Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cookie Mix Product Review

Gluten intolerance is on the rise and Betty Crocker stepped into gluten free market recently by launching several gluten free dessert mixes. I actively shop the gluten free aisles of many grocery stores, seeking to find convenience foods. Recently, I found a new Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cookie Mix in my local store and couldn't wait to give it a try. Who could resist the lure of GF chocolate chip cookies? More importantly, how would they taste?

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cookie Mix: Ease of Preparation

Sometimes baking gluten free products can be tricky. There's usually little room for error for me, so I followed the instructions on the back panel to the letter. The mix had the typical texture of GF products in that it was the consistency of wet sand, easily moded into a sand castle. Though crumbly, I was easily able to mold a rounded teaspoon full onto my silicone baking mat. The mix should yield about 40 cookies, and I yielded 37 chocolate chip cookies. The chocolate chip cookie mix required just three ingredients from my pantry: 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of GF Vanilla and 1 stick of butter. This mix was super easy to make and the directions were crystal clear.

Baking tips for Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Cookie Mix

I baked my cookies on a silicone baking mat for exactly 11 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. At 11 minutes, they were golden brown on the top, yet slightly underdone. However, cookies generally finish cooking once outside the oven while cooling. After cooling, the cookies were done to perfection. Don't let the crumbly nature of the mix trick you into adding in extra ingredients. The mix is fine as it is. One thing I would mention, though, is that if the mix is too crumbly to handle, trying squeezing the cookie dough in on itself so that the butter will absorb the crumbs.

But how did Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Cookies taste?

One thing that Gluten Free diet followers complain about is taste. Things just don't taste the same as their wheaty counterparts most of the time. With this mix, I did notice right away that it didn't taste like normal chocolate chip cookies, but that the cookies still tasted fantastic. So fantastic that I was in awe. It really did taste exceptional. The cookies, however, were slightly crispy. Gluten free cookies typically don't raise up too much, which could be why they were crispy and not chewy. However, leaving them out and uncovered for one day did decrease their crunchiness.

Final Thoughts on Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Cookies

Parents of children who are following a gluten free diet need not worry that this mix will disappoint their child. The cookies were so easy to make and taste so much like normal cookies that the child could take them to school and hand them out at snack time to the rest of their class. The box I purchased at a Food Lion was $4.19 and the product was displayed along side all of the other mixes in the cake and cookie aisle. The cost is in line with the typical cost of gluten free mixes. As I mentioned, Amazon.com does offer these products on their site. For maximum savings I do suggest subscribing to save 15%, which drops the cost per package to about $3.34.

Sources:
Preparation of product
http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/gluten-free/gluten-free.htm
Intolerance to gluten is on the rise by Josephine Marcotty, retrieved 7/5/09 from http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/072009/07052009/477131