Bisquick From Scratch?

Almost without fail I am that person who must bake everything from scratch.  There will be no cake mixes, no muffin boxes, no icing tubs in my kitchen.  Almost.  You see, long ago in the confines of a college apartment kitchen I threw a pot of soup on the stove, realized I desperately needed warm biscuits to go with it and my addiction to Bisquick was born.  Granted it always was my exception to the no boxed mixes ever rule for the ease with which pancakes and waffles are made on those too sleepy to function mornings but the biscuits.  Oh my goodness those biscuits.  Yet, there was still a part of me that cringed every time I took the box down, a part of me that thought, it can't be that hard to make this mix from scratch, to save all that money spent on a boxed mix.  I have problems.  Feel free to point and laugh.  But here it is, most humbly borrowed from Fake-It Frugal.  As The Husband humorously refers to it:

Get your ingredients out and the absolutely largest bowl you have on hand.  I mean it, the biggest!

Throw absolutely everything into the bowl EXCEPT the Crisco and have a whisking party

Add the Crisco, my least favorite part...

...and mix with your hands.  The end consistency should look like this.  Be sure to have gotten any lumps of Crisco out by rubbing them between your fingers.

Yes, the kitchen may look like this afterwards.  That's ok.

There you have it, in all it's glory!  A half batch fills this  4.5 qt container about 2/3 full.

It really is pretty fast to put together and you get about the equivalent of 3 boxes of Bisquick.  I've found it helpful to have the recipes from the original mix taped to this container one one side and the recipe for the mix on the other so I never have to go hunting.  Oh and a fun fact for those who like making biscuits but don't necessarily want to have lots leftover to tempt you with snacking, if you half the recipe you get just enough for 4 glorious biscuits. :)

Recipe:
1 5 lb bag of flour (5 lb=18 C)
5 tsp salt
20 tsp sugar
2/3 C baking powder
2 C shortening (cannot use butter, must be Crisco so that it can be stored in the pantry without going bad)

• Whisk all dry ingredients together
• Mix shortening in by hand until no visible pieces are left
• When mixed completely the consistency should be that of cornmeal and you should be able to form a ball

Thanks for reading and happy baking!