The first thing I remember baking by myself is peanut butter cookies. I came home from school and after searching the pantry decided it was all we had the ingredients for. I baked these cookies with love and even got my first oven burn while pulling them out of the oven. I was proud and definitely ate too many of them.
The recipe I had used was a three ingredient quick and easy recipe. Every time I crave peanut butter cookies I make them this way and was baffled to see this box mix at the store advertising as “ready in 3 easy steps”. In my mind, this seems inferior due to having to buy the mix. I had to give them a try side by side with my tried and true 3 ingredients peanut butter cookie.
3 ingredient peanut butter cookies are made with 1 egg, 1 cup white sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter. Most people probably have these ingredients lying around already making it super convenient. You mix it up, bake at 350°f for 6-8 minutes.
Betty Crocker’s peanut butter mix requires 1 tablespoon water and 2 tablespoon vegetable oil. You mix it up and bake it at 375°f for 8-10 minutes.
I mixed these two cookie recipes up side by side and the dough was very different in appearance and taste. The homemade 3 ingredient tasted like peanut butter and was still gritty with sugar. The box mix was a cohesive dough and tasted like an artificial peanut butter maybe like a powdered peanut butter, not the strongest flavor side by side but not bad. Betty Crocker’s mix made a solid ball of dough to form into cookies whereas the 3 ingredient mix was a much stickier mixture.
I scooped the dough with a tablespoon sized cookie scoop and despite Betty Crocker’s package saying it would make 12 cookies, I got 9 out of it. The 3 ingredient mixture made 20 cookies with the same size scoop. The box mix dough was a bit lighter in color but it all looked very similar when shaped into balls and on their baking pans.
Of course the next step was to flatten both pans of cookie dough into a crisscross pattern with a fork. The look is a staple for peanut butter cookies and the biggest telltale sign of what type of cookie you’re about to eat. I did leave these plain to compare the two but peanut butter cookies can be spiced up by rolling the dough in sugar before doing the crisscross or by drizzling chocolate on the cooled cookies.
I baked the two pans at the separate temperatures they required and surprisingly both pans finished cooking at about 9 minutes. You could now definitely tell the difference. The box mix cookies spread out and became even flatter than the pictured cookie on the package. The 3 ingredient homemade cookies did not budge and remained the same shape they started as before they were baked.
Betty Crocker’s peanut butter cookie was more stiff but was not a hard cookie. It was still soft with a bit of a nice crunch to it. It had good flavor and was a surprisingly good peanut butter cookie. The 3 ingredient cookie was so soft it was falling apart and crumbly. The consistency did not change from the dough it just seemed to have had some moisture cooked out. It tasted exactly like peanut butter and sugar and was almost still gritty and just seemed like a warm version of the dough. It was not bad but side by side, Betty Crocker’s cookie was far better. It made a more cohesive cookie with a more complex flavor and texture.
I bought this mix to mock it and hate on it but have been put back in my place. If you want an easy peanut butter cookie, you cannot go wrong with buying this mix rather than making them homemade (with more than 3 ingredients). While the 3 ingredient cookies still hold a place in my heart, they have been brought down a notch with this eye opening experience.
The box mix as prepared is 1140 calories and if divided into 9 cookies it is 126 calories each. The 3 ingredient recipe totals 2320 calories and if divided into 20 cookies it is 116 calories each.
Here are the links to products used today:
Betty Crocker’s Peanut Butter Cookie Mix – https://amzn.to/44C8F1q
Oven Mitts – https://amzn.to/3JYq5Mg
Cookie Scoop – https://amzn.to/3UFhuTz
Baking sheet – https://amzn.to/3UGKcDA
*These are affiliate links meaning if you click on the link and buy the product, I will earn a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more.
2 responses to “Comparing Betty Crocker’s Peanut Butter Cookie mix to homemade”
I see a pattern in the latest mixes that you have not mentioned but I would appreciate your take on: value. In my opinion a cookie mix should make a minimum of 12 cookies, not 9. If these mixes are cheaper priced than other mixes AND smaller batches then I get the point, but if these mixes cost $5 and still require additional ingredients then it seems like a poor value to me but I would appreciate your take on this topic.
While this mix was only $1.79 I do agree with you, it should make a dozen like it claims to. A dozen cookies is the standard. I feel these companies may be making smaller batches and charging less to appear as the cheapest on the market but similarly priced per serving.
An interesting thing to note is that I picked this mix up on Amazon but when searching for the price I found Walmart carries this brand in a larger size that claims it makes 18 cookies and costs $2.47. Broken down the cost per serving is about one cent different so it’s very close but it definitely seems they are selling smaller packages to appear cheaper and in the single dollar range.