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Last weekend, I decided I needed a new sweet treat in my life. Something that I’ve never tried before is a brownie – if you can believe it! So I went to Sainsbury’s and picked up the Creative Nature Fudgy Brownie Mix.
I wanted to let you know how easy they were to bake and my personal opinion on how it was to try my first ever brownie!
Why not pin it for later?
Creative Nature Fudgy Brownie Baking Mix!
When I first picked up the Brownie Baking Mix I was sceptical. Like I said, I’d never had a brownie before but I wanted to push myself to give it a go. There were so many occasions I can remember from being younger. Everyone would be given a brownie at school, I’d have to turn it down. Or someone would bring those boxes of mini brownies to a picnic and I’d have to go without anything sweet.
The Creative Nature Fudgy Brownie Mix was a perfect place to start. I was immediately drawn to the impressive list of ingredients that it DOES NOT contain!
There are no nuts, no eggs, no gluten – perfect for me considering my allergies and Coeliac Disease! And perfect for anyone else it seems because they’re actually free from all 14 of the main allergens. That’s peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, soya, wheat, milk, sesame, lupin, celery, mustard, sulphites, molluscs, crustaceans and fish.
This really impressed me because I’ve definitely struggled in the past trying to find baked goods that don’t contain something I’m allergic to.
When I looked into them a little more, I discovered their founder, Julianne Ponan, actually suffers from allergies herself, including anaphylaxis to nuts! This gave me so much confidence in the brand because I knew there was someone behind it that definitely knew what it’s like to make that everyday struggle with allergies.
I bought the baking mix and all you had to do was add a few ingredients. I was baking using a mix of the normal and the vegan recipe to avoid adding egg so I just had to supplement it with milk, butter and vanilla extract. Everything else was already in the packet. I also picked up some white chocolate chips to add a little bit of something!
Let’s Bake!
Now, if you’ve seen CC’s Coeliac Taste Tests you will know that neither my cooking nor my baking skills are what you would call ‘good’. They barely scrape by as decent. So I was a little worried that I was going to totally mess this up.
Thankfully, it seems Creative Nature has prepared for someone with my limited skills as their baking mix was so easy to use! All the instructions were on the back of the packet and were really simple to follow.
All you had to do was empty the mix into a bowl. Then add in your milk, butter and vanilla extract and mix together! No way anyone can get that wrong, right?
Well, I didn’t get it wrong exactly…but I did forget the vanilla extract. Luckily, I had some peppermint extract left over from last week’s Taste Tests. I figured they were both ‘extract’ so it should be fine. (Thankfully, I was right!)
Once mixed, I added in the white chocolate chips and stirred them into the mixture. It was then all poured into a baking tin and put in the oven.
Like I said, super simple!
The other good thing was it didn’t take very long at all. I think in total it took me about 30 minutes – and that was because I may have left them in the oven a little too long.
You can find the reel of me making the brownies on my Instagram or TikTok page!
My First Brownie!
Once they were out the oven, it was time to taste them. I won’t lie, I was super nervous. If you’re new to this blog, I have an eating disorder called Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder which makes it difficult for me to try/eat some foods.
You can find out more about it in this post, What is ARFID? Everything You Need To Know!
The thing that had always caused me anxiety with brownies was the texture. It reminded me of a cake texture which is something else I don’t eat. I imagined it was quite mushy and stodgy but weirdly crumbly and dry at the same time?
Even though they might have been a little overdone, I think this was a good thing as I was more open to the slightly crispy texture of the brownie edges.
Definitely, at first I was a bit wary. They were crispy on the edges and then soft in the middle. But it wasn’t the mushy soft I had been worried about. They were soft in a kind of melt in your mouth way. The taste was amazing, so chocolaty and even though I had used the wrong extract, the peppermint gave it a nice little kick.
I think I ate three of them immediately after baking. I was just super impressed at how nice they were – and at myself for trying them!
Again, you can see the video of me trying them for the first time on my Instagram and TikTok!
The next day I was going to Whitby with my dad and sisters. I took a few with me so they could give them a try too. None of them have any allergies or food intolerances so I wanted to know if they tasted like a regular brownie normally would.
Safe to say they also loved them! My sister, Rose said they tasted like ‘proper’ brownies and not like the cheapy shop bought ones you sometimes come across. My youngest sister, Nell, was just upset that I only brought 4 along!
Overall, they were a huge hit and I was just happy that I’ve found a new Coeliac and allergy safe sweet treat!
I’d definitely recommend the Creative Nature Fudgy Brownie Baking Mix – super easy to make and super tasty to eat! They also have a bunch of other Baking Mixes on their website that you can try. Or if baking isn’t your thing, they also have snack bars, superfoods and other treats – all allergy safe.
You can take a look at their website here! Make sure to use the discount code THEITCHYCOELIAC10 at checkout and you can get 10% off your order! (affiliate link)
