Sausage Balls Without Bisquick? Yes Please!
Can you make delicious sausage balls without Bisquick? Not only is the answer a resounding YES, I’m gonna shout from the mountain top that they are way, way better without it!
When I was growing up, Christmas morning wasn’t Christmas morning without some delicious, decadent, downright greasy sausage balls filling the house with their heavenly, if not exactly delicate, aroma. They are easy to make, easy to cook, and way too easy to eat. They freeze well either cooked or raw. They are…. the perfect food!
Ok, no. No they are not the perfect food. But they are oh so comforting and warm and Christmasy. I think once a year is not too often to indulge in this pork-a-licious treat.
The “traditional” recipe varies from family to family, but generally involves Bisquick, sausage and cheese.
I use good quality cheese and Neese’s Sausage, which “is minimally processed and contains no MSG, preservatives, additives, or nitrites/nitrates.”
If you live in North Carolina you’d better be eating Neese’s. Truly no other country sausage compares to theirs. I’m not sponsored by them but boy oh boy would I be willing to eat a lot of it if I was!
Bisquick is flour + leavening (baking powder, for example) + solid fat (in the form of partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil) + corn starch, dextrose, sugar, DATEM, and distilled monoglycerides.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
My sausage balls without Bisquick use the flour, baking powder and fat (in the form of butter) and leave out all the other crap.
And that makes this whole thing healthy, right? right?
Here’s what you need:
2 cups flour (300g)
3 teaspoons baking powder (30g)
1 teaspoon salt (5g)
5 tablespoons cold butter (75g) (preferably unsalted)
The dry ingredients combined, by the way, is self-rising flour!
1 pound breakfast sausage (450g) (Neese’s if you can get it!)
1 pound shredded sharp cheddar cheese (450g)
I like to use sharp or extra sharp cheese so that the flavor doesn’t get lost in the sausage.
Here’s what you do:
1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Run for 15-20 seconds to fully mix them together. Cut the butter into small pieces and drop it in evenly around the processor bowl. Run the processor for 30-45 seconds, until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Pour into a large mixing bowl.
Once the butter is nicely cut in, the flour will look something like this.
At this point, you can add some cayenne to spice it up or some rosemary or sage or whatever strikes your fancy. I tend to keep mine super simple.
2. Add the sausage a little at a time, tossing it around in the flour as you go. Otherwise you will have a heck of a time getting everything mixed in, as this is a very stiff dough.
I got this awesome tip – which I think transformed the clunky version I used to make – from Kevin Weeks, who had a wonderful blog. Sadly, he died and the blog is no longer around, so I can’t give him proper credit.
3. Add the cheese and mix well.
You are going to need to really get your hands in there and work it. If that grosses you out (it does me) you can use fancy food prep gloves like these* from Playtex, or you can do what I do… buy mass quantities of good old nitrile exam gloves.*
4. Form the dough into 1 ounce balls (slightly smaller than a ping pong) and place them onto two cookie sheets.
At this point you can go ahead and bake them, or freeze for up to three months.
If you line with non-stick foil* you’ll have zero clean up and you won’t end up ripping all of your beautiful sausage balls in half as you try to get them off of the pan.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned.
Place them on a rack just until they are cool enough not to burn the bujeezus out of you. They are fine at room temperature but divine when they are still warm.
But I don’t want to spend my Christmas morning making sausage balls!
No problem! Make the balls and flash freeze them raw. Throw them in a zip freezer bag. When you’re ready to use them just put them in a 350° oven for about 30 minutes. No need to thaw. Bam!
The nyummy nyummy finished product. I had to slap the family’s hands away so I could get a picture!
- 2 cups flour (300g)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder (30g)
- 1 teaspoon salt (5g)
- 5 tablespoons cold butter (75g) (preferably unsalted)
- 1 pound breakfast sausage (450g) (Neese's if you can get it!)
- 1 pound shredded sharp cheddar cheese (450g)
- Preheat the oven to 350 (180 C, gas mark 4)
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Run for 15-20 seconds to fully mix them together.
- Cut the butter into small pieces and drop it in evenly around the processor bowl. Run the processor for 30-45 seconds, until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Pour into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the sausage a little at a time, tossing it around in the flour as you go. Otherwise you will have a heck of a time getting everything mixed in, as this is a very stiff dough.
- Add the cheese and mix well.
- Form the dough into 1 ounce balls (slightly smaller than a ping pong) and place them onto two cookie sheets. If you line with non-stick foil you'll have zero clean up.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned. Place them on a rack just until they are cool enough not to burn the bujeezus out of you. They are fine at room temperature but divine when they are still warm.
- Making the actual balls takes most of the 30 minutes - the mixing is quick!
- Makes 40- 45 1 ounce sausage balls
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