I am a big fan of brownies. Love ’em. So when it came time to experiment with desert during my gluten-free experiment, the first thing I did was hunt down a brownie mix that was GF. I came across Betty Crocker gluten-free brownies.
It wasn’t exactly a cakewalk finding gluten-free brownies at a restaurant.
Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Brownies
I’d have loved to find a higher quality version, but I settled for the Betty Crocker mix from my local Harris Teeter.
Mix Ingredients
The first thing I noticed on the box was rice flour. Rice in my brownie mix? That sounds like a disaster coming, even for a gluten-free brownie mix!
I think that the key difference between good brownies and bad is in their texture.
This is sort of the point of gluten, so I worried that most gluten-free brownies would be sort of grainy.
I was concerned that these gluten-free brownies would taste more like cardboard than brownies. I’ve had plenty of experiences with gluten-free foods to know this happens.
The most surprising part of the gluten-free brownies was the ingredients:
Sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), cocoa processed with alkali, rice flour, potato starch, corn starch, xanthan gum, salt. Contains soy ingredients.
The rice flour does not necessarily make something awful. All things considered, the ingredient list was fairly short and none-too-scary as well.
Final Review
I was surprised to find that these gluten-free brownies turned out to be quite good!
Preparation was not any different than your normal box brownies (tip: don’t forget to melt the butter, whoops), and cooking time was about the same.
They may not be quite as good as flour-less chocolate cake at a killer local restaurant, but they’re certainly an excellent gluten-free dessert!
Don’t hesitate to give the Betty Crocker gluten-free brownies mix a try!