After having great success with Pamela's Luscious Chocolate Cake Mix I decided to try out a few more of the mixes from Pamela's Products. I knew that when we went home for Thanksgiving with my family there would be lots of treats for everyone to stuff themselves with, and I wanted to make sure that my son had some "safe" treats that he could enjoy too. I asked him if he wanted cookies or brownies, and he picked cookies.

Making Pamela's Incredible Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix

Pamela's mixes are actually sold in my regular non-specialty grocery store, in their very small organic section. The mixes are bagged and sell for around $5 a piece. This mix is gluten free, and largely dairy free. There is a disclaimer in the ingredients that the chocolate chunks "may contain traces of milk protein from the equipment", which I decided was acceptable for my son since he is on the gluten and casein free diet by our choice and not due to an allergy. There are several recipes on the bag for different types of cookies, bars or treats you can make using this mix. I elected to stick with simple and use the recipe for the Incredible Chocolate Chunk Cookies which only calls for 2 added ingredients.

Eggs or Egg Replacers
Butter or Margarine*

*I used a casein free and lactose free margarine, so we could stick to our dietary restrictions.

To make these cookies you cream the butter with a mixer and then add the cookie mix from the bag and the egg. There are separate instructions if you make these by hand and not with a mixer which includes melting the butter/margarine instead of creaming it. My mixture was a bit on the crumbly side, so I added a teaspoon of water to it per the directions. Once I added the water the mixture became more like cookie dough. Time to scoop the cookie dough onto the pan, this is the part that both of my kids got in on the fun for.

The mix yields 18 to 20 uniform cookies, though ours were not uniform at all and we had just over a dozen of them. They baked for approximately 18 minutes at 350 degrees and the kitchen smelled amazing. After taking the cookies out of the oven I was a little concerned because they seemed to be a bit on the thin side. When I lifted a few of them off of the cookie sheet they cracked and broke so I wasn't sure if we'd have cookies or cookie crumbles. I let them cool some more and they hardened up a bit.

When it came time for dessert, our cookies made there way to the table with the rest of the sweets and most everyone ate one (or two) of them. The overall consensus was that they tasted delicious and not like something that is a "special diet" item. I particularly enjoyed the big chocolate chunks of dark chocolate and that these cookies were very soft, even though they are on the thin side.

Best of all, my little boy was thrilled to have chocolate chip cookies that he could eat without restriction. I'd absolutely make Pamela's Incredible Chocolate Chunk Cookies again and again. I am looking forward to trying out a few of the suggested recipes next including cookie bars and chocolate brownie cookies. Yumm!

Ingredient info (as provided by the manufacturer):
Organic Chocolate Chunks (Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa Paste, Organic Cocoa Butter, GMO-free Soy Lecithin/emulsifier, Gluten-free Organic Vanilla. Chunks may contain traces of milk protein due to manufacturing equipment.); Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Brown Rice Flour, Brown Sugar, White Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch, Sweet Rice Flour, Grainless & Aluminum Free Baking Powder (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Potato Starch), Sea Salt, Organic Cocoa Powder (processed with alkali), Gluten-free Natural Flavor (contains corn derivative), Xanthan Gum, Baking Soda.



www.pamelasproducts.com

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