Mixed Review: Bisquick Shake 'n' Pour Pancakes
"No eggs, no buttermilk, no baking powder. How simple is that?"
If you missed Sarah Karnasiewicz's excellent piece in Salon last month on preserving, it's worth going back to read. Like Sarah, I was also bitten by the jamming bug this season. But while Sarah made a transcendent batch of Kentucky bourbon strawberry jam, I was less successful.
My strawberry-port jam was more like strawberry-port soup. It tasted intensely fruity and addictively sweet, but there was no way it would ever adhere to a piece of toast—not even one that had already been slicked with sticky peanut butter.
There was only one thing to do: when life gives you six jars of runny jam, you make lots of pancakes.
Since I had already spent two long, sweaty hours in the kitchen laboring over my failed jam, I wanted something quick, straightforward, and uncomplicated. The easiest pancake mix on the market right now is Bisquick's Shake 'n Pour ($1.99). All you need to do is add 2/3 cup of water to the carton, shake vigorously, and then pour the batter into a hot skillet. No eggs, no buttermilk, no baking powder. How simple is that?
I preheated my trusty nonstick pan and added the water to the Bisquick mix. After 30 seconds of vigorous shaking, the instructions suggested whacking the bottle on a tabletop to loosen the stubborn bits of dry mix at the bottom. I tried this method, but through the bright yellow plastic I could still see pockets of unincorporated mix. I banged it around a few more times, then gave up and mixed the batter with a fork until it was smooth.
I poured three puddles into the skillet. The batter was quite thin and it began to bubble at the center almost immediately. (As I child, I remember my mother reminding me to be patient and wait—it seemed like forever—before flipping the cooking pancakes.) These Bisquick pancakes cooked in less than one minute per side.
I made six large pancakes, piling them high on a plate as I went. Then I topped them with a big pat of butter and poured about half a jar of my jam-syrup on top. Yum. It looked like a pretty good breakfast. The pancakes weren't quite as fluffy and thick as homemade versions, but they were pleasingly golden and smelled sweetly of warm dough.
The tasted pretty good, too. I was worried the flavor would be overwhelmingly artificial, but they were surprisingly light and fresh. If I hadn't made them myself, I never would have known they were prepared with water in place of milk.
Texture-wise, the pancakes were consistent and springy. I was, however, a little disappointed by how thin they were. I like my pancakes thick as couch cushions, the better to absorb all that butter and syrup. In the end, I would say the Bisquick Shake 'n Pour Mix is good enough to eat in a pinch, or alongside scrambled eggs and bacon, but I wouldn't prepare them for a leisurely Sunday brunch or as a stand-alone breakfast dish.
About the author: Lucy Baker is a freelance food writer and the author of the forthcoming cookbook, The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets.
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20 Comments:
Put the runny jam on the toast first, then the peanut butter.
gb944 at 10:09AM on 08/07/09
I love pancakes and I am not embarrassed (ok maybe a little embarrassed) to admit that I can't tell the difference between Bisquick pancakes and homemade pancakes.
emgroff at 10:14AM on 08/07/09
Bisquick Shake 'n Pour Mix is a godsend when camping. I've never actually used it at home, though.
toad3000 at 10:15AM on 08/07/09
lol @toad300 I was just thinking that camping was the only time I could imagine using that!
I think if you can't tell the difference between homemade pancakes and Bisquick maybe you haven't had very good homemade pancakes. Bisquick tastes of chemicals and chalk, homemade tastes of vanilla and tangy buttermilk.
jenh718 at 10:20AM on 08/07/09
No eggs, no buttermilk, no baking powder. How simple is that?
How delicious is that? Not very.
Pancakes are so incredibly easy and cheap, why would you make them out of some mix in a plastic bottle?! I just made pancakes for two this morning, here's the recipe. They're whole wheat and delicious.
Wet (whisk these together in a small bowl, I find they mix better if you whisk the egg a little first and then add the butter, the egg and butter together are mostly fat and will incorporate better than if you add everything together at once)
1 egg
1.5 tbs butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
0.75 cup buttermilk
Dry (whisk these together in a bowl big enough to hold everything. If you like, use 0.75 cup AP flour instead of wheat flour and bran)
0.5 cup whole wheat flour
0.25 cup wheat bran
0.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
couple pinches salt
nutmeg (around 0.25 tsp fresh grated, you can use less or leave it out)
Then just whisk the wet stuff into the dry stuff (just until the two are incorporated, you don't want to make them tough) and pour on the griddle. It takes all of like 7 minutes from ingredients on the counter to pouring them on the griddle.
Buckethead at 10:40AM on 08/07/09
Not as simple or as easy as this:
http://www.batterblaster.com/
Definitely not as scary either.
shoneyjoe at 10:44AM on 08/07/09
While we make homemade pancakes every Saturday, as far as mixes go, Krusteaz is the best. You can buy it at Sam's Club and we used it at the restaurant, just doctored it up a bit!
sherrycakes at 10:45AM on 08/07/09
Ohhh, I made these at a tailgate party one time, and they were a huge hit. My secret - I used beer instead of water. They were awesome, and the perfect tailgate breakfast!
o2cgirl at 11:13AM on 08/07/09
Having tried Shake 'n' Pour, I think Batter Blaster is best for disturbingly convenient, palatable pancakes.
As for why people use this stuff instead of making batter from scratch, for me it's not the preparation time that's the pain in the ass, but the cleanup. After eating a gigantic stack of pancakes, the last thing I feel like doing is washing a mixing bowl, whisk, measuring cup and measuring spoons.
I'll take less-than-perfect pancakes in exchange for the exquisite pleasure of eating pancakes and then going straight back to bed!
Pants McCracky at 11:16AM on 08/07/09
personally, the whole concept of this product offends me. the plastic container is virtually empty to hold the water you add to it. aren't we trending away from plastic bottles? this kind of thinking is taking things in the very wrong direction.
justcook at 11:21AM on 08/07/09
okay, i don't take issue with using the mix (i think you all know how it annoys me when people rail at this feature for using a mix, when the point of this feature is to review mixes), but the one-time use of the bottle seems super wasteful to even me, who is hardly what i would call a dedicated recycler. surely the same mix comes in a box from which you can make multiple batches using a bowl and a spoon to mix it. my two cents.
carriebwc at 11:22AM on 08/07/09
I thought this was such a nifty item when I ran into it a couple of years ago, that I immediately bought it, showed my friends, and then made some p-cakes. To my tooth, the p-cakes weren't very good---so that was quite a disappointment. I don't think I bought the Bisquick brand though, so maybe I'll have to give it a try. Still love the idea of it--- no mixing bowls or clean up of any kind---my kind of breakfast.
joerob7 at 12:42PM on 08/07/09
Batter blaster is great, dairy free too.
nitsuj at 12:49PM on 08/07/09
When life gives you runny jam....make runny jam-ade? I was totally curious how the story about jam was going to lead to making pancakes. It would probably be usable as pie filling if you thickened it with like cornstarch or something.
PS. Thanks for missing the point of the column, buckethead.
wunami at 1:58PM on 08/07/09
I got the point, I just don't agree with it. Personally, when I "spent two long, sweaty hours in the kitchen laboring over my failed jam" (which I did once), I would rather spend a few extra minutes and spread it over something worth eating than pour it over prefab pancakes.
Buckethead at 2:41PM on 08/07/09
Hmm. Sounds like they were better than I thought. Though lately I've been making yeast pancakes- from this vegan version, even though I'm not vegan. Yum!
Vegan Yeast Pancackes
MeganCochran at 6:22PM on 08/07/09
Oops. The link should say pancakes. No extra c.
MeganCochran at 6:23PM on 08/07/09
@buckethead: If you don't agree with using mixes, then perhaps you should just skip reading this column. The column name shows up in the post name...shouldn't be to hard to avoid.
Also, why didn't you just say that then instead posting a recipe? I mean...did you think the reason she tested the mix was because she didn't have a recipe for making pancakes? Or that someone reading the column because they use mixes and want a review are doing so because they don't have a recipe? For pancakes? A recipe for which a cursory google search gets close to six hundred thousand hits.
wunami at 11:39PM on 08/08/09
I have always been horrified by the waste involved in pancake mix in a plastic jug. Hello? The environment? What a lot of trash.
I make pancakes all the time from scratch. I don't look at a recipe to do it. It is ridiculously easy. I used to keep buttermilk on hand but I find that a handier option for me is to use plain yogurt because that I always have.
Break an egg, add a dollop of plain yogurt, about a Tbsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt, some milk, whisk up. Then add some flour and some baking powder, whisk briefly. Melt butter in a pan and cook 'em up. It takes less than a minute and the only "trash" is an eggshell.
Come. On.
If you don't want to make pancakes from scratch, fine, but please vote with your dollars AGAINST this hideously wasteful packaging!
Trilby at 4:13PM on 08/09/09
For those of you who don't approve of the wasteful packaging, there is a simple solution. Buy the boxed Bisquik Baking Mix, the box mix and the jug mix are basically the same, and the recipe for the pancakes are printed on the box. *(SEE BELOW) If you want the convenience of the jug, just take a few moments and measure out the required amount of mix that you need and store in an old mason jar, mayonaise jar or a plastic bowl (make sure the plastic bowl's lid has a tight seal) and store in the pantry until your ready to use it. When you are ready simpy add the required amount of milk and either shake well or stir and your ready to fry. As for the thickness of the pancakes, simply add or decrease the milk a little bit until you have a pancake thickness you're happy with. If you prefer substitute Jiffy Mix for Bisquik it taste just as good.
*This is the actual recipe from Betty Crocker's Bisquick web site:
Bisquick Pancakes http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes.aspx/pancakes
This is our all-time favorite recipe for pancakes! This recipe is simple and tastes good.
2 cups Original Bisquick mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1. Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat or electric griddle to 375°F; grease with cooking spray, vegetable oil or shortening. (Surface is ready when a few drops of water sprinkled on it dance and disappear.)
2. Stir all ingredients until blended. Pour by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle.
3. Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook until golden.
Makes: 12 pancakes
Note: If you like thin pancakes, use 1 1/2 cups milk.
Singletondaniels at 2:28PM on 08/10/09