Wow - what a title, but you have to read to the bottom for the giveaway.
First, I have to give Two Thumbs Up to Betty Crocker for their four new Gluten Free Mixes - a Yellow Cake Mix, Devil's Food Cake Mix, Brownies and Chocolate Chip cookies. We have tried them all thanks to some samples received from MyBlogSpark and were very pleasantly pleased and surprised.
Honestly, I did not expect much out of these mixes. We have all seen the proliferation in gluten free products and when I read Betty Crocker was getting into the picture I just figured it was a mainstream manufacturer throwing together some rice flour and calling it good.
I was wrong.
We tried them all and they are very tasty. The Chocolate Chip cookies taste like, well Chocolate Chip cookies. And have you tried making chocolate cookies from scratch? It is not that easy.
The cake mixes are moist and pleasant.
Really the only criticism we could offer is that the Brownie mix is a little light on ingredients - one box makes a very flat 9 x 9 brownie. I will probably use two boxes next time around in the same 9 x 9 pan. Maybe this is a further statement on how much we liked them. One box was just not enough.
All of the Betty Crocker mixes are made in a gluten free processing facility, so no need to worry about cross-contamination. They are also easy to make casein free. We just substituted our favorite dairy free products - Almond Milk and Earth Balance - but you can find butter free directions on the Betty Crocker website.
There has been a lot of buzz on the web about how much butter the mixes call for. Of course you can try to cut back on the butter and replace it with other healthier options, but remember you are making cookies! Plus this is mainstream manufacturing - Betty Crocker does not make any claims for organic ingredients or non-GMOs which those of us in the gluten free world have grown to appreciate. These mixes are what they are - great Gluten Free mixes, made by a major manufacturer for mass consumption through chain grocery stores at reasonable prices.
There has also been a lot of chatter about the need to continue to support those original gluten free "founding" companies such as Pamela's. I say again these mixes are what they are. In a side by side comparison with cookies made with Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix, Pamela's won hands down. We used the recipe right on the side of the bag. The Pamela's cookies were plumper, moister and just tasted better. But wouldn't we expect that? Pamela's has been perfecting gluten free mixes for years (and done a great job of it) and, of course, I would buy Pamela's brownie mix first. But according to Betty Crocker one in nine US households watches, reduces or avoids consuming gluten - that is a lot of households and specialty products like Pamela's are just not available to all of those households yet.
So I say Thumbs Up to Betty Crocker - thank you for developing a safe, affordable, easily available GF product that is actually pretty darn tasty.
Shelly's Streusel Cake
Now to the Streusel Cake. First I have to introduce you to Shelly. She is a gluten free mom from the south and my very dear cyber-friend. Yes, we met on-line through my website and had shared much information together before I actually saw her face two years later when we became friends on Facebook.
I love Shelly - she is great Mom, working hard to advocate for the gluten free life and always seeking great gluten free products. She inspires me to keep going!
This is Shelly's Recipe for Streusel Cake using the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix
1 pkg Betty Crocker Yellow GF cake mix
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 Cup Cooking Oil (Wesson/Crisco)
4 eggs
1 Cup GF buttermilk (for dairy free we used 1 cup soy milk with 1 T of lemon juice)
2 tsp GF Vanilla
2 Tbs Brown Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
Grease and flour a bundt pan.
Combine remaining ingredients well and pour a little more than half into the bundt pan.
Add the Brown Sugar/Cinnamon mix in a complete circle, careful not to touch the inside/outside of pan or it will burn. (We were not that careful with ours and it turned out just fine.)
Cover with the remaining batter.
Cook at 350 for about 55 minutes or until light golden brown on top.
Remove from pan and let cool.
We topped ours with Vanilla Frosting.
Finally for the Give Away:
The first person who posts a comment with their review of the Betty Crocker GF mixes (and a recipe using one of them would be nice) will receive a Betty Crocker Sweet Moments prize pack complements of MyBlogSpark.com.
