My mother always baked from scratch.
And did she ever love to bake: cakes, pies, cobblers, fruit dumplings, drop biscuits, rolled biscuits, shortbread, gingerbread. You name it, she could, and did, bake it.
From scratch. Uless it was pancakes.
There always seemed to be a box of Bisquick in the cupboard as I was growing up and so far as I can remember, she always made pancakes with it. I haven't a clue why. Maybe my sisters can shed some light on the mystery.
At any rate, so did I, make pancakes from Bisquick, until, somewhere in my twenties, I found a recipe for scratch pancakes in a very old Better Homes and Gardens cook book and learned that they didn't have to be salty.
Since that light-bulb day, I've not used Bisquick or any pre-mixed biscuit mix. Ever. Not only because of the high salt content of the mix, but especially because of the load of trans-fats it packs.
So I've been faced with a bit of a dilemma: I wanted to participate in my blogger friend Mimi's Biscuit Baking Mix Day to show my support for her event and the reason behind it, but I HATE biscuit mixes, salty Bisquick in particular.
Well wouldn't you know, while shopping yesterday, with no intention whatsoever of picking up a box biscuit mix, I spied Bisquick Heart Smart Baking Mix. Intrigued, I found that no trans-fats lurk within this mix and the sodium content seems to be within reasonable limits.
You got it - into my cart, home to my kitchen and now, into what I think is a quite respectable (for having come out of a box) and tasty down home berry cobbler.
Whodathunk?
Going through my old yellow recipe box, I found a recipe card that my mother must have clipped from the back of a box of Bisquick (more mystery). So not only have I used Bisquick in my recipe, I adapted one of their own recipes to do it. What a hoot.
Now before you go thinking I'm going to start baking with biscuit mixes, think again. This is a one-time deal.
Wel l l l l, maybe I'll try some pancakes. Mr. CC would like that.
Mimi, my friend, this one's for you.
Blackberry Cobbler
Adapted by Christine from a General Mills Peach Cobble-up recipe
Ingredients:
For the batter:
2 cups Heart Smart Bisquick baking mix
2/3 cups milk
1 tablespoon Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (or 2 tablespoons brown sugar)
2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
For the fruit:
3 1/2 cups blackberries, frozen (Mine were from last Fall's harvest)
2 tablespoons Pomegranates au Merlot sauce
1/4 cup Splenda granular (or 1/4 cup regular sugar)
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
Fruit:
Place the berries in a large saucepan over medium low heat.
Stir in the pomegranate-merlot sauce, Splenda and lemon juice until fully blended.
Keep over low heat until the berries soften and juice forms in the pan. (I ended up with 2/3 cup of juice, 1 cup would be better.)
Remove from heat and set aside.
Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir with a spoon until fully mixed. The batter will be a bit on the stiff side.
Place batter in a buttered 8x8-inch dish.
Using a slotted spoon, place the berries on top of the batter.
Slowly pour the berry juice mixture over the top of it all and place the pan in a 400-degree oven for about 30 minutes, or a 350-degree oven for 40 minutes, or until the top springs back when pressed with your finger. (The recipe said to bake it in a 400-degree oven for 40 minutes, but that was too long.)
Serve warm or at room temperature. A scoop of good vanilla ice cream would be nice.
Did I like it?
Yup.
Copyright 2005-2007, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved. No content from this site, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in part or in full, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the administrator/owner.
