Betty Crocker Goes Gluten Free

The story is on the side of the box of Betty Crocker’s new Gluten Free Brownie Mix. Two co-workers, it seems, “found themselves in the gluten free world”. It was this close encounter with the need for gluten free foods that induced the company to produce a line of gluten free baked goods mixes. 

As the parent of a child with Celiac disease, I am a baker in the gluten free world. Baking without flour requires a whole new set of cooking skills. Bread dough is the consistency of cake dough. Cake dough is thicker than gravy but not as thick as cake dough with flour in it. Baking gluten free requires an orchestration between tactile and visual sensory input, because unlike gluten baking, in which precise measurements are required, gluten free baking has its variants. 

In the last year and a half I’ve been mastering the techniques of gluten free baking, and at times I longed for the ease of a packaged mix. There were a few out there, but they were high priced. The results from some were less than satisfactory. 

Imagine my surprise and glee when I saw Gluten Free on a Betty Crocker mix. Betty Crocker has been and continues to be a standard to which all other mixes are held. 

So naturally I scooped up a couple of boxes: Gluten Free Brownie Mix and Gluten Free Cookie Mix for chocolate chip cookies. 

I made the brownies. The consistency was very similar to that of flour brownies. That made me wonder if they would be too crumbly. The moisture content is tricky in gluten free baking, hence the variations in consistency. I spread the brownie mix in the 8x8 pan and popped the pan into the oven. 

I baked it at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. They looked like regular brownies. I was very suspicious. 

Once cooled, I cut a small portion of brownie from the pan and took a bite. 

It was delicious! 

I was thrilled with the results, as were my son and husband, who enjoyed a few of the brownies while watching a football game. 

For just under $4, I can whip up a batch of brownies in a matter of minutes, have them out of the oven and cooled in time for dessert. For someone who works a lot of hours and is the chief cook and bottle washer as well, this is a godsend. 

Having a few of these mixes on hand will save me a great deal of time and money. Learning to bake gluten free has cost me a fair chunk of change in lost ingredients. I’ve mastered several recipes, and won’t abandon baking from scratch. But there are just days when I don’t have the time, and it will be Betty Crocker to the rescue.

I'll be trying the cookies real soon.