Copycat Bisquick Baking Mix with a Fabulous Coffee Cake Recipe

In 1988, I was already a foodie, although not a well known concept at the time, and I joined a fledgling online group (the internet still in its infancy) known as Homearts (long defunct) and it was a group looking for easy and simple recipes that were tasty and quick to put together as well as homemade dry mixes.

In this group was a woman named Janice Trevail who generously shared her recipes for homemade biscuit/pancake/cake/pies etc. with anyone on the group who sent her their email. I promptly did so and she graciously sent me the recipes. She lived on a farm and I lived (already then) in Jerusalem but camaraderie of food bound us together. I never met her and don’t know where she is today but thanks Janice, I kept the recipes and to this day make your mix. I especially liked it since she didn’t use non-fat dry milk in the recipe and since I’m often making dairy free foods, it is great for me.

The basic recipe makes a large amount which can be halved easily but it’s so useful, you might wanna just make the whole thing. I’ve made this both in a mixer and a food processor and I gotta tell you, food processor trumps mixer with this one but you can definitely use it if you haven’t got the processor. It simply works within seconds and you can be on your way to making all kindsa goodies. This works in pancakes, biscuits, pies and endless other things, which I will post another time but back to the initial recipe and the coffee cake born of it.

This is altogether 4 ingredients. So, place in your food processor the flour, baking powder and the salt.

Give it a whirl just till combined. Then, take your margarine and cut into cubes. Place into processor bowl.

Even if the marg sticks together a bit, cubing it incorporates it faster. Then pulse on and off just till the mixture looks crumbly like this:

As you see, these are smallish crumbs. As it should be. By the way, I make half the mixture at a time. If you wish to make the whole lot, you just make the first half and straight after in the processor since the machine stays clean enough to do so, make the second half.

Now, at this point, you can store your mixture in an airtight container in the freezer. It’ll keep for months that way. However, we are making coffee cake with it so, onward!

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Make your streusel topping first, this way you don’t have to clean the processor in the middle. The crumbs of the streusel don’t mess up the bowl either so you can carry on.

So put in the processor the baking mix, cinnamon and brown sugar and give it a whirl.

If you wish to add nuts, now’s the time. I like walnuts in this.

Whirl it together briefly till chopped and then add the marg. Pulse briefly. It should look like this.

Nice big crumbs, a bit softish. That’s correct. Place in a bowl and now to the cake part.

Using your baking mix in the processor, add the sugar, milk and eggs and combine with a quick whirl. But really really quick on off pulses just till smooth.

If it’s a bit lumpy and you see little pieces of marg, no worries, that’s fine. Whatever you do, don’t overprocess it or it’ll be a tough cake. Take a spatula and scrape all about to make sure it’s combined and pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan.

Take your reserved topping and sprinkle all over the top of the cake and very very gently press down into top of cake – just a tiny bit.

Bake in hot oven for 35-40 minutes till browned and a wooden toothpick comes out clean with a crumb or two sticking to it. The topping of the streusel is a soft one, not crispy. Melt in your mouth.

Copycat Bisquick Baking Mix

9 cups flour
1 tablespoon salt
1/3 cup baking powder (6 tablespoons)
2 cups crisco/margarine, and cubed (I haven’t used the Crisco in years, I sub margarine and it works beautifully)

In a food processor, put in flour, salt and baking powder and whirl a sec to mix. Then add the cubed margarine. Whirl all together till crumbly and marg is cut into small bits throughout the flour mixture.

Now you have the basic baking mix which you can store in the freezer where it keeps nicely for a long time or use it right away.

Fabulous Coffee Cake

Streusel Topping

2/3 cup homemade biscuit mix
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts (optional but delicious)
4 tablespoons butter/margarine, softened

Cake

4 cups homemade biscuit mix
1 1/3 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

First prepare the streusel mix so you won’t have to clean the processor in the middle. Mix together the biscuit mix, cinnamon and brown sugar with a whirl. At this point, if you wish to add nuts, now’s the time. Chop. Then add the softened margarine and pulse till crumbs form, briefly. The crumbs are fairly soft. Put aside in a bowl.

Now make the cake batter- put the biscuit mix, sugar, milk and eggs in the food processor and pulse on and off just until mixed. If a drop lumpy, no worries. Use a spatula to scrape all around and make sure nothing lurks on the bottom of the bowl. Pile the fairly thick batter in a greased 9″ x 13″ pan, smoothing it out all around and into the corners.
Sprinkle with streusel topping and very gently press crumbs just a tiny bit into batter, don’t sink them.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until browned and a toothpick comes out clean.