Pro Chefs Blind Taste Test Every Boxed Brownie Mix

[Announcer] We've gathered three professional chefs

to blind taste test every boxed brownie brand

we could get our hands on

and see which ones meet their standards.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

Pillsbury Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix,

Not that much of a chocolatey smell.

This looks like a nice thick brownie.

This is exactly what I would expect from a boxed brownie.

What I look for in a brownie

is that intense chocolate flavor.

There should be a richness in flavor.

It shouldn't be flat or empty.

It's gotta have a crackly top.

It's just the perfect textures.

I want my brownie to have a firmer edge

and a softer center.

[Rhonda] It should be either caky, fudgy or dense.

If a brownie is not one of those things then what is it?

Is it a chocolate chip cookie?

I don't think that's what we want.

It's a little drier than I would've expected.

This is definitely a caky brownie.

See a lot of little air pockets.

Air is not your friend when it comes to baked goods.

Air is gonna dry out

whatever it is that you're trying to make

and that's the opposite

of what you're trying to achieve with a brownie.

[Jurgen] The crackly top is very nice.

There is a little bit of a drier, firmer edge

and then the inside is a little bit softer.

[Rhonda] It's lacking in that intense

chocolate flavor that I love.

There's cocoa powder in here and not melted chocolate.

Cocoa powder tends to give you a drier mix.

Melted chocolate tends to have a little bit more fat in it

and the fat is what gives you that smooth, fudgy texture.

I kinda almost feel

like this might be the Ghirardelli one.

Oh, I thought this might be it,

and then I totally doubted myself.

Hey, Pillsbury, wee!

It says that it is a dark chocolate brownie.

For me, dark chocolate is the way to go,

because that makes it intense.

This definitely wouldn't hit you as dark chocolate.

It's a lot sweeter than I expected it to be.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate

Premium Brownie Mix.

Look at that crackle. It seems to be a little denser.

Oh, I like the smell of this one,

Like it has a little more vanilla than the last one.

Very thick, but definitely fudgy,

Crunchy, fudgy, pieces of chocolate.

I think this has dark chocolate in it.

I like it because it's a little more chocolate forward

than it was sugar forward

and the lingering taste in my mouth is definitely chocolate.

[Jurgen] There are chocolate chips in this one.

When you have chocolate chips in a brownie,

it disrupts that smooth, velvety texture

that you get on the palette.

Since this is not warm, the chocolate is not melted

and it's hard, so you get a little bit

of extra crunch in that.

This edge is a little bit cookie like.

Where the center is more of that fudginess.

If I had to guess the brand,

I might say that it's Ghirardelli.

I'm gonna say that this is a Ghirardelli

triple chunk chocolate.

It feels like it's a more, it's a fancier brand,

so I'm gonna go back to the Ghirardelli, actually.

Am I gonna be right?

[Umber gasping]

Yes. Oh my gosh!

And it's dark chocolate.

Oh my gosh. I'm gonna play the lottery.

This is amazing, I'm right.

It feels more authentically dark.

This dark chocolate compared to the Pillsbury

seems a bit more intense,

but maybe a higher quality of chocolate.

Dutch cocoa powder, cocoa butter.

This is a higher quality brownie.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Duncan Hines Milk Chocolate Brownie Mix.

This looks like a blondie.

[Jurgen] This one is a little light and color.

I for sure, a hundred percent,

know that this is milk chocolate

'cause of the lightness in color here.

Hmm.

This one's a little bit on the sweet side for me.

I'm getting more of those caramel notes.

Because it's so sweet and so vanilla forward.

This feels like more like a milk chocolate

Hershey's situation here.

I would consider this a dense brownie.

There isn't a lot of crackly top.

You can see some parts of it are missing

and it's almost separating from the rest of the brownie.

Firmness of this brownie has more of a softer center

and a firmer edge here, but not too far off.

You can see that it's really glistening,

which shows you that there's a lot of extra fat or liquid

in the brownie.

Maybe it's Betty Crocker or Great Value brand.

I would like to double down

and say that this is Duncan Hines Milk Chocolate.

[Jurgen grunting]

I was right.

Duncan Hines Milk Chocolate. Hello, how are you?

It says thick and fudgy on the box.

I would not call this fudgy.

I think this milk chocolate brownie is a great choice

for someone who enjoys chocolate,

but not something that is intensely chocolatey.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Jiffy Fudge Brownie Mix.

I smell sugar before I smell chocolate.

It's not crackly.

That makes me a little sad.

That means that the sugar was not dissolved.

Maybe it was just mixed together. Hmm.

There's some strange crystals going on in here.

Oh, that's wet.

This tastes like it has dark chocolate in it,

but not enough to make it a really strong brownie.

Overall, it's very soft

from edges all the way into the center.

It can't even stand up to me holding it on the edge.

This is a caky brownie.

What makes a caky brownie cakier?

One, it has less chocolate, more flour.

You can whip a brownie to add more air into it

is how you achieve that cakiness.

This one's falling flat for me when it comes to richness.

I'm think maybe it's a Betty Crocker brownie.

Jiffy makes brownies?

Be me cornbread.

What I'm looking for in a fudge brownie

is one that is fudgy.

The fudge in this brownie is not coming through.

You're adding egg, oil and water.

So the egg is meant to give you structure, which is good

and because you're adding water,

you're not giving the sugar the chance

to make a a craggily top.

For a dollar this is fine. I'm good with that.

If that's a dollar, then this is fine.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Great Value Fudge Brownie Mix.

This is really nice and high. I like that.

It looks like it's almost like an inch thick.

Mm. It's fairly rich.

Do really like the edge piece on this.

[Umber] The firm edge and soft center ratio is spot on.

[Jurgen] Yeah, it's very fluffy, this one.

So you can see that there's a consistency

to the inside of the brownie.

It was mixed well, it bakes well. Craggily top.

[Jurgen] Wish it was a little more intense

with chocolate flavor.

But it's definitely fudgy.

I would say this is on the cakier side of a fudge brownie.

I think this recipe used oil,

because really gives the brownie that moisture here.

Sometimes when brownies are made with butter,

it tends to dry it out or the crumb is a lot more crumbly.

Kinda feel that's maybe one of the fancier ones.

The fancier brands.

Great value, oh that's Walmart, no?

Yes, it is the Walmart brand.

This one seems to have more vegetable oil in it.

Which is interesting,

because oil tends to give you a denser brownie than butter

and I think it works.

Walmart, not a bad job.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Trader Joe's Brownie Truffle Baking Mix.

Where is the crackled top?

It's fairly wet on top.

You can see chocolate chips in here.

They look like milk chocolate chips

and it looks a little flat.

Ooh.

This feels very sweet.

Reminds me of fudge

that you would get on a summer trip to the beach.

I'm getting a lot of richness coming through,

so I'm thinking possibly there's butter in this recipe.

This is interesting.

It has almost the same firmness throughout.

This is a fudgy brownie.

I really like the chocolate intensity here.

These taste like semi-sweet chocolate chips to me.

A semi-sweet chocolate chip

is gonna have a little bit more of a sugar forward flavor

than a dark chocolate.

I would take another bite of this.

Oh, Trader Joe's.

Brownie Truffle Baking Mix?

I'm not sure why they call it truffle.

Unless they think semi-sweet chocolate chips are truffles.

Is made with Dutch cocoa and chocolate chips.

The Dutch cocoa powder in this brownie

definitely comes through.

Dutch processed cocoa powder does three wonderful things

that we love in pastry making.

It makes it easier to dissolve.

It has a deeper color and is not as aggressively bitter

as the unprocessed cocoa powder would be.

I think this is a great brownie.

[cardboard popping]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] William Sonoma Fudge Brownie Baking Mix

Has a semi-crackled top.

It is definitely somewhat shiny here.

This brownie is crunchy.

A chocolate cookie.

It's kinda sweet.

I definitely have salt coming through.

And it has an odd aftertaste to it.

Chemical flavor is not the right word,

but there's something off

about the chocolateness in this one,

You can see that it is very, very dense.

Definitely firmer on the outside than it is on the inside.

This is a fudgy brownie, because it's a lot heavier,

a lot denser.

This looks like it has chunks of chocolate in it.

If you are going to use the larger chunks,

maybe use a higher quality chocolate that will melt.

Where these, I feel like I'm crunching an M&M.

I wonder if this is a Hershey situation's.

I think it's probably Betty Crocker.

What the heck?

Oh. What's this?

William Sonoma?

I didn't know they made that.

The William Sonoma Fudge Brownie Mix.

This was not a great brownie.

You need unsalted butter. You need eggs.

You need warm water and you need a brownie mix.

I think they use warm water in here,

because the butter is melted

and they might not want the butter to solidify.

I get that this brownie is dense in its fudginess,

but that isn't what you're looking for in a brownie.

You want there to be chew, that's gonna be dense,

you don't need it to sort of feel like a heavy, heavy piece.

$15 for this box. Does it cook itself?

This brownie feels more like an obligation than a treat.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

Betty Crocker and Hershey's Triple Chocolate

Fudge Brownie Mix.

It smells like the brownies that we used to get

with school lunch, which I'm not mad about.

This one looks a little bit dry to be honest.

The crackly top is missing a little bit here.

I am getting a lot of chocolate chips in here.

It's almost too many chocolate chips.

This is very chewy.

Feels more caky.

It doesn't have that chocolate intensity.

[Jurgen] It's probably a semi-sweet mix.

I don't think this is milk chocolate.

This doesn't feel like it has a super-high quality

chocolate in it.

When I turn the brownie upside down,

most of the craggily top came off.

You can see that it's a bunch of holes.

That means if you don't eat these brownies today,

they're gonna be dry by tomorrow.

This is fudgy brownie

Firm and soft in the right places.

I'm gonna say Betty Crocker for this one.

Hershey's and Betty Crocker

Triple Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix.

Why is this box so big? A four pack.

That's why.

Chocolate chips, chocolate chunks and dark Dutch cocoa.

I do not feel that that's happening here. I'm very sorry.

I don't think triple chocolate

is an accurate name for this brownie.

I get that there's three types of chocolate in there,

but it doesn't triple the flavor

or the intensity of the chocolate flavor

as this would suggest.

[scissors snipping]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Sticky Fingers Fudge Brownies.

It's sort of a blonde chocolate.

[Jurgen] It looks dense,

Kinda sticks to the roof of your mouth

like it's peanut butter, but there's no peanut butter.

It's not chocolatey at all.

The crust is not as crusty as I want it to be.

[Rhonda] While it's not a crackle top

it lends to some texture variances.

This is very wet and dense throughout from edge to center.

It's just got so much liquid in the mixture

that it just doesn't even have a chance

to give itself a little bit of personality.

Sticky Fingers?

Just add water, mix and bake.

Well, that's disturbing.

For this one, you don't have to add eggs, butter or oil.

This is not normal, to not add those things to this recipe.

Dried egg, in here already.

Ah, you really need an egg to make a brownie work.

The egg yolk will give you richness.

The egg white adds the water

and that also allows the sugar to dissolve,

which is giving you the crackly top.

For a mixture where you just add water,

it's better than I would've thought.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Simple Mills Almond Flour Brownie Baking Mix.

This one looks very brown.

This is a very matte-colored brownie,

which is usually not what you're looking for.

Definitely more on the caky side

and on the less sweet side.

There's something here

that has a little bit of an off flavor to me,

that is distracting from how chocolatey

it should be tasting.

It doesn't taste like there's as much sugar

in this brownie as other brownies, which again tracks,

because you're not getting craggily top,

which comes from the sugar.

The texture is very much the same

all the way throughout, I find.

I wonder if that's an artificial sweetener or something

or if it's a gluten-free one.

Mm, are you gluten free?

Simple Mills Almond Flour.

Ah, so these are also gluten-free.

Almond flour is not flour.

Almond flour is just what you refer

to very finely ground almonds.

It's like how almond milk is not really milk.

There is no, you know almond that you milk.

This uses organic coconut sugar as a sweetener.

Yet this doesn't taste as sweet

as it would with regular sugar.

The challenge with coconut sugar

is it's not gonna dissolve into your ingredients

as a regular sugar would,

in order to give you the craggily top.

And clearly it, we didn't get it here.

I'm actually allergic to coconut.

So the crew didn't let me have this one.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Betty Crocker Supreme Frosted Brownie Mix.

Ooh, does this have frosting on it?

Who does that?

Hmm.

This is super dense.

It's chewy through and through. I like that.

I really enjoy the topping on this.

It kinda melts in your mouth,

it has like this velvety smooth texture.

If I take just a bottom piece of the brownie,

there's not enough chocolate in it.

So in order to get the chocolate flavor

or level that you're looking for,

you kind of have to add that frosting on top,

which is much sweeter.

It's nice and fudgy,

but it's not as chocolatey as I want it to be.

Does have like a grittier texture on the palette.

But overall, as far as chocolate intensity,

I think it pairs well with this brownie

'cause it doesn't overpower the brownie.

It actually adds a nice moistness.

Betty Crocker Supreme Frosted Brownie Mix.

So here's where it starts to go south.

It's called chocolate-flavored frosting,

which immediately implies

that it's not actually chocolate, chocolate frosting.

So that makes me a little bit sad.

This is not a bad brownie. Make it.

Eat it. Share it.

[scissors snipping]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Otto's Naturals

Grain-Free Classic Brownie mix.

Okay, so it looks a little crumbly.

Bumpier, grittier,

could possibly be a gluten alternative brownie.

This actually has a crunchy crust to it

like you were to eat on the outside of a bread

or something like that.

The edge is definitely firmer than the center.

It's very wet texture.

That, look, it's breaking. That's a no-no.

What are you doing?

I wonder if that's another gluten-free mix.

In a way, I feel like I can almost smell the oil in here.

You do get that richness, because it's straight fat.

This one falls somewhere in the middle,

between dense and fudgy.

This tastes like natural chocolate,

but it doesn't have a homogeneous lush taste to it.

It's almost a little woodsy, if that makes sense.

I don't know another way to put it,

but it feels like more of a natural brand or natural mix

as opposed to one that's more commercially produced.

Otto's Natural Grain-Free Classic Brownie Mix.

Avocado oil or neutral oil.

I see, they're trying to be healthy.

Cassava flour.

It's derived from the cassava root,

which is very popular in either Africa or Jamaica.

It's more glutenous than other flours.

If you would prefer to have a brownie

that is wheat alternative,

I don't think it's a bad option.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling]

[Announcer] Little Debbie's Cosmic Brownies.

I remember these.

This is my childhood.

Wow, this is very dense. It's heavy.

So this one's definitely fudgy, I would say.

I don't even have to try that.

Perfect cuts. Perfect top, perfect smell.

This is definitely meant to be shelf stable.

This can probably sit around for a long time.

Prepackaged brownies typically have oil

just for preservation.

There feels like there is no moisture

in this brownie at all.

Wow. That's not very good.

And I loved these.

You know, it tastes exactly like how did when I was a kid.

I didn't know any better

and I didn't know what a great brownie had.

I feel like my childhood has been ruined.

If you want something really, really, really, really,

really, really, really, really fudgy, that's the one.

[Rhonda] It's not dry, it's just not moist at all.

It tastes a little bit like a chocolate protein bar.

Has that sort of aftertaste to it.

The color is lovely, but I'm fairly certain

that was not achieved through actual chocolate.

[Jurgen] It's quite sweet.

The glaze is very even texture across the top.

Nice little distribution of the colored candies.

It's almost hard to get through,

because this brownie is so intense.

This is a Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie. Come to mama.

Oh, the Cosmic Brownie. Yeah!

This would be different than a boxed brownie,

because it has to have a lot more preservatives in it.

Anything you're making fresh in your kitchen

should be eaten within the first couple of days or frozen.

You don't wanna keep them on the shelf

like you'd keep these.

In order to get the shelf stable

we definitely sacrificed some flavor and some texture.

I know these are aimed for kids,

but I would still enjoy it, even if it's not my favorite.

[scissors snipping]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Keto & Co Fudge Brownies Keto Baking Mix.

This looks very fudgy.

There isn't that craggily top to it.

That automatically implies

is you probably have more moisture in here.

That's not a regular brownie.

There is something else in here.

It almost tastes like it hasn't been baked.

[Jurgen] It's not very chocolatey.

Strange after taste,

that right now I can't figure out what that is.

I think there's not enough sugar in here

to balance out the bitterness of the chocolate.

It breaks more than it crumbles.

That's one of the things that separates a brownie

from a piece of fudge is that it's gonna have crumb

like a cake crumb to it.

Keto & Co. Oh no.

Fudgy and rich brownies. Get outta here.

Explains why it's so dense.

'cause there's nothing floury or caky about it.

Oh! Ha, ha.

No sugar added. That makes sense.

You have to balance something that's bitter

with something that's sweet.

Something that's salty with something that's savory,

and if you only have one of those components,

you're gonna get a flavor like this.

It also has a sugar replacer

with a lot of things that I can't pronounce.

I don't think you can have a sugar replacement

that does all the things that sugar does.

The chemical makeup just cannot,

it just can't be the same.

This one has coconut flour in it.

Another coconut one, so this one isn't for me.

Sorry.

As much as you want, as a Keto follower,

to have a brownie, you're probably better off

just going with chocolate.

[paper ripping]

[mix pouring]

Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Brownie Mix.

Ha, ha, ha. This one looks like a dirt road.

[Jurgen] We have a crackly top on this one.

It looks to be very dry.

Maybe milk chocolate here. Natural cocoa powder.

The sugar is the dominant flavor and not the chocolate.

This is a wheat alternative brownie.

I'm getting some, not specifically a grit,

but not a smooth, velvety texture that melts on my tongue.

There's no big distinction between the textures,

between the crust and the rest of the brownie.

[Umber] But it has a nice balance of cake crumb

and fudginess to it.

This is a crackly top,

but not something that we've seen before, that's shiny.

This is more matte.

I think the brownie presents better than it tastes.

It's Bob's Red Mill.

Gluten-free brownie mix.

I was right.

Two different types of rice flour, potato starch,

and some other happiness in there.

I like rice flour because it tends to be lighter

and it gives a little bit more sort of airiness

and levity to things.

It does add some nuttiness to it

and I don't know if it's that.

I can definitely taste the rice flour in this.

So brown rice flour especially is something that sticks out.

This brownie is thirsty.

It needs more moisture, more eggs, more oil, more.

Just really throw whatever you got at this brownie.

It needs it.

[paper tearing]

[water splashing]

[door slamming]

[Announcer] King Arthur Super Fudge Brownie.

Oh, he's cute. Why is he round?

Oh, this came out of a microwave.

I say that, because the top of it looks boiled.

You can see that there's a lot of little holes in the top,

so little air bubbles have popped.

It smells like raw cocoa.

It's sticking to the roof of my mouth.

But this is definitely fudgy

Doesn't have a balance of flavor to it,

and it also has a really, really weird texture.

It's like spongy on top.

I would say the chocolate's pretty intense here.

But it tastes more like the chocolate

that you would squeeze into milk.

You would think that it's caky,

but once you bite it, no, this is dense all the way.

It's just a one note texture on this one, sadly.

That's what happens when you bake things in the microwave.

It doesn't brown things, just kind of cooks them

and like makes them fluffy and then sets them.

[Rhonda] There is a pudding-like soft texture inside.

Always, the inside is really, really hot,

while the exterior is not as hot,

and that's how it cooks.

This is one of the little packages that you buy for,

put it in the mug or maybe it even comes with the mug.

Does it come with the mug?

Oh, it comes in a cup?

King Arthur.

Gluten free, again. Super fudge brownie.

Well, definitely super fudge.

They're using a rice flour.

Kind of explains a little bit of the sponginess.

When you use rice flour in baked goods,

what sometimes happens is they get that glutenous texture,

almost like a Mochi Brownie,

which is like all the rave right now.

The rice flour is being better absorbed here,

because the water molecules are working.

[cardboard tearing]

[paper crinkling] [mix pouring]

[Announcer] Kodiak Cakes Protein-Packed Fudge Brownie Mix.

There's no scraggly top to it.

Everything from inside out is very firm.

This is very, very dry.

It's screaming for milk to dunk.

There is no fudgy cake. This is dense.

This does not taste very chocolatey.

Overall sweet flavor

and less of a deep, rich chocolate flavor.

This really tastes like maple syrup to me.

I do not enjoy this texture.

I feel that this brownie is trying to be healthy

and it's not working.

I think it's Kodiak,

because they make like a protein-packed brownie

that is more firm.

[Rhonda gasping]

It's Kodiak!

Ha, ha, ha.

Park City, Kodiak Protein Brownie.

That's why.

It's 'cause that's for the people that work out.

The protein in this recipe

is coming from the whey protein concentrate,

whole grain oat flour.

It has cane sugar in it.

Because cane sugar has a larger grain size,

it'll play in a little bit more

into the texture of the brownie.

It's not gonna dissolve completely

in whatever liquid you have.

You're not going to get a craggily, shiny top on top.

You're also gonna get more of a gritty texture,

because you're still gonna crunch into little bits of sugar.

I think that the maple syrup flavor

is coming from the cane sugar.

Cane sugar is gonna have more of the molasses

and more of the natural flavoring.

There definitely are better ways

to get more protein into your diet.

[Announcer] Let's see which products

our chefs like the most and the least.

Overall, I have a lot of sugar in me right now.

Ooh, a lot of brownies.

My favorite is the Ghirardelli

Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownie.

The level of chocolate intensity that that brownie had.

I also love that it had chocolate chips

that I could taste and bite into.

Ghirardelli one was definitely my favorite.

It was a nice rich flavor. It was nice and fudgy.

I thought the Ghirardelli was great,

but the Trader Joe's was better.

Felt like I was getting a richer chocolate.

I liked the chocolate chunks in there.

That's my number one.

I might not be recommending the microwave brownies

or some of the all natural or high protein brownies.

It takes away from the essence

of why you're eating a brownie

and you've gotta stick with the brownie.

The Duncan Hines milk chocolate. [scoffs]

I would not call that a brownie.

I think that it's more of a blondie,

and nothing's wrong with blondies,

but don't tell me I'm getting a brownie

when this is a blondie.

Jiffy really was a letdown,

because I really feel like I can trust them

with the cornbread and then the fudge brownie

that they said that was gonna be, that did not work for me.

There's still nothing like a fresh baked bakery brownie,

but if you're looking for something

that you can make at home, you definitely have some options.

[upbeat music ending]