Friday, June 4, 2010

Cherrybrook Kitchen Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix Review

It's a sad thing to be a baker and not be able to share your goodies with the ones you love most. First, there is the husband who doesn't like chocolate (what?!?!? I KNOW!). But sadly, my littlest one has allergies to tree nuts, cow's milk, eggs, and sunflower seeds and oil (there are a few more odd ball foods in there as well).

For the longest time his smart little body immediately rejected anything that had the food memory of having egg or an offending ingredient; it has only been recently that he has trusted in 'allergy friendly' foods just for him. Slowly I've been experimenting with egg replacers and other tricks to bake Vegan yummies for him, with moderate success that anyone else would want to eat it as well.


I thought I would give a try to the Cherrybrook Kitchen line of allergy-friendly mixes. These had a coupon, so I was only partially hesitant to still lay down the $4+ for a Chocolate Chip Cookie and a Brownie mix. Especially since the ingredients were just so, simple. But I know more than anyone that baking is a science and there is a lot of trial and error to get the right balance to make the magic happen.

Mixing was super easy: one stick of softened butter (or margarine if dairy free is needed), a little water and the mix stirred together then scooped onto a cookie sheet. The recipe was so simple, the boys both helped freely; I just felt like I needed to footnote the experience to them that opening a box isn't what mommy normally considers 'baking from scratch.'

As the pictures show, the cookies baked up beautifully just as a 'normal' chocolate chip cookie should. The inside is moist and a bit chewy and there is a nice crispness to the bottom of the cookie. The flavor is spot on and delicious; only a slight cakey taste hinted at the missing egg. I did notice that once I put them in an airtight container, some of that crispness softened. Half of this modest 20 cookie batch went into the freezer for future cookie fixes, or when I want to make sure that my little one has a safe treat to eat when we're visiting friends.  I still am going to work on my own allergy friendly recipes, but in the meantime, Cherrybrook Kitchen is a great addition to my kitchen.

3 comments:

  1. Their sugar cookie mix is awesome for the GF kids. When L wants to do sugar cookies with cookie cutters we use that mix. It can be modified to get rid of the dairy, too, so it's dairy; gluten, peanut, soy and egg free.

    (This is Jasmine, I'm too lazy to create an account, lol)

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  2. good to know. We usually just opt out of cookies or keep the old stand by package of Oreos on hand. I've found one store brand bakery cookie that is egg and dairy free and they are seasonal so I stock up and freeze. They aren't vegan though so it still leaves Kendra out.

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  3. I just bought this mix last night and I can't wait to try it! I'm glad to hear your had success with it!

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