Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Brownies (Trader Joe’s)

I do this for you. All of you gluten-free junkies and freaks have a friend in the business. I could go out there and fuel up on delicious wheat filled products and stuff myself full of pastry as you drool at my screen wishing you could enjoy it as much as I did. Alas, you cannot and the food industry makes feeble attempts at re-creating dishes normally packed with gluten to cater to your needs. These wheat free concoctions have about a 20% success ratio, and if a restaurant had this rate of failure, there’s no way that I would ever go back. But, again, I do this for you. When I picked up Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Brownies I knew exactly the chance I was taking, and if the tone of this blog has steered you anywhere. You know exactly how this went:

First off, I toyed with the idea of picking these up. The price tag wasn’t astronomical, but for two brownies it was a little steep. Then I thought about the fact that you could probably throw chocolate into just about anything and I would like it enough to justify paying that much for 2 brownies. So, I took it home and ripped open the first of the two individually wrapped brownies. I set it on a plate and warmed it up in the microwave for about 20 seconds. These instructions aren’t on the packaging, so don’t go looking for them. This is just how I prefer my brownies. I took the chocolate chip square out, and snagged my first bite. It crumbled in my hand. I grabbed the biggest piece that I could and popped it into my mouth. The dry bits on the outside flaked in my mouth like bits of chocolate flavored chalk. Moisture followed, but it wasn’t the thick velvety texture that I was used to out of a brownie. But, this wasn’t really a brownie. It was fake attempt at one, and failed.

I’d leave this one on the shelf. There are plenty of other gluten-free goodies to choose from, and unfortunately this one is among the 80% of wheat-less items that fail miserably. There are just some things that aren’t meant to be gluten-free. Brownies aren’t one of them. So, FORK the fool who tries to push one off on me.

Pumpkin Cranberry Scone Mix (Trader Joe’s)

Trader Joe’s went hard on pumpkin items this year and added to their baking line up a scone mix that will surely be steadily stockpiled in the carts of all pumpkin patrons.  I’ll be marking this freshly added product down on my list of loves, while starting my morning off with this twist on a British classic.  As soon as I woke up the next morning after my purchase, the oven was heating, the ingredients laid out, and anticipation was mounting.  Here’s how it all went down:

It all starts by tossing the mix in to a large bowl, melting down a stick of butter, measuring out 3/4 cup of whole milk, and cracking an egg into the bowl followed by the previously mentioned ingredients.  As you’ll notice in the image above I added some dark chocolate chips for a little extra flavor (you’ll want abou 1/4 cup of these), making them reminiscent of my favorite chocolate chip pumpkin cookies Mom used to bake.  Now, pre-heat the oven to 375 and mix all the ingredients until the dry mix has disappeared leaving a thick dough.  There should be a little butter residue remaining in the dish you used to melt it in.  Using your fingers, grease up a large cookie sheet and cover the surface. 

Place large spoonfuls of the dough about an inch apart (two fingers) and pop those pumpkin scones into the oven.  After about 12-15 minutes your kitchen will be filled with wonderful pumpkin aroma, and those scones ready to exit the oven.

My batch was able to yield 8 large scones. At $3.29 for the mix, when all was said and done each one of those delicious pastries came down to about 50 cents a pop. I highly suggest picking this pumpkin scone mix up and wrestling with your imagination and add to this colorful canvas whatever your heart desires. And, please, let me know what the FORK U added to your masterful mix.