After I posted about my vintage Rumford Cookbook, and made the mistake of assuming baking powder was no longer sold under the Rumford name (having never seen it on the shelf myself), a number of you told you that you had Rumford in your various areas. Then one of you, whaledancer, sent me some Rumford Baking Powder!

Yes, I am the proud owner of two cans of Rumford Baking Powder.

I have contemplated what I should do with this special baking powder. Baking powder goes bad after a time, so I think the best way to honor the baking powder is to use it. (I’ll save the cans for fun and because I’m weird.) Then I had to decide–what could possibly be worthy of the first recipe I make with my special baking powder?

Because whaledancer is wonderful, she also sent me two vintage cookbooks along with the Rumford Baking Powder. I’m going to feature one of them today in this post and I’ll talk about the other one later. If you’re a regular reader here, by now you know I have an obsession with old cookbooks. This one is The Bisquick Cookbook. Recipes from Betty Crocker in answer to your requests.

The book was published in 1964 by General Mills. It’s not one of those promotional pamphlet things, but a real honest-to-goodness cookbook, a bound hardback (albeit small) book.

There are detailed instructions for using Bisquick. Never sift it! Never!

The “favorite” basic nine recipes are in a handy front-to-back page at the beginning. Biscuits, pancakes, waffles, shortcake, velvet crumb cake, coffee cake, muffins, dumplings, and short pie. At some point, some frustrated possessor of this book handwrote: “This dodges pie crust!”

On the back, by the short pie recipe, she wrote in further discontented disdain: “One crust only!”

Betty was trying to get one over on her with that short pie and she wasn’t buying it.

I think she wanted to smack Betty a good one. Short pie, by the way, appears to be a biscuit-like crust that can be used similar to a pie pastry.

I suppose she could have doubled the recipe…… But smacking Betty Crocker might be more fun. Was there a real Betty Crocker? Suddenly I had to know. I went to Google, who knows everything.

Betty Crocker was invented by a Minneapolis baking company in 1921. They signed letters to customers who wrote in with questions with the name Betty Crocker to make them feel as if they were getting a personal response from a real woman who read every letter and responded to every one of them herself. There was even a radio show with “Betty Crocker” later and she was played by various actresses. So, now we know. So much for smacking her.

Back to the recipes….. What is worthy of the Rumford Baking Powder?

Hurry-Up Ham Casserole.

Too mundane………

Rolled Egg Dumplings?

That would get into the whole what are dumplings, what aren’t dumplings issue………

Christmas Tree Upside Down Cake?

Wrong time of year.

I need something worthy. Something that can’t go wrong. Something slightly decadent.

BUTTER STICKS!

I can’t possibly go wrong with my special baking powder in a recipe that’s called BUTTER STICKS. And anything with BUTTER in the recipe title has to be decadent. Or at least suitably bad for you.

Of course, I’m not going to use Bisquick. I mean, ARE YOU CRAZY?

I’m going to use my homemade baking mix, Quick Mix.

How to make Butter Sticks:

1/3 cup butter, for melting
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup milk

Note: To use a baking mix (such as Bisquick), replace first 5 ingredients (after the 1/3 cup butter) with 2 cups baking mix.

Melt the 1/3 cup butter in a 13 x 9 baking pan. Set aside. Place next 5 ingredients (or 2 cups of baking mix) in a large bowl and work in the butter with a pastry cutter.

Add the milk (use a little more if your dough is too dry) and knead your biscuit dough. (Secret to great biscuits–-knead the dough lightly, a few times, adding a pinch of flour if needed to keep dough from sticking to your hands.) On a floured surface, roll into a 10 x 6 rectangle.

It had to be perfect. I even measured.

Cut in half lengthwise.

Cut each half into 12 strips.

Dip each stick in the butter in the pan. I put them down in the butter then flipped them to get butter on both sides.

Arrange in pan.

Bake at 450-degrees for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden.

These are delicious right out of the pan, no additional butter needed. A fun, different way to make and serve biscuits. They’re also addictive. You might have to eat 10 before you even tell anyone you baked anything.

The options are endless. They could be sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. Add raisins. Or go savory and add garlic and cheese. Or herbs. Any flavor variations you like in biscuits, you can do with these.

I love ’em. They were worthy. So worthy, I gotta make ’em again.

Right now.

BYE!

Check out all my Quick Mix recipes.

See this recipe at Farm Bell Recipes and save it to your recipe box.

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