How is Ghirardelli brownie mix so cheap? Am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make brownies from scratch all of the time and the ingredients are unbleached flour, eggs, vanilla, butter, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and unsweetened baking chocolate.

Why not just use a $2 box of pre-measured ingredients? Does a box contain anything bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's sometimes on sale for $2 a box. We love the dark chocolate one. I use a half stick of French butter instead of veg oil the box suggests and it makes the most spectacular brownies. It doesn't make sense.

do you melt the butter? Yum!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheap chemical laden sugary ingredients are unfortunately what taste good to us. There's no secret.

I like them. Cooks Illustrated ragged them then best of boxed brownies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheap chemical laden sugary ingredients are unfortunately what taste good to us. There's no secret.

I like them. Cooks Illustrated ragged them then best of boxed brownies.

*rated.

[Anonymous]

Gah!!! I added them to my shopping list. Damn you DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's sometimes on sale for $2 a box. We love the dark chocolate one. I use a stick of French butter instead of veg oil the box suggests and it makes the most spectacular brownies. It doesn't make sense.

do you melt the butter? Yum!

Correct. I think the box recipe is 1/2 cup (4oz) oil? So that's 1 entire 4oz stick of butter, melted. They come out tasting far better than any $2 box of brownies ever should. I think I've sometimes added a splash of coffee or half a teaspoon of vanilla but not required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't chips like $5 a bag? Are the chips they put in boxes lower quality than the ones they put in a bag? Is there other junk in there I'm not detecting?

We make brownies very infrequently, but I made a large batch of these Ghirardelli dark chocolate ones last night for the Super Bowl and everyone wouldn't shut up about how amazing they were.

I mean…Ghirardelli is not buying its own chips at retail to put in its brownie mixes.

Ghiradelli MAKES the chocolate chips that they sell from ingredients. When you pay $2-$5 for a bag of chocolate chips, you are paying for manufacturing the chips, packaging them, shipping, advertising, etc. The chocolate used in the brownie mix is the same raw ingredients that goes into the chocolate chips, less all of the overhead that you are paying for. They include the cocoa powder, pre-manufacturing, they don't decompose the chocolate chips back into raw cocoa. It's the same cocoa that goes into both products, but they aren't making one produce to the use in the other.

[Anonymous]

Whenever we use a boxed mix, I replace the oil with butter and the water with milk. People rave about my blueberry muffins. All I do is make that small change. Same with cake and brownie mixes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheap chemical laden sugary ingredients are unfortunately what taste good to us. There's no secret.

I like them. Cooks Illustrated ragged them then best of boxed brownies.

Best tasting does not mean best quality or less chemicals. It means our tastebuds react positively. Chemicals, additives are engineered for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheap chemical laden sugary ingredients are unfortunately what taste good to us. There's no secret.

I like them. Cooks Illustrated ragged them then best of boxed brownies.

Best tasting does not mean best quality or less chemicals. It means our tastebuds react positively. Chemicals, additives are engineered for this.

Relax Karen, we don’t care about additives or chemicals in our brownies. Desserts are unhealthy by nature! Take your disordered eating elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheap chemical laden sugary ingredients are unfortunately what taste good to us. There's no secret.

I like them. Cooks Illustrated ragged them then best of boxed brownies.

Best tasting does not mean best quality or less chemicals. It means our tastebuds react positively. Chemicals, additives are engineered for this.

List the horrid chemicals in Ghirardelli brownies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheap chemical laden sugary ingredients are unfortunately what taste good to us. There's no secret.

Oh, good. You’re here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make brownies from scratch all of the time and the ingredients are unbleached flour, eggs, vanilla, butter, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and unsweetened baking chocolate.

Why not just use a $2 box of pre-measured ingredients? Does a box contain anything bad?

The homemade brownies have fewer chemicals and they taste better. And, honestly, I've been making this particular receipe for so long that I can have it measured, mixed and in the oven in 10 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Here is a link to the ingredients.

https://d2ln0cvn4pv5w2.cloudfront.net/unsafe/1024x800/filters:quality(100):max_bytes(200000):fill(white)/dcmzfk78s4reh.cloudfront.net/1446791707172.jpg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is a link to the ingredients.

https://d2ln0cvn4pv5w2.cloudfront.net/unsafe/1024x800/filters:quality(100):max_bytes(200000):fill(white)/dcmzfk78s4reh.cloudfront.net/1446791707172.jpg

That link does not work...

My screen shot is not working either...sigh