14 Scrumptious Ways To Upgrade Store-Bought Biscuit Mix

In our opinion, using store-bought biscuit mix without jazzing it up is a missed opportunity. It's not like most biscuit mixes are bursting with flavor: After all, their ingredients are usually pretty darn simple. A basic box of Bisquick, for example, contains a combination of flour, starch, oil, and a bit of salt and sugar (as well as some other stabilizers and some very scientific-sounding ingredients), and nothing in that list exactly stands out as being especially flavorful. Some people might argue that's the charm of store-bought biscuit mix, and that its easygoing nature makes it accessible to all. We'd argue that it makes it boring.

However, never fear, folks: There's help at hand, in the form of upgrades. Because the ingredients in store-bought biscuit mix are so basic, the product serves as the perfect canvas for a host of other flavors. By adding things like herbs, spices, cocoa, cheese, or alternative liquids, you can amp up your store-bought biscuit mix and make it sing. Importantly, too, you can upgrade your biscuit mix not just by adding things to it, but by using it in combination with other external ingredients to make brand-new culinary creations. If you've never turned your biscuit mix into a pie crust or a pizza, well, now's the time to start.

While you can make your store-bought biscuit mix way more interesting by adding in various dry ingredients, it's the wet ingredients you choose that can make all the difference. For an easy upgrade, skip the milk and use buttermilk. Buttermilk biscuits have a distinctly tangy flavor, which comes from the sourness of the buttermilk itself. They also have a wonderful lightness to them, which comes from the acidity in the buttermilk reacting with the leaveners in your store-bought biscuit mix, creating an airy, flaky texture that normal milk won't quite achieve.

Buttermilk is thicker than regular milk, but generally speaking, you can substitute it in a 1:1 ratio and get the same effect. If you find that your biscuit mix is still a little dense after adding the buttermilk, you can always just pour in a drop or two more. As buttermilk is fattier than regular milk, you may also need to use slightly less fat elsewhere (although if you like your biscuits nice and fatty, this probably won't be necessary). If you don't have any buttermilk to hand, you can always try mixing your normal milk with just a little lemon juice or vinegar, which can provide that acidic quality. This will curdle the milk slightly, but don't worry, you shouldn't notice it in your finished biscuits.

Chocolate biscuits? Yep, they're a thing, folks — and they're easy to make from store-bought biscuit mix. Turning your biscuit mix into a chocolatey delight takes nothing more than adding a few tablespoons of cocoa powder. The cocoa will give your biscuits a rich, mellow flavor, with a deep chocolate note that doesn't come across as too sweet or shallow.

If you like them on the slightly bitter side, then just adding the cocoa powder will be enough: Most store-bought biscuit mixes have some sugar added to them, which will help to sweeten things slightly. However, if you're trying to make them into more of a dessert option, it may be worth sprinkling in a little extra granulated sugar. Once you've whipped them up, chocolate biscuits can be enjoyed simply, either on their own or with a little smear of butter, cream cheese, or whipped cream. Alternatively, you can turn them into a decadent breakfast by drizzling over some melted chocolate and scattering sliced strawberries and blueberries on top. They're also heavenly when dusted with a little cinnamon sugar.

What do you make with your store-bought biscuit mix? Biscuits, right? Well, duh — but that's not the only thing you can do with it. Store-bought biscuit mix is, at its core, fairly simple, with a few standard ingredients and that means you can use it in place of other flour-based mixes in various foods. However, it also has a distinct lightness to it, which means that it gives those very foods a new lease of life, and an airiness you wouldn't get otherwise.

One of those foods is pancakes. Instead of starting from scratch or using a boxed pancake mix, use store-bought biscuit mix instead. These mixes contain leaveners that produce a seriously fluffy pancake, which still has that sturdy chewiness to it that you're craving for breakfast. As biscuit mixes are pre-seasoned, you don't even have to add anything to them to make them shine, apart from your wet ingredients. However, the seasoning balance in biscuit mixes also means they're well-equipped to take on additional tastes like vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, or any other flavor note you'd like in your morning stack.

A lot of biscuit mixes come with sugar mixed in, but the sugar they use is, to be frank, not amazing. These mixes tend to opt for the basic white granulated kind, which may add immediate sweetness but which doesn't exactly fill them with depth. So, if you want to give your biscuits way more personality, you should bust out the brown sugar. Using brown sugar (either as an addition to your white sugar, or as the sole sweetener if your mix doesn't have any included) will give your biscuits a mellower flavor, with hints of nuttiness and caramel that feels more mature.

Don't feel you have to limit yourself to just making regular biscuits with brown sugar, either. You can also use your combo of brown sugar and biscuit mix to make a form of cinnamon roll that, quite frankly, slaps. To do this, prepare your biscuit mix as you normally would, adding in as much brown sugar as you like. You can also pop in a dash or two of vanilla extract if you want: It'll round out the flavor. Then, roll out your dough into a large square and spread it with butter, a sprinkling of brown sugar, and some powdered cinnamon. Then you can roll it up into a tube before slicing it into rounds. Pop each round into an individual cupcake wrapper, or arrange them on a baking sheet and, if you like, sprinkle with a little more brown sugar before baking.

If there's one thing that probably wasn't on your bingo card today, it's likely to be the fact that you can turn Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix into a pizza. However, people, that's exactly what we're going to tell you to do. Red Lobster biscuit mix, or indeed any biscuit mix you have to hand, makes an excellent starting point for a pizza. It has the sturdiness of a standard pizza base, but also a much-needed lightness and flakiness that gives the crust a moreish quality. It also makes it excellent for dipping — just saying, y'all.

If you're opting for the Red Lobster mix, though, you might want to bear in mind that it comes pre-flavored with cheddar and various seasonings and spices. As such, you're going to want to make sure that your intended toppings match these flavor notes, and don't clash too much. If you're going for a lighter pizza, or something with milder flavors like ricotta or pesto, the strong cheddar note may completely overwhelm them. If this is your goal, it's best to go with an unflavored biscuit mix, and ideally, one that doesn't have too much sugar, as you don't want it to be too sweet.

It's kinda wild that most store-bought biscuit mixes don't ask you to add butter, and in our opinion, it's a seriously missed opportunity. Sure, it's true that a lot of biscuit mixes already have some kind of fat included, and the milk you add to them gives them more richness and body. However, adding butter gives the biscuits that all-important creamy note that's difficult to replicate elsewhere.

Generally speaking, you don't need too much butter with store-bought biscuit mix. For every two and a half cups of Bisquick you use, aim for around a third of a cup of butter. Just like when making biscuits from scratch, it's important that your butter is as cold as possible, as the water that evaporates as the biscuits bake will help to create little pockets of steam to give them some fluffiness. If you don't have any butter to hand, you can also use margarine, but just bear in mind that you won't get the same rich flavor. Finally, don't forget to keep a little extra butter to one side, to melt over the biscuits once they're out of the oven.

Biscuits are the perfect counterpart to spicy flavors. Their neutral, slightly sweet notes act as the ideal counterbalance to fiery foods, especially those that are denser or richer, like chili. However, we're always a fan of incorporating flavors to make something brand-new, and that's why we're strong advocates for adding spice directly into your biscuits in the form of diced chile peppers.

A spoonful of diced jalapeños or serranos from a jar work wonders in a Cheddar-based biscuit mix, but they're also excellent in regular store-bought varieties. The chiles add a gentle warmth that works its way through the dough without being too overwhelming, but they also give the biscuits a slightly sour note from the brine they're pickled in. They also pair surprisingly well with the slightly sugary notes of store-bought biscuit mix, with the sweetness elevating the spiciness without overwhelming it, while supplying the biscuits with a touch of freshness. Just make sure you don't add too many chiles into the mix: If you're not careful, you'll weigh down your biscuits with them.

A lot of people make their biscuits with butter, and for good reason — it makes them totally delicious. However, to give your store-bought biscuit mix just as much flavor, and a touch more flakiness in each bite, try this: When making your store-bought biscuit mix, swap the butter with heavy cream. In fact, you use heavy cream as the primary liquid too, and skip the milk entirely.

Essentially, because heavy cream has such a high fat content, it covers the fatty notes that the butter provides, while also giving the moisture that the milk offers. It's a great two-in-one solution that imbues your biscuits with a delightful richness and a delicate crumb. The fat levels in the cream also give the biscuits a lovely brown surface, which can be made even deeper if you dab some of the cream on each biscuit before it bakes.

Biscuits are homely, rustic, and comforting, and they manage to achieve that effect with little added to them. However, sometimes you'll likely want them to be just that bit more warming — and when those moments arrive, it's time to bust out the spices. Adding spices to store-bought biscuit mix is a quick and easy way of giving them more flavor and depth, without having to resort to drastic changes in your recipe. A simple dash of ground spices in your mix will give your biscuits whatever fragrance and flavor you want, and will allow them to complement other dishes well.

If you want to keep things simple and effortlessly tasty, adding some garlic powder and Italian seasoning to your biscuit mix can give an intoxicating scent and some nice roundness. Things get even tastier if you combine these two with cheese. If you're in the market for something a little more musky, try adding in cumin and coriander. For a biscuit you can serve with your morning oatmeal, a dash or two of cinnamon and nutmeg can add a pleasingly woody note — and they're even better when you mix in some brown sugar, too.

We love biscuits, and we love pie crusts — but we really love it when biscuits become pie crusts. This surprisingly easy way to upgrade store-bought biscuit mix simply involves making your biscuit dough as you normally would, and then pressing it into a pie tin and baking it for around 10 minutes. You can add a bit of extra butter into the mix if you like things richer, or if you're making a pie that relies on heavier ingredients, you can just make it as the package instructions indicate.

Once your pie crust is ready, you can add pretty much anything you want. It can serve as the basis for a super easy cheeseburger pie, but it can also be used for any flavor combos you want. A biscuit-based pie crust is also excellent for fruity or chocolatey pies, as the mixes generally have a touch of sugar in them which gives them a sweet undertone. Just ensure that you let your pie crust cool completely before adding any ingredients to it, otherwise your dough will end up soggy.

There's just something about cheese biscuits, isn't there? The flakiness. The chewiness. The cheesiness. Excuse us while we grab a tissue and mop away our drool. Interestingly, though, people tend to assume that you have to make cheese biscuits from scratch, and you can't whip them up using a store-bought biscuit mix unless the mix has Cheddar flavors in it already. Well, that's not true. 

Because store-bought biscuit mix is generally a fairly simple combination of flours, starches, and a few basic flavoring elements, there's not a huge difference between using it and your regular combo of dried ingredients. As such, you can generally just add some sharp Cheddar cheese to a store-bought biscuit mix, and you're good to go. To amp up the flavor further, we'd recommend adding seasonings like garlic and onion powder, as well as ground black pepper. As your cheese is gonna be fairly salty, it can be a good idea to look for lower-sodium biscuit mixes where possible, or else limit how much salt you're adding elsewhere. Bear in mind, too, that you may need slightly less butter or additional fat on top of your cheese if your biscuit mix has vegetable oils already included.

Herby biscuits are underrated, and oh-so delicious. With a sprinkling of herbs, you can introduce some all-important lightness to your biscuits, and a fragrance and delicate flavor that stops them from feeling boring. Don't think you can only do this with homemade biscuit mix, either: You can do it with the store-bought kind. All you have to do is tip your chosen dried herbs into the mix, stir to combine, and then add your wet ingredients. You may also want to add a little pinch of salt to make sure their flavors are highlighted.

The best thing about doing this is that there really are no rules about which herbs you can add. If you want your biscuits to have a more Italian feel, go for oregano and basil, and maybe a sprinkling of parsley. If you want them to be better suited to serving with a hearty stew, try throwing in some rosemary and thyme. Don't forget, too, that you can use fresh herbs with store-bought biscuit mix too, if you want them to be more vibrant. The same principle applies: You just add them into the dough, stir, and bake.

One of the best things about store-bought biscuit mix is that it makes way more than just individual biscuits — and if you need any proof of this, try using them as a pie topping. Simply make the biscuit mix as you normally would, and then instead of spooning it out onto a baking sheet, you spoon it onto your pie in place of a crust. You can do this with chicken pot pie, beef pie, or even sweeter pie-like creations like cobbler.

You also have a fair bit of leeway about which type of biscuit mix you use here, too. For savory pies, you can go for a flavored biscuit mix like Red Lobster's version, or you can opt for a more basic version. Standard store-bought biscuit mix will have less going on in it, but it'll also be more versatile. You can also season your biscuit mix with whatever you fancy adding to it, to match your pie more effectively. Plus, as your pie cooks, you'll get a delicious dual effect with your biscuit's texture, with the top side going golden and crispy, and the bottom side absorbing all of your pie's juices.

There's no denying that store-bought biscuit mix can sometimes lack a little punch. Don't get us wrong, they're flavorful in their basic, fairly neutral form, but we all crave a bit of spice now and again. Well, that spice can come in the form of Old Bay seasoning. By combining Old Bay seasoning and Bisquick or a similarly simple biscuit mix, you can make biscuits that are similar to the Red Lobster version. It's a cheap way to emulate a way more expensive product, and generate some serious flavor in the process.

Old Bay differs from Cajun and Creole seasonings not just because of where it comes from, but because of its unique blend of herbs, spices, and flavors. Old Bay has a mustardy element that gives it a sour tang, and the paprika, red pepper, and black pepper in it create smokiness and spice. It also has a sweetness to it that complements store-bought biscuit mix well.