Photo copyright Tiffany Janes
The gluten-free chocolate chip cookie mix from Betty Crocker is not as easy to mix up as the brownie mix - by a long shot. The mix was so crumbly that it seemed it would not make very good cookies without extra liquid added. There was no unsweetened applesauce on hand to add so an extra egg went into the bowl. That was a mistake to say the least.
The first batch of cookies spread out and puffed up while cooking, as baked goods with an extra egg in the batter tend to do. Instead of finishing off the rest of the batter for cookies, it was poured into a small glass baking dish to create chocolate chip cookie bars.
The cookies turned out fabulous (even with the baking goof) but adding an extra egg is not recommended as they were too much like cake. If the batter is too crumbly for you, try adding one tablespoon of unsweetened applesauce or water to it. The applesauce trick is perfect for gluten-free cake mixes as well. The general rule is 1/4 cup per one cake layer (1/2 cup for two layers) or a bundt cake. This will transform the most dry gluten-free cake mix on the market into something edible or incredible, depending on which mix you're using.
The cookie lover in our household is the gluten eater, who upon smelling the cookies was happy to give them a try. He scarfed down five huge cookies in as many minutes, and simply said "I think they're really good but you can taste the butter sliding down your throat". This is understandable considering the mix calls for an entire stick of butter. The cookies were very good and certainly if you didn't tell people they were gluten-free, they would never suspect it.
The cookie bar experiment however turned out to be the real treat. The bars were moist, full of chocolate chips and even better than the cookies, which makes sense as the cookies were not made according to instructions. The bars took about 20 minutes to bake but since only half the batter was used, another experiment is in order to see how long baking the whole batch will take. Another cookie batch is also in order, this time following instructions to see what happens. Such is the life of a gluten-free taste tester.
The great thing about bars as opposed to cookies, is that you can cut them up very small so in the event someone doesn't like them (this applies to any bar - gluten-free or not) only a small bit of food will be wasted. Happy July 4th to all my gluten-free readers and those of you who are not living gluten-free but are reading my page for some reason or another. The more the merrier!
Product Availability update: According to General Mills, WalMart and Publix stores should have these mixes either in July or August. They are available at www.amazon.com as well (unless they have sold out again).
Comments
I made these and they turned out great! I followed the directions to a T though. I did find them at my local Food Lion if that helps anyone.
Please post a pic of the cookie bars when you make them again! I would LOVE to try those! :)
By the way, adding another egg is the instruction for high altitude...so my cookies looked like that!
Oh no, I just realized that adding another egg is the instructions for the BROWNIES at higher altitude!! OOPS! No wonder I missed up my cookies! I am going to try again tonight :)
Too funny!!!! Good luck with the next batch! Pamela's cookie bars are still my favorite (instructions on the bag of Chocolate Chip Cookie mix) but it's nice to be able to tell friends and family about the Betty Crocker mixes. They might even decide to whip up a batch of something everyone can enjoy when getting together next time!
My readers wishes are my commands (when possible) so I've posted a short slide show below which includes a photo of the pan bars in a storage container. The middle one is upside down to show the many chocolate chips. I'd read that adding extra chocolate chips to this mix was suggested but there were enough in the mix for us.
Thanks for the tip about Food Lion having the mixes. We don't have those here but kudos to them for beating Publix to the punch!
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