Now that Turkey day has come and gone, it is officially full blown Christmas season! This means you can expect a large amount of various Christmas cookie reviews to come across your screen in the coming weeks. Gingerbread cookies are a special tradition and one of my non-negotiable cookies baked every Christmas and I know this is common for many households. One main, star ingredient, is molasses and not everyone wants to buy molasses just to leave it in their pantry until next year when you need it for Gingerbread again. It isn’t a hard recipe, it just has specific ingredients needed. Knowing that, I was excited to come across a Betty Crocker gingerbread cookie mix in stores and even more excited during a different shopping trip when I found the Great Value mix. It seems that when there is a specific type of cookie you are looking for, Betty Crocker always has a mix for it and most other companies don’t. A lot of companies have very standard cookies like chocolate chip and peanut butter while Betty Crocker has a little of everything. Sometimes it feels like they rule the market due to having such a variety of cookies for all seasons so it is always good to see when other brands, such as Great Value, bring some competition. Just because Betty Crocker has a wide range doesn’t mean they have the best version so let’s see how these two gingerbread cookie mixes compare.
Both mixes require 1 stick of butter, and 1 egg. Betty Crocker also calls for 1 tablespoon of water. I mixed up both cookie doughs and found that despite the additional water, the Great Value batter was stickier and also lighter in color. Tasting both cookie doughs I found that Betty Crocker’s mix was very molasses-y and very spice forward. It had more depth in flavor overall. The Great Value branded batter had more of a buttery flavor and was very nicely spiced, it wasn’t overpowering and had less molasses flavor.
Betty Crocker has finally included a chill step in their directions. It reads “if dough is too sticky to roll out, cover and refrigerate 15 minutes”. Great Value does not list this step despite it being a much stickier dough but I went ahead and put both in to chill for between 20-30 minutes.
If you want Gingerbread men or women, you’ll need to have one of these cookie cutters on hand or buy one before you start. However, you can also do any shape you want if you have a different cookie cutter handy. If you don’t have any cookie cutters and don’t want to buy one, both of these mixes provide slight changes to make a gingersnap cookie instead which is just as good. I went with the traditional gingerbread man because it is what I had on hand. I have this neat little dual sided cutter. It is a regular plastic cutter and the top is sealed over and it is embossed with the gingerbread mans face, buttons, and bowtie. Once the cookie is cut out, you flip the cutter it over and press it in slightly to get this design. I love the look of this and it’s so much easier than frosting this design on later.
Despite chilling, both cookie doughs were extremely difficult to deal with. I sprinkled so much flour down on my mat before placing the dough it was like a bed of flour and yet still it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t even touch the Great Value dough at this point so it went back in the fridge for 30 more minutes while I tried to work with the other one. Betty Crocker’s dough was slightly better and after using more flour than reasonable, I was able to get it rolled out to the recommended 1/4 inch. After about half the dough was rolled out, it got warmer and stickier so it had to go back in the fridge and at this time I was able to start with the Great Value dough. Again, I used an abnormal amount of flour and got the dough rolled out eventually. Both of these were the absolute worst cookie doughs I have ever rolled out. I think you should expect an hour chill time to start and then have a whole bag of flour on hand if you try these cookie mixes out. Due to the softness of these doughs, the gingerbread men were not coming out very consistent and most of them ended up looking a little wonky after being moved onto the baking pan.
For my nonstick cookie sheet, both recipes called for 350F in the oven. The Betty Crocker Gingerbread went in to bake first. The box called for 8-10 minutes and at 7 minutes the cookies were overbaked. Come on, do better Betty Crocker. I’m tired of being disappointed and lowering my expectations of your bake time every single time. This is going to be a long Christmas cookie season if we have to keep dealing with this.
Great Value went in to bake next and the box called for 8-11 minutes. I checked a couple times and they were nicely baked at 9 minutes. I was so relieved that their bake time was true, they already have impressed me more than Better Crocker for this fact alone. They came out looking nice, they were very crackly and didn’t hold their shape perfectly but enough in my opinion.
Great Value’s mix made about 20 cookies which is a nice surprise as their box says on the front “makes 17 cookies”. Betty Crocker’s mix made 30 cookies, which is better than their claim of 19 cookies. I did have some more dough leftover from both mixes so it likely could make more but I gave up at this count. For pricing, at my local Walmart where I found these two mixes, the Great Value was $1.96 and Betty Crocker was $2.47. These are both decently priced and very close in cost. I broke it down by the amount of cookies prepared and Great Value’s breakdown was $0.098 per cookie and Betty Crocker’s breakdown was $0.082 per cookie. Again, not very different in cost so it comes down to taste.
Both cookies were similar in appearance and texture. These are a crunchy Gingerbread which I feel most Gingerbread men should be. Softer gingerbread is more for the gingersnaps in my opinion. Tasting both side by side, Betty Crocker’s cookie was good. It tasted like a box of gingerbread you’d buy premade at the store. Simple, crunchy, decent, nothing notable. Great Value’s cookie was better. It had a better spice flavor and was just more flavorful. You really can’t go wrong with either of these but if you are at the store and have the choice, get yourself the Great Value Gingerbread mix. At the end of the day, Gingerbread cookies are a fun Christmas activity. Whether you use a mix or not, you are still rolling out the dough, cutting out the shapes, and sharing them with loved ones. Take this shortcut, save yourself a little time to spend elsewhere, and pick up the Great Value mix.
Great Values mix as prepared is 2080 calories. If baked into 20 cookies, each are 104 calories. Betty Crocker as prepared totaled 2450 calories. If baked into 30 cookies, each are 82 calories.
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