Coffee Cake Basic Baking Mix Recipe

Quick and easy, this coffee cake can be in the oven in under 10 minutes. It's ideal for those times when you need a last minute addition to a meal or when you need something to take to a potluck. 

Feel free to experiment. Add nuts, sunflower seeds, switch out the vanilla for almond, lemon or rum flavouring. Use caramel sauce instead of jam. The recipe is meant to be a basic canvas for you to work with -- enjoy the bit of sweet. 


Ingredients

Dough
• 2 cups Bisquick or use our “Homemade Biscuit Mix”
• 2/3 cup water or 2/3 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Jam – several teaspoons to dot the top of the cake (optional)

Topping  (or use our “Strudel Topping Mix” )
• 1/3 cup “Homemade Biscuit Mix”
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Grease a deep pie plate or 8"x8" square pan with Baking Release. 
3. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. 
4. Mix water, egg and vanilla together in a cup. Pour into dry ingredients. Mix by hand until ingredients are just incorporated. It will be a fairly stiff dough. Spread in baking dish.
5. Optional step: dot top of dough with a few teaspoons of jam 
6. Mix topping ingredients with a fork or pastry mixer until crumbly or use our Strudel topping mix (about 1-1/2 cups) 
7. Spread topping mix over dough and drag a butter knife through it like you were making a tic-tac-toe board several times. This will swirl the topping and the jam (if used) into the cake dough. 
8. Bake for 25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes clean.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out on a serving plate. 

Garlic Cheddar Drop Biscuits

Image courtesy Creative Commons 

These quick and easy drop biscuits make a perfect accompaniment to a chili or chowder. This is a copy cat recipe for the Red Lobster restaurant chain's biscuits. The secret to them is the extra butter added to the baking mix. It adds a lightness to them that is particularly good. Freezing the butter makes it possible to grate into the biscuit mix and it's much faster than cutting it in using other methods, such as a pastry cutter. Additionally, the butter pieces remain separate until they melt in the oven, making the biscuit even lighter in texture.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups Homemade baking mix or a commercial brand such as Bisquick.
• 4 tablespoons cold butter
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 3/4 cup cold milk
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning (optional)

Brush on top

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (not salt)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1 pinch salt

Directions

1. Put the butter into the freezer for 15 minutes so it can get really cold (frozen even).
2. Grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to 400°F.
4. Grate the frozen butter into the baking mix and combine lightly. There should be small chunks of butter about the size of peas. Add cheese and garlic powder
5. Add milk and quickly combine by hand. Don’t over mix.
6. Drop 9 equal portions onto greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until tops are light brown.
8. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a bowl. Stir in 1/2 tsp garlic powder and parsley flakes.
9. As soon as they come out of the oven, use a pastry brush to spread garlic butter over the biscuit tops. 

Home Made Baking Mix -- Like Bisquick

Ingredients

• 6 cups all purpose flour 
• 3 Tablespoons baking powder 
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 cup shortening 

Directions: 

1. In a medium sized bowl, add flour, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk, mix the ingredients thoroughly.

2. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the shortening until it is in small pieces. If you don't have a pastry cutter, use two butter knives and pull them across the contents of the bowl in opposite directions to cut the shortening into very fine pieces.

3. Store in an airtight container.