Allergy-Friendly Baking Powder Biscuits

After a friend so graciously lent me her Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for several months, I finally got my own for Christmas!  It came with a recipe book and I found a recipe for biscuits that I wanted to try out.  It's funny, though, because the recipe does not call for a stand mixer.  *scratching head*  Oh well, I made some substitutions and my daughter loved them!

I used Bisquick Gluten-Free Baking Mix.  The ingredients are: (though you should check the label, each time, as ingredient formulations change...)

Rice Flour, Sugar, Leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), Modified Potato Starch, Salt, Xanthan Gum.

MAY CONTAIN SOY INGREDIENTS

I wrote to them about their "may contain soy" warning, because none of the items listed are soy-related.  This was their response: 

"MAY CONTAIN means that the allergen(s) is not in the product’s recipe but could be present as result of the manufacturing process regardless of our best efforts to exclude it. These allergens will not be included in the ingredient list. Both CONTAINS and MAY CONTAIN mean that if you are sensitive to the specific allergen(s) in the list, no matter which way it is listed, you should avoid this product."

My daughter's not that sensitive to soy and corn, anymore, so she has been doing well with items made from this baking mix. 

Baking Powder Biscuits

Milk-Free, Egg-Free, Wheat-Free

2 c. Bisquick GF Baking Mix

1 T. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. Spectrum Organic Butter-Flavor Shortening*

3 T. Spectrum Organic Shortening

Approx. 3/4 c. rice milk**

*The butter flavoring is non-dairy and made from sunflower oil.  Coloring is from annatto, so if avoiding, use all Spectrum Organic Shortening.

**You may use any "safe-for-you" milk.  I ended up using almost a full cup of rice milk...

1. Preheat over to 450°F.  Grease baking sheet.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in shortenings until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in enough rice milk to make a soft dough.
3. Turn out only lightly floured (I used a little more GF Bisquick) surface.  Knead dough lightly.  Roll out 1/2-inch thick.  Cut biscuit rounds with a 2-inch cutter.  Place on greased baking sheet.
4. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until browned.

I don't have a "biscuit cutter", so I used some of my nested flower-shaped cutters.  They didn't rise very much, but they still had a good biscuit-like consistency.