Nothing excites me as much as a new baking brand showing up on the market. More brands means more competition and encourages the old brands to better their product or create new ones to stay relevant. At my local Smiths, I came across a new box mix brand called Cravings by Chrissy Teigen. Upon further research it seems this brand envelopes cookware, bake ware, cookbooks, and food products such as box mixes. The box mixes were released at the end of 2022 which I found surprising as I have never seen them in store near me. I did look online and you can purchase these mixes on Amazon or on the companies site directly however you have to buy a 3 pack. I am not sure what took so long for this brand to come to stores near me but I am glad it finally did, I’d hate to have to buy a 3 pack without knowing if I like the product.
I’ll admit when I saw this mix, I recognized the celebrity name and thought “yeah she’s famous” and didn’t know why. A quick google search told me she started with modeling, then acting, and is also married to John Legend, a popular singer. On the company site, Chrissy writes about spending all her time in the kitchen and loving to cook and bake, she even mentions previously running a food blog and writing a cookbook. This brand only has a couple of box mixes so fingers crossed this goes well and we can give the others a try. If this product sucks, I’ll be hesitant to try their other products. With celebrity brands it seems to go one way or another, either they have a passion and care about a quality product so they make their own, or they like a product, partner with a company, and slap their name on it so that it sells.
Today I picked up the perfect chocolate chunk cookie mix. I’m immediately hooked by that name. They claim perfection and you already know I find chocolate chunks superior to chips. The packaging is simple and clean which I like. This isn’t some fancy box mix, it looks pretty standard with the ingredients it requires, only 1 stick of butter and 1 egg. There are a few additional steps but we will address those as we get to them. Starting off with the very first step, this box mix has two different options on how to start with the butter. The standard recipe says to place it in a mixer with a paddle attachment and whip it. This is different and interesting, I’ve never seen a cookie recipe ever ask for whipped butter, creamed yes, but whipped no. However, it isn’t going to get very whipped without a whisk attachment so I’m a little conflicted. I did go this route and unfortunately my mixing bowl was too big to actually get the butter sufficiently whipped so I had to do a lot by hand, I think a hand mixer would be better for this, or a much smaller stand mixer than the 5 quarter mixer I use. The alternate option for this step is listed at the bottom of the box and involved melting and browning the butter in a pan first. Browned butter can be a really good addition to chocolate chips with the “nutty, toasty, butterscotch-y undertones” that the box lists. However, I wanted the standard experience and didn’t try this step out.
Once the butter is mixed up one way or another, you add in the egg and powdered mix. The chocolate chunks looked great and in fact it looked more like chopped chocolate pieces, they were uneven which provided a lot of smaller bits of chocolate as well which spreads the chocolate flavor throughout the cookie even better. This cookie dough looked and tasted fantastic, I couldn’t tell this was a box mix. The flavor was so complex and had a fantastic salt level that brought out the sweetness even more. If I have to nitpick, the only thing I didn’t like was the vanilla flavor but I find that is the case with most box mixes. The dehydrated vanilla incorporated just comes across as so artificial. If I made this again, I’d likely add in my own vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
The next step is to roll the cookie dough into 2 tablespoon sized balls. I had a 1 tablespoon sized scoop and rolled two scoops together into a ball and got 13 cookies when they said it would make 12. Now here is the best part, are you ready? The box calls for at least 30 minutes of refrigeration! If you’ve seen even one of my cookie box mix reviews you know I have to scream this from the top of my lungs. The downfall of all those box mixes is not calling for a chilling step. The cookie dough is too soft and spreads out thin and becomes crispy and disappointing. Cravings by Chrissy Teigen got the memo and they know how you should make a cookie. This has me excited and on the edge of my seat waiting to see how these cookies look when they are baked.
This recipe calls for 350 degrees and baking the cookies for 15-18 minutes. At 17 minutes I pulled them out but decided 16 minutes might have been better since the bottoms were a smidge overcooked for my liking. Can you believe it? This box mix has a chill step and gives an accurate bake time. These are not hard to include on a box mix recipe, so I am so glad to finally see a brand doing so. I could practically jump around with joy now but I will hold off until the cookies are finished and tasted. This box mix reputation now comes down to the taste of this cookie.
Chrissy was right. This is the perfect chocolate chunk cookie mix. Knowing that these are box mix cookies, I still can’t tell. Not a single thing about these cookies implies that they came from a box and had 3 simple steps. Usually you get a fake vanilla flavor and a softness that only comes from a box. It’s like when you look at something online and you can immediately tell it’s AI. You can still enjoy it, but it isn’t fooling anyone you know? But this cookie has me fooled. The salt level is phenomenal and enhances the depth of flavors beautifully. The chocolate chunks and smaller bits make for a perfect ratio of cookie to chocolate. The outer consistency has that light crunch and the inside is still the right amount of soft. I am officially devastated that this box only made 12 cookies because I want to eat them all immediately.
This box mix is going to be in my pantry all the time. These are officially better than any homemade recipe I use. Why go through the added effort when I can follow 3 simple steps and only need butter and an egg? I hope I have properly conveyed to you how amazing this cookie is and how excited I am for this brand and to try the remaining products. Now I have to burst that bubble and talk about cost. At Smith’s this mix was marked at $9 however with a member card it was reduced to $7. Neither of those prices are great but online is worse. On Amazon and on the company’s website you have to buy a 3 pack and they are $30 before shipping. $10 for one dozen cookies in box mix form that I have to prepare myself is absurd. There is nothing about this mix that implies it should be expensive except for that celebrity name on the front of the box. I don’t mind paying extra for the convenience that a box mix provides but that is a little high. If you have the disposable income and want a fantastic better than homemade cookie, keep your eye out for this box mix. I don’t know if this product line has made it to stores near you but I recommend first looking for it in stores rather than buying it online. With all of that said, you can expect to see more box mixes from Cravings by Chrissy Teigen reviewed on this blog. Fingers crossed they are all just as good!
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