!44: Which Brownie Mix is Best? I Conducted an Informal Tasting to Find Out

!±8± Which Brownie Mix is Best? I Conducted an Informal Tasting to Find Out

Which is the best brownie mix to select when you don't have the time, ingredients, and/or inclination to make brownies from scratch?

The folks at a well respected cooking magazine recently published results of their official tasting to determine which boxed brownie mix produces the best brownies. They compared seven boxed brownie mixes to determine their winner.

When I gathered with my extended family in Florida to celebrate the holidays, I thought it would be fun to have a boxed brownie tasting of our own. Since there were only nine of us, we limited our tasting to 3 of the top rated brownie mixes from the cooking magazine's tasting.

The thee mixes I chose for our tasting were:
Barefoot Contessa Pantry Outrageous Brownies Ghirardelli Chocolate Syrup Brownies Betty Crocker Ultimate Fudge Supreme Brownies

We made the brownies according to their package instructions and baked them in 8-inch foil pans since we were on vacation with limited access to kitchen ingredients and equipment.

What Did I Learn From The Brownie Mix Tasting?

The one thing I learned from this taste test experiment is that taste is most definitely subjective. What one person deems "delicious intense chocolate" another calls "too chocolate. This is important information to remember when judging recipes. With brownies there are no definites -- some prefer a cake like texture, others, fudge like, some more chocolate flavor, some less. The key is to find/or adjust what works for your particular tastes.

What Were The Results of Our Brownie Tasting?

The Barefoot Contessa Pantry Outrageous Brownie won by a nose with the "most real chocolate flavor" and "most like homemade. Some felt these were too chocolate; too rich and too dense and fudgy. This mix was the most expensive of those we tested, but with high quality ingredients. If you want homemade tasting brownies with the convenience of a boxed mix and are willing to pay a little more, this is the brownie mix for you. It's available in upscale grocery stores and online.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Syrup Brownie Mix placed second. They were described as "just right," "better texture" and "less chocolatey" than the Barefoot Contessa's, which some thought was a good thing. Additional descriptors included "best chocolate flavor," "good chocolate flavor," and "well-balanced." At a price of .69, they are less expensive than the Barefoot Contessa Outrageous Brownies and available at most larger grocery stores.

Betty Crocker Ultimate Fudge Supreme Brownie Mix placed third. These brownies were described as "very chewy," "most moist," "good chocolate taste" "not chocolate enough," gummy texture," "most cake like," and "more sweet than chocolate." This box was on sale for .50 the day I picked them up at the market.

How Did These Findings Compare with the Folks at the Cooking Magazine?

They ranked Ghirardelli first followed by the Barefoot Contessa, Pillsbury (which we didn't sample) and Betty Crocker.

I still think my favorite brownie mix for the price is the Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix. and will be sure to include them in my next brownie tasting.

The truth is whichever boxed brownies you choose will be enjoyed and appreciated. In my experience, most plates of brownies get devoured with gusto, whether from a box or from scratch. And conducting brownie tastings is a fun way to sample many different kinds of brownies at once with less guilt.