Not sure if everyone is aware of this, but Betty Crocker has just released four gluten free baking mixes this month! I was scouring my grocery store for them and, sadly, only found one: the chocolate chip cookies baking mix. Now, as a culinary student, I am always more interested in baking things from scratch to further my recipe knowledge and repertoire, but I figured for the sake of science and you readers, I'd try these out and give a review.
First off, below is a picture from the back of the box featuring all of the GF mixes they make that are now on shelves.
Here is a photo of the front of the Chocolate Cookie Mix box.
The great part about his mix (and, most likely, the other ones) is that you don't need any fancy or expensive ingredients to bake these very tasty cookies. (The mix cost me $4.49 at my local Ralph's grocery store, and the mix made 22 cookies -- that's only $0.20 per cookie!) All you need is 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter. 1 tsp GF vanilla, and 1 egg. (I didn't try the recipe dairy or egg free, but I'm sure that, where there's a will, there's a way.) I find it very frustrating when recipes call for 5, 6, or even 7 types of gluten free flour to make a recipe good. So it was nice to have it in the box. Also, there are only three flours listed in the ingredients - Rice Flour, Potato Starch, and Potato Flour. In addition to these flours, the ingredients listed on the box are: Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, Brown Sugar, Sugar, Leavening, and Salt. (Don't forget you also add butter, vanilla, and egg.) The allergen listed on the box is soy (soy lecithin is in the chocolate chips).
So, off to baking...
All you need to so is mix (I recommend electric, either handheld of stand mixer) the butter, vanilla, and egg, add in the mix and stir. It's that easy. The batter is crumbly, like cobbler topping. I scooped out tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto two parchment-lined baking pans and baked at 350 F for 10-15 mins. (But your oven may be different from mine, so always check every few minutes.) Fresh out of the oven, these cookies are soft and gooey, but as they cool, the sugar solidifies and they become crunchy. If you want chewier cookies, you may need to add more moisture to the recipe (butter, eggs, etc.). See this article for more info.
Here is a photo of these goodies in the oven.
Yum! Here's a photo of the final result.
Other than the bite I took out of the bottom right cookie (I couldn't help myself!), you may have noticed that the cookies on the right are flat and kind of ran into each other and the ones on the left have more texture and better shape. During my time in culinary school, I've learned a trick for cookies and pies crusts: always freeze for 20 minutes before baking. I decided to run a little experiment to see what the difference was, so I baked one pan that I had frozen first and another that I had not. Here is a close up to better show you the difference.
The unfrozen/frozen cookies basically tasted the same, although the frozen ones passed the milk-dunking test (yes, that's the official name) with flying colors, while the thinner, unfrozen ones had a harder time soaking up the milk. Also, I believe that the frozen cookies just plain look better and more appealing. You may be wondering why this difference occurs, and here is why: frozen cookies are cold all the way through, but when you place the frozen dough in the over the outside begins to cook faster than the inside. When the outside cooks the proteins coagulate and the starches gelatinize, creating structure before the rest of the cookie is baked all the way through. As the rest of the dough warms, it melts and breaks up the baked outer shell (hence, the nice texture of the finished product). The melting of the inside still causes the cookies to cool a bit, but they hold a plumper shape than the runny, non-frozen ones.
So, all in all, freeze them first if you want that professional-grade look. Otherwise, it all basically tastes the same!
My review of this mix is definitely two thumbs up for price, simplicity, and delicious end result. Enjoy!
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