7-Up Biscuits

7-Up Biscuits hot from the oven

I saved the 7 Up Biscuits recipe one of my friends posted - it had been repeatedly shared on Facebook. I shared it to my wall (or whatever the heck it's called now) so I could access it easily because they sounded so simple and yummy.  I am not a good biscuit baker.  I don't know why, but I just have issues with biscuits.  They don't rise, they aren't flaky or soft, they are too dense...all kinds of problems likely caused by over-use of egg wash and over working the dough.  I have not, however, tried biscuits from scratch for a couple of years.  Saved this recipe in case I wanted to change my mind. (I know Bisquick base is not baking from scratch - sue me, I don't care - if it doesn't come out of a can I reserve the right to call it baking from scratch)

I've been working on cookies for 4 days now.  Two days of baking, icing preparation, base coats, and the beginning of some of the detail work.  (I still have a lot to go)  When my thin piped lines started consistently breaking this morning I decided I needed a break.  It's Saturday morning (well, okay, it's really "barely" Saturday afternoon...but my husband and son didn't get up until after 11:00...so it's still morning for them - I've been up since 7:30ish).  I decided to make the 7-Up Biscuits in hopes that something that appears quite simple really is!

I'd bought a bottle of 7-Up (because the teen drinks Sprite and I was hesitant to substitute...so 7-Up it was!) and some sour cream...knew I had Bisquick and butter...and that's all there is to it.

My two comments regarding this recipe are:
1.  Sounds easy - makes a freaking mess!
2.  Possibly the best biscuits I've ever eaten - worth the mess!

This was AFTER I had washed my hands
once...and was now patting the remnants
for cutting...you end up with doughy monster hands!

The Facebook post/picture said it was a difficult-to-find recipe.  I'd heard of 7-Up cakes, but never 7-Up biscuits.  I'll share my experience...with some additional steps I found helpful, not mentioned in the original post.

7-Up Biscuits
From Tonja Busch Facebook Post

Ingredients:

4 cups Bisquick Baking Mix
1 cup sour cream (I used regular - not reduced fat)
1 cup 7-Up
1/2 cup melted butter (real butter - it was delicious)

Extra Bisquick for countertop

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

I used a 9x13 glass (Pyrex) baking dish (I've always been told not to bake above 375 in a glass dish but the picture in the post showed them made in a glass dish so I hoped my old-school info was wrong and that I wouldn't end up with an explosion of glass in the oven...which, of course, I did not have).

I placed the stick of butter into the glass dish and microwaved it for two 30-second intervals sitting on the rack, turning dish before second interval.  Remove and let it be ready for you when you get the dough prepped.  It needs to be right next to the dough - it is not a sturdy dough.

Mix Bisquick, sour cream and 7-Up in mixing bowl until the ingredients are a sticky mess. (my words).  Do not over-mix. (NOTE ADDED 5/27/2013...another blogger recommends cutting the sour cream into Bisquick and THEN adding the 7-Up.  If anyone has any suggestions on this method, please comment)

Sticky, sticky dough - in retrospect I might have let
the sour cream come to room temperature.
It was quite hard to mix in evenly

Sprinkle extra Bisquick onto counter top and gently knead and fold dough until coated with baking mix.  Don't over-work.  It's a sticky mess.  Just get to the part where you can gently pat dough into your desired shape (I used a square cutter so I patted into a rectangle).  I tried to dip my cutter into Bisquick to help release it for transfer.  I don't think there's enough Bisquick in the world to make them release easily.  I found it easiest to let the pieces stick to the cutter, pull away the excess, and move the pieces individually to the pan.  You just place them on top of the melted butter.  I ended up with enough remnants to re-pat and cut a total of 13 biscuits (the end two were "half size").  A baker's dozen - nice.

Ready to go into oven - they look a mess - but all turns out well!

As you can see - gunky cutter.
I really appreciate a granite counter top
and a bench scraper when I make this
kind of mess!

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until brown at 425 degrees.  I baked 17 minutes.  I set the timer for 12 minutes - at the 10 minute mark I knew they would need more than that so I added 3 minutes.  Then, they didn't look very brown, at 15 minutes, so I added 2 more minutes...as Goldilocks says, they were "just right" at 17 minutes in my oven, in a glass dish.  Much of the cook time depends on the type of pan you use.  The original post said to use a cookie sheet pan or 9x13 casserole dish.  Baking times for the two of those are really different.  Keep an eye on your biscuits!

The house smelled awesome while they were baking - I could smell the richness of the sourcream and butter and the 7-Up did its' thing by making the biscuits light and fluffy.

You can see the bubbly butter when the biscuits come out of the oven.

I let them sit in the pan on the cool cook top while I fried up some sausage pieces and prepped some fruit for the men.  They came out of the pan very easily with a silicone pancake turner.

All that butter makes for easy release from pan!

Mr. Flip Flop gave the highest compliment..."these taste almost as good as my Mom's".  For Ms. Makes-a-Bad-Biscuit, that was high praise indeed!!!  I literally clapped my hands in glee.

The teen, who doesn't like to try new things, declined biscuits and sausage.  He was leery of the entire "experiment"...who the heck puts soda water in biscuits?  Well, from now on, guess we do!  I brought him a "bite" and encourage him to try it and he, hesitantly and with "a look" did so.  He smiled.  He said "I'll take some!"  Duh...of course he will.

Mr. Flip Flop had his with a berry-blend jam, sausage, and a bowl of watermelon.  He polished off two and went back for two more.  The teen went "no jelly or jam" and had sausage and a bowl of sliced apples (got to get something healthy inside him).  I went for just biscuits and apple butter.  DELISH!  You don't need to butter these biscuits - they have absorbed the entire 1/2 cup of butter in the baking process (and it bubbled up around them, getting the sides as well).  The sour cream also adds enough of that awesome mouth feel to negate further addition of butter.

These are company-good biscuits.  I will be keeping some 7-Up on hand whenever we have visitors or I plan a special breakfast.  These will definitely be part of it from now on!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!