Month-of-Few Ingredients: Super Bowl Sausage Balls

The story behind Bisquick is, for me, a sad one of corporate greed. In 1930 a sales executive for General Mills was late coming to breakfast on the train. His hot biscuits arrived surprisingly quickly, so he asked the chef about them. The chef had created a biscuit mixture (that he kept on ice) so he could add water and have biscuits ready for the oven in no time flat.

Carl Smith, the sales executive, saw the potential for a ready-made biscuit mix for homes and took the idea back to General Mills where it was given the name we know, Bisquick.

Sadly, lost to history is the name of the creative chef on that train. And you can bet there was no compensation for his genius product. Interesting we know the name of the man who stole the recipe.

In any event, the lucky thing for us is this marvelous mixture has made the life of many a home cook easier with recipes for biscuits (of course), shortcake, waffles, pancakes, chicken and dumplings, “impossible” pies, cobblers, and more.

Probably most of us have used Bisquick. And some of us have created copy-cat versions to save money or keep out preservatives or both. If you’d like to try it, make a small amount this way.

One cup of Bisquick can be substituted by a mixture of:

1 cup flour

1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons baking powder,

 ¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt

2 ¹⁄₂ tablespoons of oil or melted butter (or  2 ¹⁄₂ tablespoons Crisco or lard).

To make a larger quantity of baking mix you can store (in the refrigerator) to use in several recipes, make this recipe:

Baking Mix

6 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
2 cups powdered buttermilk (in baking section of grocery store)
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup solid vegetable shortening

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, powdered buttermilk and salt four times into a large bowl. (Or whisk together for at least 4 minutes.)

Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender or mix in with fingers until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Store up to four months in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Use where the recipe calls for Bisquick. There are tons of baking mix recipes on the Internet. I created my recipe for the baking mix from several others.

Now onto the main dish for today. Super Bowl Sausage Balls!

I adapted this recipe for Super Bowl Sausage Balls from one at the Wicked Noodle by adding some sage to perk it up for our taste buds.

Super Bowl Sausage Balls (makes about 3 dozen)

1 pound ground sausage

8 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature

1 tablespoon sage

2 cups baking mix

1 ½ cups sharp cheddar cheese (or other sharp cheese of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a jellyroll pan with foil.

In a medium bowl and a mixer, blend sausage, cream cheese, and sage. When just combined, add baking mix.

With your hands mix thoroughly. Add in cheese in three additions and continue mixing with hands until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

Using a cookie dough scoop, put balls on plate. When all the meat mixture is in balls, form the balls into football-like shapes and return to the plate.

Refrigerate the plate of sausage footballs for at least one-half hour. Remove from refrigerator and put Do not crowd. Use another pan if needed.
the footballs on the jelly roll pan.

Bake for 35 minutes until lightly browned and cooked through. Let sit on baking pan for a few minutes for easier removal.

Transfer baked sausage footballs to a tray for serving. If you want, decorate the footballs with catsup or mustard to represent lacing. Serve immediately.

NOTE: The first time I tried to remove a football, it stuck to the foil. I let it sit for a few minutes and the rest came off easily. Next time, I might try baking on parchment paper for easy release. Also, catsup was too thin to make a nice lacing line. The mustard worked better, and I liked the flavor better, too.

DH’s Rating: Four Tongues Up  These are great little munchies for your party or just sitting around playing games because football is boring. DH said, “These have a nice flavor, but they’re different than the meatballs you usually serve. But good, they’re still good. Can I add salsa?”

If you liked this recipe, please share on social media using info below or write your own message!

Twitter: Game time #recipe for Super Bowl Sausage Balls by @good2tweat on Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time at http://bit.ly/2kEvKwr

Facebook: Sharon Arthur Moore-Author writes the “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” blog. It's posting its annual February Month-of recipes. This month's recipes have 2-5 ingredients. There's still time to make these Super Bowl Sausage Balls at http://bit.ly/2kEvKwr

A reminder:

House rules for what counts as an ingredient:

    Salt and pepper are not ingredients.

    Oil is not an ingredient when it’s for the cooking pan, not the recipe.

    Water is not an ingredient.