Bisquick facts for kids
 |
|
| Type | Baking mix, pancake |
|---|---|
| Inventor | Carl Smith |
| Inception | 1931 |
| Manufacturer | General Mills |
| Website | Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 168: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
Bisquick is a super handy pre-mixed baking ingredient that helps you make delicious treats quickly! It's sold by General Mills under their Betty Crocker brand. Think of it as a shortcut in a box, already containing flour, shortening (a type of fat), salt, sugar, and baking powder. Baking powder is a special ingredient that makes your baked goods light and fluffy.
How Bisquick Was Invented
The story of Bisquick began in 1930. A sales executive from General Mills was on a train trip. He met a talented chef in the train's dining car who made amazing fresh biscuits. The executive was so impressed that he asked the chef for his secret!
The chef explained that he had a clever trick. He prepared a special mix of lard (another type of fat), flour, baking powder, and salt ahead of time. He kept this mix on ice, so he could quickly bake fresh biscuits for passengers every day.
As soon as the sales executive returned from his trip, he worked to create a similar product. The new recipe used hydrogenated oil instead of lard. This was a big improvement because it meant the mix didn't need to be kept cold! Bisquick was officially launched and appeared on store shelves in 1931.
At first, Bisquick was mainly advertised for making biscuits quickly. The slogan was "90 seconds from package to oven!" But soon, people discovered it could be used for many other yummy things. You can use it to make pizza dough, pancakes, dumplings, and even snickerdoodle cookies!
Making Your Own Bisquick Mix
If you don't have Bisquick, you can make a similar mix at home! For every cup of Bisquick needed, you can use:
- One cup of regular flour
- 1+1⁄2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt
- 2+1⁄2 tablespoons of oil or melted butter. You can also use 2+1⁄2 tablespoons of Crisco or lard, cut into the flour mixture.
What's Inside Bisquick?
The original Bisquick mix contains several ingredients that work together to make baking easy:
- Bleached wheat flour: This is the main ingredient, enriched with important vitamins like niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid.
- Corn starch and dextrose: These are types of sugars.
- Palm oil and canola oil: These are fats that help make baked goods tender.
- Leavening agents: These are ingredients like baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, and monocalcium phosphate. They create gas bubbles that make your baked goods rise and become fluffy.
- Salt and sugar: For flavor.
- DATEM and distilled monoglycerides: These are ingredients that help mix everything together smoothly and keep the product fresh.
Bisquick also has special versions! There's Bisquick Heart Smart, which uses canola oil to have less saturated fat and no trans fat. There's also a gluten-free version, which uses rice flour instead of wheat flour, so people who can't eat gluten can enjoy it too.
