I’ll have to try this recipe using part butter and part shortening. Shortening makes your biscuits rise really nicely! I don’t usually like Bisquick for pancakes, because it makes for pretty heavy pancakes, but I might have to try yours! Thanks!
Have you tried their “melt in your mouth” variation? It’s adding a bit of baking soda and lemon juice to the mix – they foam up together and add wonderful fluffyness to the pancakes.
Can I use self-rising flour? I think that self-rising flour has about the right ratio of salt/baking powder…
Hmm, good question, Megan. I haven’t tried it, but if you experiment with it, I’d love to hear your results!
Thanks for this recipe. I will definitely try it out. I love that it uses butter! You mention other mixes. I’ve been using Make-a-Mix (Fisher Books) for years. It has recipes for a wide variety of types of mixes.
Tara, thank you so much for this! I have looked for a recipe for it before and never found one. You rock!
Yay — glad I shared it then! I was surprised when I noticed that I hadn’t posted it to my personal page yet. I figured I had some friends that could use it!
This is so helpful! I’ve linked to you here: http://dollarstoremom.com/2011/09/pinterest-picks-12/
Thanks for sharing it, Breanna!
Great photos! I used your biscuit recipe with a home-made bisquick substitute I’d made awhile back. Delish! Thanks for posting.
Made your bisquick mix the other day and it worked perfectly! Thanks so much for posting!
can I halve the recipe? cause I dun need that much..
Absolutely! There shouldn’t be any reason why it couldn’t be halved.
Do you have a gluten free version of the homemade Bisquik?
I haven’t tried to make it gluten free yet. Someone else mentioned substituting brown rice flour, so you might give that a try. If you do, please let me know how it turns out!
For Chrissa. Gluten free.
http://www.tacanow.org/family-resources/gfcfsf-ingredients-and-substitutions/
For the 15 min biscuits, can you use buttermilk instead of milk?
Cathie, I’ve never tried it, but I think it would work. I’d just add about 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to the Bisquick mixture to counteract some of the acidity in the buttermilk. I’d love to hear how they turn out for you!