Trader Joe's Gluten Free Brownie Baking Mix Review

Trader Joe's seems to have a new Gluten-free product every week. (Yea TJs! Thank you!) The latest one I tried is the GF Brownie Baking Mix.

The ingredients of the mix are:
Organic Evaporated Cane Juice (Sugar)
Sweet brown rice flour
Cocoa
Tapioca flour
Arrowroot flour
sea salt and xantham gum

To make the brownies, you combine the mix with one egg, 1/2 C vegetable oil and 3/4 C water. The package also suggests adding chocolate chips, dried fruit or nuts, if desired. The mix was easy to combine by hand.


I did not add anything to the mix but did put a few walnuts on the top for a sort of decorative effect. I baked mine about 20 minutes, 5 minutes longer than recommended (I was on the phone). The texture came out just perfect though, not too fudgy, not overdone.

So, texture was perfect, just like the "real" thing. To me, the flavor was not perfect. I detected a flavor not found in normal brownies. I couldn't pinpoint it but I think it's maybe the brown rice flour or the arrowroot. Bites of brownie with walnut covered up the mystery flavor. So, adding extras is recommended. I must say that other people did not detect the mystery flavor. My Aunt M, who has celiac disease, also made brownies from the TJ's mix. Her brownies had the same flavor (to me) and unlike mine the top of the brownie had a distinctly crunchy layer. My friend E (also wheat free) raved about the brownies she made (with walnuts). She took them to a party where they were the most popular of three different brownies and no one knew they were wheat free.

I'd give these brownies a 3 out 5. In summary, the flavor is a little weird to me but not to any of the people I polled. One out of three attempts had a crunchy top layer. When frozen and then thawed, the brownies retained the same texture and flavor as before freezing.