You’ve all waited so patiently…all of you who prefer the Nook, Kobo, Sony, or other eReaders over Kindle. And now your patience is being rewarded!
Make-Ahead Mix Day: Complete Instructions for On-Hand Homemade Quick Mixes is now available for the Nook and other popular eReaders! You can purchase now through Smashwords, and in the future on iTunes and other leading retailer’s sites (but it takes a bit for the book to show up in those places).
The best deal is now, though, through Smashwords where you can get my mason jar mix book for 20% off with this coupon code I’ve generated just for you loyal peeps!
Enter coupon code KL83E at checkout for 20% off until July 31st. That’s just about 2.39 for the book! My cup of coffee didn’t cost that much!
Feel free to spread the word and share the code – anyone is welcome to use it. Enjoy!
The paperback version has all of the same great mason jar mix recipes and also includes an appendix of copy-ready labels (two per page for each recipe). Just in time for Christmas, and Christmas jar mix gifts!
Just a quick note to share recent relevant articles and activity with all my readers here…
I recently had the honor of being welcomed as a guest writer on RuralMom.com. This site has lots in common to share with us here, and most recently has posted some excellent holiday gifting recommendations. Be sure to check them out, and add them to your list of follows!
It will help you make the most of your creations from Make-Ahead Mix Day this holiday season, complete with recommendations for the best recipes from the book for gift-giving.
Mason jar mixes are ideal for holiday gift-giving, especially when you have a long list of people to whom you care to show your appreciation. Gift jar mixes have the advantage of being affordable, appreciated, useful and attractive, all at the same time. They can fit the bill for a long line of gift recipients from coworkers to coaches, teachers, instructors, service providers, extended family members, and many more.
To be sure, having a variety of jar mix recipes to choose from is nice, but considering how busy and expensive the holidays can very easily get, it’s nice to have something a bit more versatile that can be worked up and packaged in short time, yet still deliver a number of excellent gift-giving options.
It’s All In How You Look At It
Take, for example, the homemade all-purpose baking mix in Make-Ahead Mix Day. This recipe requires a minimal amount of ingredients (a couple cups of shortening, a standard five-pound bag of flour, a bit of salt, sugar, and baking powder), but it yields better than five quarts; and it only takes about five minutes to do it. Cheap and easy. Exactly what the budgeting gift-giver needs. The thing is, this mix can be used in numerous ways. So while you might not really want to give someone a dressed-up jar of “all purpose baking mix”, you’ll feel good about giving a nice homemade “Country Quick Mix” or “Sunday Morning Waffle Mix” with a nice label and instructions attached.
If you take my meaning here, it’s all in the presentation and the suggestion. You’re still giving a great-tasting mix that you’ve put your own time, money, and effort into, but you’re giving it with style in a way you can afford.
You can search this site or the ‘net for different ideas and potential presentations, or go with one of your own favorite tried-and-true classics. Any recipe that uses Bisquick(R) or another biscuit or baking mix will work just fine with this recipe, so simply print the recipe to include with your festively-decorated jar mix (a nice parchment or holiday paper is a nice touch). To get the creative juices rolling, here is a list of ten great ways (in no particular order) to repackage this one simple mix and have a variety of gifting options:
Morning Pancake Mix (what busy Mom or Dad wouldn’t appreciate that?)..top it off with a half cup of chocolate chips or dehydrated fruit and now you have flavored pancakes, to boot.
The aforementioned “Sunday Morning Waffle Mix” (to which the same doctoring methods above apply)
Home Style Country Biscuit Mix
Quick & Tasty Cinnamon Roll Kit (gifted in a basket with a small jar of powdered sugar and nicely-tied baggie or small jar of cinnamon sugar)
Muffin Mix
Quick Bread Mix (with or without additions)
Scone Mix
Cornbread Mix (just add in the 6 TBSP of corn meal – especially nice with a bean mix for soup or chile)
Cupcake Mix
Tea-Time Coffee Cake Mix (throw in a sealed baggie with topping ingredients on top of the mix in the jar)
So you see with a little imagination giving a quality homemade gift does not have to be overly costly or time-consuming. You can feel good about giving gifts to everyone on your list without stressing yourself or breaking the budget.
You can find both an easy all-purpose baking mix suitable for these and many other recipes and a variety of other equally good jar mix recipes for Christmas gifts (or just healthier, more affordable pantry-stocking!) in Make-Ahead Mix Day: Complete Recipes and Instructions for On-Hand Homemade Quick Mixes. It’s available for Kindle and compatible eReader apps as well as in a downloadable PDF.
Be sure to Subscribe to The Homemade Homestead keep up with all the recipes and posts from The Homemade Homestead. You’ll get only updates from this site, and your information will not be sold!
Of course all the recipes are there ready to be printed, too, but the biggest advantage of the printable Companion PDF, and the sole reason it was designed and made available, is to deliver to you an easy-to-use set of labels for every homemade mix recipe in the book. When it comes time to actually use your mix and bake your goodies, you don’t want to have to go searching for the instructions.
Convenience is the first motivation behind the book, and convenience is what you have with your shelves stocked with wholesome, homemade baking mixes complete with labels and instructions. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll get!
These labels couldn’t be easier to use – just print them on your printer, trim the circle with any old pair of scissors (old school!?) and they will fit between the lid and the ring on two-piece canning jar lids. No need to glue them, and they if you save them when you use your mix you can use the same labels again and again.
Ready to buy the PDF? You’ll find all the Make-Ahead Mix Day purchasing options here:
The Companion PDF is ready and waiting for you! And because there was such a large amount of interest in a non-Kindle eBook version, I’ve also made a PDF version of the full book available. Everything is accessible via the Make-Ahead Mix Day page here on this site. All the details are on the page and everything is 99 cents during launch (prices will be climbing at some unknown point, so now’s your bargain!).
Please know that any and all feedback is appreciated, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on any version of the book, either in the comments below or via the contact page.
Yes the blog’s been quiet – apologies! But with good reason…I’ve been working on getting all my homemade baking mixes, those that I keep stocked up on-hand for week-night baking and morning meals (and more), into a book! It is available now on Kindle, and in the future will be available on other platforms as well, but for now we’re here and that’s a start!
This book is designed for ease-of-use and affordability. In it are 21 recipes for things like homemade cookie mixes (sugar, gingerbread, chocolate chip, peanut butter…), homemade brownie mix, instant oatmeal mix, muffin mixes, and homemade all purpose baking mix. Basically these are all the recipes I work up in an afternoon to stock up my pantry with preservative-free baking mixes for a month or more. Mason jars are my storage container of choice (they are the best!) and so the recipes are listed specifically for one- and two-quart mixes that come together quickly, store well, and taste great.
And A Bonus For You, Too!
Now here’s the deal – there is a printable companion PDF that is in the works and will be available for sale via my this site in the upcoming days. It is intended as an accompaniment to this book and a way to give you printable copies of the recipes and sets of labels to use when you prepare your jars that include the preparation (baking) instructions (very simple, no muss, no fuss).
BUT like I said, the PDF isn’t ready quite yet. So for your patience, if you download the full book before it is ready and follow the links at the end, you will be given a link that allows you to sign up for a FREE bonus copy of the PDF when it becomes available. Anyone on my subscription list before the PDF goes live will be emailed a copy of the PDF for free before I activate the sale module. After that time, it will be available for full price. So better to get while the getting’s good 😉
Call it Bisquick®, Jiffy® mix, biscuit mix, baking mix, or what have you, it all amounts to the same thing. The one thing all of these have in common is that they all represent a very basic pantry staple designed to speed dinners and baking and make our lives easier. In this harried day and age, we’re all for that, right!?
What we’re NOT all for is overpaying for our baking needs. Baking from scratch is, for sure, the cheapest and most wholesome way to go, and the easiest way to control what goes into your food. Unfortunately it’s not always the fastest or most convenient. And unfortunately we pay a lot for anything that is deemed convenient in the grocery stores. It makes it tough to balance a family budget.
So what if I told you you could make your own homemade Bisquick; you’re own all purpose baking mix that can be used for a range of recipes, meals and treats for a fraction of the cost and with an investment of only a few minutes of your time?
Honestly, once you learn how to make Bisquick on your own, you’re not likely to go back to overpaying for undersized boxes of the stuff in the store. I promise it’s not at all hard and it will not take you long. A big batch with this faked Bisquick recipe only takes about 20 minutes to make (and I’m being generous here–in 20 minutes you’ll have it mixed and packaged and be on to a nice batch of warm biscuits, ready for the honey and butter).
How To Make Bisquick ®
It’s not hard to find a baking mix recipe online or even in some cook books. I’ve been through a few goods ones but this is one I have tried, prefer, and know that it meets all my requirements for an all purpose baking mix:
It is affordable and cheaper than buying boxed mixes
It is simple to make
It requires few ingredients
It stores well
It is versatile and can be used to make many things (in future posts we’ll see just how versatile it can be–so do follow along and come back often!)
So without further ado here is my preferred recipe; print and use it well and often:
How to Make An Economical, Versatile Homemade All Purpose Baking Mix
Author: www.thehomemadehomestead.com
Recipe type: Make-Ahead Baking Mix
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 2 gallons of mix
Homemade Bisquick or all-purpose baking mix recipe that can be used to replace Bisquick (R), Jiffy Mix (R), pancake mix, or any other basic baking mix. Use for a variety of recipes and dishes (anywhere you would use Bisquick or anything similar!).
Ingredients
20 Cups All-Purpose Flour (equivalent to a 5 pound bag)
2 Tablespoons Salt
7 Tablespoons Sugar
⅔ Cup Baking Powder
2 Cups Lard or Shortening
Instructions
Combine and mix through all dry ingredients in a LARGE bowl (even a roasting pan works well, or large Tupperware--just leave yourself room to work).
Add lard (or shortening) to the mix.
Cut lard into the mix until thoroughly combined and you have only about pea-sized pieces of shortening throughout.
(This is not nearly as bad as it sounds like it would be to do; using a pastry cutter or mixing with clean hands works well; you could also do 2-3 cups of dry mix and about ½ cup of lard at a time in a food processor, pulsing to combine, then mix the final batch all together and stirring well to distribute).
Store in air-tight container and use as you would a brand-name baking mix.
3.2.1226
(*I use lard because it is stable at room temperature and I believe in using the most natural products I can, including animal fats. However, I’ve recently learned that only store-bought lard is shelf stable [because it is hydrogenated :(]. The “real thing”–lard rendered without manipulation or additives, mostly only available now if you render your own lard at home–is not shelf-stable. You can still use it and I will do so as soon as I’ve made a batch of my own homemade rendered lard [coming soon!]; but I will keep the mix in the refrigerator and freeze any extra. Vegetable shortening could also be used and will make the mix shelf-stable at room temperature. Just remember that if you use a fat/shortening that normally requires refrigeration [like butter], your mix will need refrigeration as well.)
And that, folks, is all there is to it. Once done simply store in a sealed container (I usually use half-gallon mason jars [Half Gallon Wide Mouth Canning Jar (Set of 6)]
or a large Tupperware cereal container [Rubbermaid Home 1777195 Cereal Keeper]). Store as usual and use at the same measurement for any recipe that calls for Bisquick, all purpose baking mix, biscuit mix, etc. And do keep coming back as I’ll be sharing some great recipes for this mix in the future!
(Bisquick® is, of course, a name-brand and is a registered trademark of the General Mills company.)
Make-Ahead Mix Day: Complete Instructions for On-Hand Homemade Quick Mixes is now available for the Nook and other popular eReaders! You can purchase now through Smashwords, and in the future on iTunes and other leading retailer’s sites (but it takes a bit for the book to show up in those places).
on Amazon.com in paperback, too!
