Food

Save Time and Pre-Make Your Own Biscuit Mix

September 13, 2011 / 13 Comments

Using a Master Mix is a way to save yourself time in the kitchen when it’s time to cook something tasty for the kids, the whole family or even just you and your husband.

Biscuit Mix

 

Biscuits and gravy are one of my family’s favorite breakfast meals but for me, my least favorite part is mixing up the biscuit batter.  Well, not really that but the part where you take the pastry blender and cut the butter into very small pieces.  That’s my dread.

But what if I could make a mix that would potentially be enough for my family to have biscuits 3-4 times?  The way you can do that is to make a master mix, consisting of all your dry ingredients, and then later you add your water or milk.

I found the original Master Mix in the cookbook Make-A-Mix Cookery  (can be found on Amazon) and then modified the ingredients to use 100% whole wheat pastry flour and butter instead of shortening.

I realize that to be ultra-healthy you really should grind your flour and consume it within 24 hours but I really do like streamlining things once in a while.  This mix would be a great recipe to add to your once-a-month cooking plan for breakfast, too.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t got around to doing a bulk cooking day for breakfasts.  I started (do I hear cheering?! 🙂 ) – I made egg burritos and some egg cups but that’s as far as I got.

I’ve included 2 Master Mix recipes below.  The first one is for a smaller family of 4-5 and the second recipe is for a family of 8.

By the way, this is for Drop Biscuits!

Here is my slightly adapted recipe for a Master Mix for a family of 4-5.

Ingredients:

8 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tablespoons baking powder

1 T salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups instant dry milk

2 1/4 cups butter

When you are finished you will have 12 cups of Master Mix.

Directions:

In a large bowl, stir together all ingredients – except for the butter.  After mixing well, cut in butter with a pastry blender till the pieces become very small (smaller than a pea).  Place in an airtight container.  Label and then store in your refrigerator or freezer.

Baking Your Drop Biscuits

To make your biscuits, you will simply need 3 cups of the Master Mix to 3/4 cup milk or water.

Preheat your oven to 450°.  Grease a baking sheet.  Combine your mix and milk or water together.  Stir till just blended.  Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Makes 6 large biscuits.

 

For my family of 8, here are the quantities I would make of the Master Mix in order to feed them biscuits 3 times.

Remember I have 4 teenagers – 3 of them boys, so my family may consume more food than yours.  You can always use the master mix over a longer amount of time than I do, if you should choose to make this quantity.

If the amounts below look intimidating, after you mix everything together, you can store the mix in gallon size Ziploc bags instead of large containers.

Master Mix for a Family of 8

Ingredients:

25 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

6 Tablespoons baking powder

3 Tablespoons salt

6 teaspoons cream of tartar

3 teaspoons baking soda

4 1/2 cups dry milk

6 3/4 cups butter

Directions:

In a large bowl, stir together all ingredients – except for the butter.  After mixing well, cut in butter with a pastry blender till the pieces become very small (smaller than a pea).  Place in an airtight container.  Label and then store in your refrigerator or freezer.

Baking Your Drop Biscuits

To make your biscuits, you will simply need 3 cups of the Master Mix to 3/4 cup milk or water.

Preheat your oven to 450°.  Grease a baking sheet.  Combine your mix and milk or water together.  Stir till just blended.  Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Joining up with The Homestead Barn Hop #28

Kelly the Kitchen Kop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 Comments

    • Elisabeth

      September 14, 2011 at 6:22 am Reply

      Martha,

      I have never tried a blender but yes, you can use your food processor. The key to using the food processor is to not let it get over mixed. Just use your pulse button until it’s the right consistency. You will probably have to do this in separate batches, otherwise the container gets too full and the flour with butter will get over mixed. It’s sort of hard to explain what I mean by over mixed but I’ll try. 🙂 If it’s over mixed the butter will no longer be small pieces but will have incorporated itself into the flour.

  • Diana

    September 21, 2011 at 8:20 am Reply

    I use extra light olive oil and mix it with the milk/buttermilk and then mix it in the flour. My mom’s family is from the South and this is what they did every morning when they made breakfast biscuits and gravy, only they used vegetable oil. Works beautifully.

      • Diana

        September 21, 2011 at 11:18 am Reply

        I use the same amount of fat that is called for in the recipe. The recipe I use calls for 1/3 cup of fat to 2 cups of all-purpose flour. So I use 1/3 cup oil. If I am using flax meal, and I usually do(2 heaping tablespoons), I use much less fat – less than half. I usually make a half recipe when I make biscuits and I don’t really measure. I just pour in what I think is a tablespoon or so right into the buttermilk. I give it a stir and dump it in. I hope this makes it a little more clear. My southern relatives never measured anything but I am not that good!

        • Elisabeth

          September 21, 2011 at 9:43 pm Reply

          Thanks, Diana. I’ll try this. My dad makes biscuits without a recipe, too, but not me. I’m a faithful follower of the recipe. lol

    • Elisabeth

      September 21, 2011 at 9:39 pm Reply

      The gravy I use for breakfast is white. There is the darker gravy that is made from the juice of meat and is usually used just for dinners. I have a great white gravy recipe if you would like to try it.

  • Lucille

    October 21, 2011 at 11:27 am Reply

    Lauren told me about this idea and so just now getting to read on it. I have been wanting to do this for my biscuits and my pancakes because everyday is different amount of people to cook for because of different schedules, guests, etc and would like to figure out how to take previously prepared mixes, frozen and then have a ratio of liquids per cup of solid for the amount of people I am cooking for. I believe I will try your recipe and then figure the liquids per cup from there. Love your blogging and can’t wait to catch up on the rest of the reading. You do a lovely job and love the photos, etc.

I love hearing from you! Thank you for taking the time to comment.