LiveGlutenFreely Review and Giveaway

MyBlogSpark recently contacted me to gauge my interest in participating in a LiveGlutenFreely giveaway. LiveGlutenFreely is a (much lauded) initiative from General Mills/Betty Crocker to extend gluten free product information from their brands, and they sent me one of their product boxes with some stuff to try, all gluten free.

Well, I've written about some of the stuff in the box before: Gluten Free Bisquick, Yellow cake mix (and again here), Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, and Chex. However, I have not yet had the pleasure to talk about Betty Crocker's gluten free brownie mix or frostings, so let's focus on that.

As timing and luck would have it, yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday. The family went to Outback Steakhouse then came back to our house for dessert. I figured this was the perfect chance to try the gluten free brownie mix with chocolate frosting, and I also decided to make yellow cupcakes (I picked up funfetti icing, yay!) for my chocolate-hating hubby.

I was a little leery about making the brownie mix out-of-the-box since the mixes tend to be a bit gritty with no doctoring at all. So I picked up a package of chocolate fudge instant pudding (Jello brand) and added that and a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the mix. This made the mix clumpy and not wet at all, so I added another egg and a bit of water to moisten the mix before baking it. I baked it in a nonstick 9x9 pan, and it took in the ballpark of 30 minutes at 325. I think I cooked it a little too long, because the edges were crunchy (or just the right amount of time, depending on how you look at it).

For the icing, I mixed chocolate icing with a bit of Nutella, and spread it over the top of the brownies with some sprinkles for color.

The consistency of the brownies was denser than I would have liked - a lot more like fudge than an actual brownie. I think that was mostly due to the pudding mix that I added. They tasted incredible though - chocolate on chocolate, decadent and very, very rich.

The real test came, however, when my sister in law brought some of the brownies and cupcakes over to her non-gluten free friend. He tried them, loved them and didn't know the difference (and wasn't told) they were gluten free.

So, here's the fun part. MyBlogSpark and LiveGlutenFreely are offering a LiveGlutenFreely pack, valued on their site at 24.99, to one of my readers. The LiveGlutenFreely pack includes the following:

• Betty Crocker GF Brownie Mix
• Betty Crocker GF Yellow Cake Mix
• Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Chocolate Frosting
• Honey Nut Chex cereal
• Bisquick GF Baking Mix
• Betty Crocker Fruit Snack variety pack
• Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar
• Betty Crocker Potato Buds Mashed Potatoes
• Betty Crocker Red Serving Spoon
• Coupons and information about the Gluten Free diet.

How to enter:

• One entry: Leave a comment on this blog answering the question: What food product would you like to see available, gluten free, from a major retailer? Please note: Please include a way to contact you - e-mail preferable, Twitter handle acceptable, if I have to do a lot of research to figure out who you are and how to get a hold of you, I'll pass the prize on to someone more accessible!
  
• Bonus entry: Follow me on Facebook - if you already follow me, great! Post on the wall a link to your favorite gluten free recipe from LiveGlutenFreely.com for a 2nd entry.
• Administrative stuff: The winner will be chosen randomly, comments that don't include a way to get a hold of you will be disqualified. Contest closes at 11/19/2010 11:59:59 PM EDT and winner will be announced over the weekend. Prize will be courtesy of MyBlogSpark and LiveGlutenFreely and sent through them.

Good luck!!!!

Review & Giveaway: Bisquick Gluten Free Mix

My husband and I had already tried pancakes with the new gluten free mix. While they were admittedly delicious, I've never been big on pancakes or any other sugary food for breakfast. I usually end up sticking with protein and complex carbs, or else I end up crashing around 10 AM and I'm cranky all the way until lunch, it's really not a good scene for anyone. Still, it was a huge treat for my gluten free hubby, who doesn't seem to have that issue. ;-)

After pancakes, the next thing I tried (per Lisa's suggestion) was the baked chicken. I decided to try the ultimate chicken tenders with BBQ dipping sauce, and they came out wonderfully - they were a huge hit and are likely to be a winter comfort food staple. I also tried mozzarella sticks using the same breading/Parmesan cheese recipe with mixed results.

With such encouraging results so far, when Bisquick and MyBlogSpark offered me a prize pack in return for writing a review of their product I jumped at the chance!

The one thing I hadn't tried with the new GF Bisquick mix was baking a yummy dessert. I thought about an apple crisp, but after Karina's lackluster review I decided to try a cinnamon streusel coffee cake. I found the inital recipe on Betty Crocker's website, and decided to modify some things:

• First of all, these things never have enough streusel topping. Automatically double the streusel recipe.
  
• I've had good experiences with adding a package of vanilla instant Jell-O pudding mix to the gluten free mixes. It helps to keep the cake moist for a few days.
  

Here's the final recipe that I came up with:

Ingredients

Streusel Topping:

• 2/3 cup GF Bisquick mix
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup of butter *NOTE I used only about half of this.
  

Cake:

• 1 3/4 cup GF Bisquick mix
• 1 package instant french vanilla Jell-O pudding mix
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 2/3 cup H2O (I added a couple of extra teaspoons by eyeballing the mix)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 3 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 9-inch square (or round) pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl mix the dry streusel ingredients and add butter while mixing until it is crumbly.
   
2. In a medium bowl (I used our stand mixer), stir all coffee cake ingredients until blended. Add approximately half of the streusel ingredients to the cake mixture. Spread in pan; sprinkle with the rest of the streusel topping.
   
3. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown. Store tightly covered.
   

It came out REALLY good. Sweet, moist, chewy, and when it cooled off the next morning my hubby had a huge piece for breakfast (me, not so much, the whole sugary breakfast thing, but the piece I had last night was awesome). Definitely a keeper.

Now, for the good stuff. The folks at MyBlogSpark are providing one of my lucky readers a Bisquick pack of their own. It includes a (nice, cast iron) mini pancake pan, pancake pen, spatula, and of course a box of gluten free Bisquick baking mix.

To enter, please comment *on this blog post* and answer the following question:
What do you plan to make with the new Bisquick gluten free baking mix???

One entry per person, all entries must be submitted by 12:00 AM Monday, October 4th. (Happy Birthday, Samantha!). Thanks and good luck!!!

Gluten Free Bisquick!

Along with most of the other gluten free community, my husband and I were anxiously waiting for the arrival of Gluten Free Bisquick! When I read a comment on the Times Union Gluten Free blog that they were found in the East Greenbush Walmart, I went there on my lunch break to check it out, emerging victorious with not only a box of Gluten Free Bisquick, but also a box of Gluten Free "Asian Helper" Chicken fried rice mix. (We don't usually eat that stuff, but when my husband is on his own for dinner he always makes gluten free boxed mac and cheese - this might give a little more variety.)

This morning we decided to try the pancakes. (I'll admit, we were looking forward to Sunday breakfast for a few days, lol). I had read online something along the lines that you had to add shortening, but the box didn't call for it. So, off to Google I went.

First, I found a great blog review from Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom. This review called for 1 cup of shortening for every 8 cups of Bisquick. Since I only had 1 box (definitely not enough for 8 cups of mix), I didn't want to prepackage it but instead wanted to find out the "regular" box recipe to make pancakes. So my next stop was AllRecipes, where I found the Bisquick pancake recipe. However, all of the comments said to use the "Melt in your mouth" recipe instead. I trust their comments - and "melt in your mouth" sounds amazing, so that was the next recipe I looked for: Melt in your mouth Bisquick pancake recipe.

The final output was:

• 2 cups Gluten Free Bisquick mix
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk*
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 2 eggs

First, whisk together the Bisquick mix and shortening until it's completely combined. Then add the other ingredients and mix until combined. We used 2% milk and had to add some more milk - a little at a time until the consistency was pourable. Griddle-cook them the usual way.

The melt-in-your mouth pancakes called for an additional Tbsp of sugar but we didn't use it and thought the pancakes turned out wonderful. I heated up some pure maple syrup to pour over them, and they tasted JUST like regular pancakes!

We'll definitely buy more of their pancake mix. I'm looking forward to trying it on chicken and also trying the gluten free coffee cake recipes I've seen floating around. Yum!