Baking in my kitchen: Homemade Bisquick, cinnamon rolls, and coffee cake

Greetings on a cold January day! This time of year I have always loved to spend an afternoon in my kitchen and bake, bake, bake! I have loved to bake ever since I was a little girl, and even today baking is one of my favorite ways to de-stress. When I was working full time with 3 young children while my husband was in seminary, I used to come home from working all day and bake something. My co-workers thought I was crazy, but baking is relaxing for me and it's fun to share the product! Last summer I was diagnosed as having a gluten sensitivity, so sadly I have really cut back on my baking, since it is just my hubby and myself at home. At Christmas and New Years when we had a house full of our adult children and young grandchildren, I did plenty of baking and loved every minute of it! I normally bake from scratch, but I do have some great recipes which call for Bisquick as a short-cut. One morning after Christmas, I went to make our family's favorite cinnamon rolls, which happen to be made with Bisquick, and I discovered I didn't have any. After some on-line investigating, I found this recipe for homemade Bisquick so I tried it... and it was wonderful! Seriously, I will probably never buy Bisquick again now that I know how easy it is to make. Here is the basic recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 cup of cold butter or shortening

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.  Cut in the butter or shortening until mixture resemble fine crumbs. That's it. You can double or triple this recipe and keep it on hand - it stores in the refrigerator for 4 months. Use it to make biscuits, pancakes, and anything you would make using Bisquick. Note to my gluten-free friends: I plan to try replacing the all-purpose flour with gluten-free flour (the 1-1 kind that you can substitute cup for cup). I'll let you know how that turns out!

Now for my favorite recipe that uses Bisquick: Cinnamon Rolls. These cinnamon rolls are different from your usual yeasty cinnamon rolls. They are smaller, dense, flaky and delicious. They are copied from a couple restaurants where we lived in Illinois who made them locally famous.

Cinnamon rolls
1 package dry yeast
1/4 c. warm water
3 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/2 c. cold water
1 stick margarine or butter, melted
2 cups sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Combine Bisquick, cold water and yeast mixture in a large bowl. Stir with fork until soft dough forms. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl and set aside. Divide dough into 4 equal balls. Roll first ball into a 9x12 rectangle. Brush with a good amount of melted margarine and sprinkle generously with the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up and place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the other 3 balls, placing them on baking sheet with sides touching. They will look like this:

Pour all the leftover margarine over the top, and cover with all the leftover sugar/cinnamon mixture. Using a serrated knife, cut between the logs horizontally, and then make 5 even vertical cuts through them. They will look like this:

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Makes 24 yummy rolls.

Since I gave you the Bisquick recipe, here is another great and easy recipe: Cranberry coffee cake. This is good for using up leftover cranberry sauce!

2 cups Bisquick baking mix

2 T. sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

2/3 cup jellied cranberry sauce

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional

Glaze:

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 T. milk

1/4 tsp. vanilla.

Mix the Bisquick, sugar, milk and egg in a bowl. Pour into greased square baking dish. Drop cranberry sauce by spoonfuls over the batter. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over all. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Cool. Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over. Makes 9 servings.

Am I making you hungry yet? Hope these inspire you to get busy in your kitchen! 

Happy baking,

Kathi