As most of you know by now, I'm a frequent shopper on the gourmet food aisle at TJ Maxx. When I bake the stuff I buy, I like to post my reviews just so you guys know what's good, as well as what to avoid. Usually the products aren't bad. (I wouldn't say they're worth their gourmet price tag, but they typically aren't horrible.) Well, friends, I found a horrible one: Sisters Gourmet Cinnamon Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix. Save your $3.00, and go buy a bag of all-purpose flour with it! That's pretty much all you get with this mix. The ingredients that came in the cookie dough mix were flour, sugar, and baking powder. It also came with a packet of cinnamon sugar. The instructions tell you to blend the cookie dough mix with shortening and an egg. This alerted me because there is NO flavoring whatsoever in these cookies. Not butter, and certainly not vanilla. Ew! I continued on.
I rolled the little balls of flavorless cookie dough in the cinnamon sugar and baked them just until the edges were set.
The centers were still gooey, but I took them out to ensure chewy cookies. Boy was I mistaken! When they cooled, they turned into flavorless cinnamon sugar hockey pucks. Disgusting! Worst of all, they had the "Captain Crunch" effect... ya know how it cuts the roof of your mouth? Let's put it this way: I wouldn't take them if they were free.
If you have a box of this mix already sitting in your pantry, you might be able to save them by using butter instead of shortening and adding at least 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. But don't get your hopes up.
