Cookies: Food-Tek Chocolate Chip

Ah the disappointment! I attempted to whip up a batch of Food-Tek's Quick-Bake, wheat-free, gluten free, trans fat free, enriched chocolate chip cookies, but had little success.

The gluten free chocolate chip mix, like other Food-Tek products comes with its own measuring cup, and multiple packs of mix- in this case 4.

I followed the directions initially which said to preheat the oven to 375 degrees, add contents of mix to a bowl, then add 5 cc of water and 1 tsp. of softened butter, then mix until well blended.

Perhaps I've stated this before with previous Food-Tek reviews, but the little cup needed to measure the water in never seems to have a clearly indicated mark. 5 cc's in reality is about a teaspoon's worth of liquid. So I put in the 5 cc's and mixed and mixed and not surprisingly I couldn't get it past a powder. How could I possibly drop by rounded teaspoons?? So natch I added more water, but of course it was too much water- like maybe a whole tablespoon? It just was so ludicrous.

In the oven, the rounded blobs all blended into one another, though I was still hoping for the best after 8 minutes of baking.

The cookies were uh rather crumbly, delicate would be the clear understatement here, with a taste that might have clearly begun as cookie-like, but soon became decidedly glue-like. "Glue" was Rob's term for them.

It has always been my opinion that Food-Tek products resemble more Easy Bake Oven snacks (anyone remember those?), geared for kids with celiac, than actual food products. So I guess I was left feeling utterly inept that I couldn't bake up some decent gluten free cookies. Yeah, easy for children, and impossible for adults!

So perhaps all you celiac readers out there will have a much better experience with Food-Tek's chocolate chip cookies than me.

Happy Mixing!

Ingredients
Corn starch, sugar, chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, dextrose, soy lecithin, vanillin), corn oil, nonfat dry milk, dried egg, baking soda, salt, vanilla, fumaric acid, niacin, thiamine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 23 g
Servings per container: 8
Amount per serving
Calories: 100
Calories from fat: 35
Total fat: 3.5 g
Sat fat: 1 g
Trans fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 10 mg
Sodium: 135 mg
Total carb: 17 g
Dietary fiber: 0 g
Sugars: 7 g
Protein: 1 g

Bread:Food-Tek Enriched Minute White Bread Mix

Here's another review for Food-Tek. We made their wheat free, gluten free, trans fat free Enriched Minute White Bread mix. It's claim is that the bread is "fast & fresh" from your microwave. Fast and fresh indeed- but tasty??

It was one of those Saturday breakfasts and we were out of gluten free bread. I found this in the pantry and whipped it up in seconds.

As stated in my previous review of the corn bread, I dislike this brand because each "kit" contains a lot of plastic trays etc. that are needed to make the product. What happened is I made this once, then who knows what I did with the mold trays, but I didn't have them anymore. So I improvised with shallow Tupperware trays- which I don't like (we've been microwaving only in glass lately- but I couldn't locate those either). (Please note we were visiting my parents for the weekend- I'm not that disorganized!)

Well I wasn't expecting much other than plastic poisoning, but what emerged were 2 English Muffin-looking halves of bread. I released them and felt the need to toast them.
Once toasted, I created an egg and bacon sandwich for Rob.

The celiac safe but space age bread held together very well, but definitely had a sponge-like texture. The white bread was on the sweeter side and was a bit rubbery. Still it worked well in a pinch and allowed for a satisfying gluten free breakfast sandwich.

Rob did find they made a great egg and bacon sandwich, he thought he was at McDonalds.

Ingredients:
Corn starch, sugar, corn oil, nonfat dry milk, salt, baking soda, fumaric acid, niacin, thiamine hydrocloride, riboflavin, folic acid. Contains milk.

Nutrition Facts:
Serving size: 40 g
Servings per container: 8
Calories: 170
Calories from fat: 40
Total fat: 4.5 g
Sat fat: 0.5 g
Trans fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 510 mg
Total Carb: 30 g
Dietary fiber: 0 g
Sugars: 7 g
Protein: 1 g

Corn Bread: Food-Tek

Last Sunday we were pretty much out of everything, so I served up some wheat free, gluten free enriched minute Corn Bread from Food-Tek.

So yes, the corn bread was finished in a matter of seconds, but perhaps a little more effort might be worth it. First off the Food-Tek corn bread comes in a bag containing 4 packs of mix. Also included is a plastic measuring cup and a plastic container to heat the bread in. Though I'm not a fan of all that plastic, I can understand the need to be able to put this stuff together at home. It still seems like a waste and a little to space-age for me.

The instructions say to fill the thimble-sized measuring cup to the 40 cc mark- only there is no 40 cc mark. I spent about 30 seconds trying to get the water measurement correct. Finally I added the water to the container, then added the corn bread mix. It tells you to shake vigorously for 30-45 seconds which I did, then removed a dripping cover, and loaded the small container into the microwave and gave it about 1 minute of waves. I then inverted the container onto a plate - which did not come out cleanly- and gave to Rob to try. Unfortunately the corn bread was more like a cake of sugar, lacked flavor, and didn't have a whole lot of nutrition.

While I do think any company that makes gluten free products deserves to be commended, this corn bread certainly wasn't on top of our list. I will say though, that this probably is a perfect product for kids who have celiac. They can make it up with ease, take it along to a friend's house, and never be without a snack.

Ingredients:
Corn starch, sugar, corn oil, yellow corn meal, nonfat dry milk, dried egg, vanilla, baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, salt, citric acid, niacin, thiamine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid.

Nutrition Facts:
Serving size: 35 g
Servings per container: 8
Calories: 150
Calories from fat: 35
Total fat: 4 g
Sat fat: 0 g
Trans fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 5 mg
Sodium: 180 mg
Total Carb: 26 g
Dietary fiber: 0 g
Sugars: 13 g
Protein: 2 g