DIY Gluten Free Bisquick (Allergy Friendly)

I've been messing with the idea of making my own Gluten Free Bisquick for a while (especially when you see the price attached to one box and a recipe of biscuits pretty much wipes out the box).  So, I went online and searched a LOT looking for a DIY Gluten Free Bisquick recipe.  Unfortunately for me the ONLY one I could find was the one I linked to ages ago (see the gluten free section of the blog to find that recipe).  But, the recipe had a lot of ingredients I plain don't have and after spending a good 100.00 or more on Amazon picking up corn, peanut and coconut free ingredients for things (among other stuff like a blender), I sure didn't want to have to shell out another twenty to thirty bucks for ingredients to make Bisquick.

So, I spent most of the day in the kitchen trying to concoct a Gluten Free Bisquick recipe that worked okay, but also that didn't contain a lot of stuff added (like dried buttermilk powder) to be more allergen friendly.  So, after one batch that came out tasting REALLY nasty (yeah, don't ask), one batch that was okay and one that was fair, I finally decided to drop the oil out of the recipe (to make it more like Gluten Free Bisquick compared to traditional Bisquick) and the recipe worked a lot better without me having to add a lot of different "stuff" to make it work better.  I really think that making it so you add your own oil, while making it harder to use it with traditional Bisquick recipes, makes it easier to work with.  I can sort of understand why Bisquick made the formula they did for gluten free Bisquick now, honestly.

This by no means is an opus recipe folks.  If anyone can improve on this I not only encourage you, I beg you to do so :).  As I've said there is only ONE other recipe out there for DIY Gluten Free Bisquick and this is the only one (right now) that doesn't contain specialty ingredients.  Also, allow yourself some wiggle room with this.  Depending what flours you use, you might end up having to add more liquid (coconut flour for instance) while almond meal would give you a different texture (denser) than say millet flour in your baked goods.  So, give yourself some room to play as you are baking.  If it looks off when you put the recipe together add more baking mix or more liquid (I usually mess with the milk part of the recipe for simplicity's sake) until it comes together right.  I didn't really have issues with that, but it really will depend on the flours you use.

So, here you are folks.  One Gluten Free Bisquick recipe.  I tried this out on pancakes, muffins and drop biscuits (all seen above).  Pancakes, by far, were my favorite (just because I was in the mood for pancakes), followed by the drop biscuits and finally followed up by the muffins (but I've always had that problem with regular Bisquick when I'd make it into muffins, so I'm not holding it against the recipe *laugh*.  I followed a recipe I found online to use using GF Bisquick and the muffins just weren't sweet enough).


Homemade Bisquick/Master Mix Recipe

Ingredients:

• 6 Cups, total, flours of choice (For this experiment I did,  2 Cups Brown Rice Flour, 2 cups Sweet White Rice Flour and 2 Cups Millet Flour.  I'd normally have done almond meal in place of the white rice flour, but I'm waiting for my peanut free almond meal to come in the mail.  I want my son to be able to eat the stuff I make :)
• 2/3  Cups Starch of choice (I used tapioca starch.  Potato starch, if you can tolerate it, would be better here, I think, but I was almost out)
• 1 TBS Xanthum Gum or Guar Gum
• 3 TBS baking powder
• 1 TBS salt
• 1/4 cup sugar of choice (yes, sugar.  It adds a little something to the mix.  Just trust me on this.  At least it's not the second ingredient in the recipe like in the REAL Gluten Free Bisquick right?)

Directions:

1.  Measure ingredients and place in large bowl.  Whisk all ingredients well to combine.  Store in airtight container.

2.  Use as you would Gluten Free Bisquick (not traditional Bisquick as Gluten Free Bisquick doesn't contain solid fats like the original Bisquick does)

Here's a couple of recipes to get your feet wet...

Pancakes

• 1 Cup GF Master Mix
• 1 Cup Milk
• 2 TBS oil of choice
• 1 egg

Prepare as you would regular pancakes.

 And here's another one...

Biscuits

• 2 Cups GF Master Mix
• 1/3 Cup Shortening or solid fat
• 2/3 cup milk
• 3 eggs

1.  Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

2.  Cut shortening into mix, using fork or tips of fingers, until the particles in mixture are the size of small peas.  Stir in remaining ingredients until soft dough forms.

3.  Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

4.  Bake 13 to 16 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 10 biscuits.

Enjoy folks and I hope some of you can take this, spin it, and make some truly mind blowing awesome mix out of it!  If you do, though, please promise to e-mail me and share *laugh*.