Duncan Hines Chocolate Lover's Turtle Brownies Versus Ghirardelli Caramel Turtle Brownies

My co-worker, Lisa, believes that the only thing better than chocolate is chocolate with caramel, a sentiment that I share. If you add pecans to the mix you have a chocolate caramel turtle, one of my favorite candies. The only thing better than that, would be a chocolate caramel turtle brownie.

I love to cook and bake bread, but I rarely make deserts from scratch unless it's a special occasion. Instead, I rely on box mixes to keep my husband's sweet tooth satisfied. Brownies are his favorite, so when AC called for articles comparing one product to another I decided I would stage "Battle Brownie."

The last time I was at the grocery I noticed there were several turtle brownie mixes on the market. I decided to try the Duncan Hines Chocolate Lover's Turtle Brownies, and the Ghirardelli Caramel Turtle Brownies. I have been using Duncan Hines mixes since I had to stand on a stool to stir a bowl of batter as a child, and knew them to be very dependable. Ghirardelli has an excellent reputation as a manufacturer of chocolate candy and baking chocolate, so I figured they would also make a very good brownie mix.

To be fair, I chose to do a side-by-side comparison of the mixes from preparation to sampling.

Preparation:

Both the Duncan Hines and Ghirardelli brownie mixes called for the same additions, one quarter cup of vegetable oil, one quarter cup of water and one egg.

Both mixes took under 5 minutes to prepare, however, the directions on the Duncan Hines mix were more detailed, especially concerning the application of the caramel packet across the top of the chocolate brownie mixture.

The Ghirardelli directions advised snipping open the package, applying the caramel in 4-5 rows and then drawing lines through the surface of the batter in alternating directions. To me, this meant to swirl the caramel across the top of the batter. Since the batter was not very thick, when I did this most of the caramel sunk into the batter leaving very little on the surface. This was not very attractive.

The Duncan Hines directions advised kneading the caramel packet to soften the caramel before cutting off the corner, making application much easier. They also advised pulling the knife through the rows of caramel across the pan creating an attractive swirl effect that showed the caramel off to better advantage.

Baking time was the same, about 35minutes at 350 degrees.

Sampling:

In order to get impartial sampling results, I decided to do a blind tasting. I enlisted the help of my husband and the five chocoholics I work with, who were happy to oblige. I asked them to rate Brownie A ( the Ghirardelli Caramel Turtle Brownies) and Brownie B ( the Duncan Hines Chocolate Lover's Turtle Brownies) for appearance, moistness, chocolate-iness, caramel-iness, nuttiness, and overall taste.

The results were as follows:

Appearance: Brownie B ( Duncan Hines)

Moistness: Brownie A ( Ghirardelli)

Chocolate-inees: Brownie B ( Duncan Hines)

Caramel-iness: Tie

Nuttiness: Brownie A ( Ghirardelli)

Overall Taste: Brownie B ( Duncan Hines)

The Winner: Duncan Hines by a nose.

The deciding factor was definitely appearance, as all 6 panelists voted for the Duncan Hines brownie in this category, and several stated that the Ghirardelli brownie looked "dry." I feel this goes back to the lack of detail in the Ghirardelli directions on how to apply the caramel to the batter in order to create the swirl effect. While this practice may be common to pastry chefs it is not something a home cook would know how to do unless it was explained in detail.