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| Gluten-free product family. Photo: Betty Crocker |
Betty Crocker now offers a line of gluten-free classic dessert mixes -- Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix, Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake Mix, Gluten Free Brownie Mix and Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix.
Among the ingredients in the mix is rice flour, a grain allowed on a gluten-free diet.
While the price point is a little higher than the normal cake mixes (the retail price is usually around $4.49), it saves a trip to the health-food store for your next gluten-free brownie craving. Plus, other comparable gluten-free mixes usually run a price point of $6 and up.
"There was always a premium paid for a product that was considered gluten-free," Elaine Monarch, executive director of the Celiac Disease Foundation, tells Slashfood. "Now that General Mills has brought that into the mainstream for a much lower price, it's fabulous."
The Betty Crocker Baking Team says they came up with the mixes after witnessing firsthand through two staff members how the disease can affect day-to-day living.
One staffer is a celiac while another's son faced the disease, the company says.
According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, celiac disease, also commonly referred to as a gluten intolerance, is a lifelong, digestive disorder. When celiacs eat foods that contain gluten, it creates "an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed."
Gluten is the common name for the proteins in certain grains -- found in all forms of wheat and rye, barley and triticale -- that are harmful to celiacs.
"It's hard to be different, especially when it affects sweet moments with friends and family," the company says on its Web site. "No one wants to miss sharing a birthday cake or see their child have to turn down a homemade cookie from a buddy after a game."
Since June, the mixes have been available in grocery stores nationwide. Plus, all of Betty Crocker Ready-to-Spread Frosting will be labeled as "gluten free" starting this fall.
Have you had the chance to try out these mixes? Let us know how they turned out in the comment section, and read more about gluten-free living at AOL Health.
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8-27-2009 @12:49AM KlaaTu said... They will probably taste like pure crap. Its amazing the things people will do thinking they're eating healthfood. Just don't pig out. Oink.
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8-27-2009 @5:13AM Bernie B said... I really love General Mills. When I buy a box of cereal there's no need to even look at the label of a GM product as they don't use HFCS. Now that they are putting out Gluten Free products, it's even more to love as I have some family members with Celiac Disease. Kellogs & Nabisco can suck it, thank you General Mills.
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8-27-2009 @6:11AM mommydearest9499 said... i tried the cookie mix last month. the mix looked like sand. when we bit into it........it tasted like we bent over and licked the playground sandbox! it was absolutely HORRIBLE!
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8-27-2009 @7:17AM Gwendolyn said... Gluten-Free Betty Crocker products are awesome. Just follow the directions and everything will come out fine. Gluten-Free cookie dough will look a bit like sand, just shape the cookies into small balls and put them two inches apart on the cookie sheet. Make sure to use real butter and that it is not too soft. They come out tasting like toll house cookies, or at least what I remember them tasting like before I was diagnosed with celiac years ago.
It's nice to not have to fork out a fortune for a GF mix. Now if someone could figure out how to make affordable GF bread that isn't gross, I'll be happy.
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8-27-2009 @7:31AM maandparob said... grandkids loved the cake mixes. They are reasonably priced compared to other gluten free products. The only ones I can use are the chocolate and yellow cake because the kids also have to be dairy free and the chocolate chips have milk in the cookie dough. So thanks and work on to make them dairy free also. I subsituted dairy free butter for the amount called for in the recipe. Worked great.
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8-27-2009 @7:46AM Dani said... Two of my children have celiac Disease and we have tried the chocolate cake mix. The kids loved it. I would vote it as the bext gluten free mix we have tried. The flours used can often be gritty tasting, but this was very moist. I'd recommend it!
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8-27-2009 @8:10AM dkd said... I have used all the mixes except the chocolate cake - and that is next. They were great! Even my family and neighbors like them. I think the cookie mix could be used to make a shell for a pie or cheesecake. I am thrilled to have something so good and so easy to grab at the grocery store! Thanks Betty Crocker!
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8-27-2009 @8:16AM ron said... chocolte brownies are good but toooo much chocolate
cannot find other products and hope i can b4 holidays have three celiacs to make them 4
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8-27-2009 @8:19AM jgw said... I have tried many gluten free products for my granddaughter who is allergic to wheat. These are by far the best products I've tried. The chocolate cake was moist and light unlike the heavy cake mixes I got from the health food store. It tasted great, too!
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8-27-2009 @9:47AM Barbara Daniels said... Maybe with competition like Betty Crocker, prices
will come down? It's a shame we have to pay MORE
for products since I feel punished enough just having the Celiac Disease, and not being able to eat my favorite foods...donuts, pasta, cinnamon buns. How many feel this way?
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8-27-2009 @12:05PM ghanima said... Now, hopefully, large-scale commercial bakeries will start considering the needs of the lactose-intolerant community as well.
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8-27-2009 @2:31PM Janice said... The brownie mix is the best by far that we have tried. I usually make everything from scratch but we love the brownie mix. We have tried all of the new betty g/f products and they are all awesome. We made ice cream sandwiches with the cookies that we made with the cake mix. We have also made cupcake ice cream cones with the cake mixes and g/f ice cream cones. So yummy! My daughters and her friends love them.
Thank you General mills...
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8-28-2009 @9:11AM Christine said... As long as you follow the recipe to a T, they're awesome!! I"ve had other GF cake mixes, but the yellow cake mix is great, moist and not gritty. The brownies were so good my non=celiac relatives gobbled them up. The cookies were a bit sandy, but I can make GF cookies from scratch that are better, so no loss there! Can't wait to try the Devil's food cake mix, it's not in our part of the country yet!
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9-11-2009 @2:09PM Barbara Zabriskie said... I want to thank you. For doing such a great job. My sister recently found the BROWNIES and made me some she knows how much I love brownies and then she told me they were Gluten Free OMYGOSH they are great , fluffy, not grainnie, or have any ukie after taste. Theyre not hard as bricks and my body accepts them even when I go hog crazy. I recently in the 5yrs found out I had a gluten problem and it has been pain stakingly crazy trying to find foods that are not heavy, ill tasting, and no-flavor. I own my own business and its hard at the end of the day to have to get excited about cooking from scratch. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK AND THANKS AGAIN FOR EXPLORING TO NEW HIGHTS.
Barbara
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10-01-2009 @9:47PM katie said... My mother is gluten free due to celiac disease and it was so nice to find an easy way to settle her sweet cravings. The Betty Crocker cake and cookie mixes are GREAT, we have had a chance to try all of them and since they are so easy to make I can do it after work and dinner with little hassle. Yes scratch is better but these are so easy and fast we always keep the mixes on hand. Also, its great that General Mills is becoming conscience to gluten intolerance and producing more products and better labeling of their items
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