Great Gluten Free Mixes for the Holidays

It's that time of year again! Time to enjoy the holiday season in all it's glory. Holiday concerts, parties, shopping and (hopefully) charitable services can fill up your calendar in no time. As much as we would like to, it's not always possible to get all of the baking done too. Lucky for us, there is plenty of help available!

Gluten free pre-made mixes are considered by some to be a cheat, and by others to be a lifesaver. There can be no doubt that whatever your feeling are the rest of the year, a handy mix can make your seasons greetings a little more cheerful. The challenge comes from the fact that there are so many choices out there. How do you separate the ones that are made of gravel from the ones that no one will ever guess about? By reading the article, silly!

If you are looking to streamline your time in the kitchen this year, these mixes can be the answer you've been looking for. They are fast, versatile and won't leave you wanting for flavor.

Gluten Free Pantry's Spice Cake and Gingerbread Mix

This is the ultimate holiday mix. It has three recipe variations right on the box. You can make Spice Cake, Gingerbread or Gingersnaps. Make sure you have molasses on hand to make the Gingerbread or Ginger Snaps. The Spice Cake calls for buttermilk, but I followed the lactose free instructions and used apple sauce instead. This gave me some delicious apple spice cupcakes that are absolutely mouth watering!

This mix was extremely easy to whip up and the results are amazing! It rises well and has a great texture. There are just the right amount of spices in the mix to give it a flavor that I hardly believed was gluten free.

Namaste Foods Cookie Mix

This mix is priced about the same as most gluten free mixes, but is bigger. It comes in a 20 ounce bag, not the usual 12 to 15 ounces. The bag makes about two dozen large cookies, or a lot more small ones.

The bag has instructions for making the cookies, but also recipes for Mocha Cookies and Blackberry Crisp with Streusel Topping. I made some cookies just from the package, and some as strawberry thumbprint cookies.

They were not what I expected at all! I expected a typical sugar cookie that would need to be frosted or covered with sugar. Not so! Namaste Cookie Mix has a depth of flavor that is very unique and very good. The ground vanilla bean and evaporated cane juice in the mix are a stroke of genius. These cookies turned out crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Chocolate Chip

There are two mixes that needed notice in the category. Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix and Pamela's Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix. Both mixes are tasty, but yield very different results. Pick up one of each to cover everyone's tastes.

Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix produces traditional chocolate chip cookies. They are soft on the inside and chewy on the edges.

Pamela's Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix produces fat, fluffy cookies. They stay soft and don't flatten while baking. There is also cocoa powder in the mix, giving them an extra chocolate boost.

The best thing about all of the mixes in this article is that I didn't make them! They were so easy that my nine year old daughter made them. We made a day of it and had fun together. Using mixes made it possible to get a lot done in a little bit of time and with very few ingredients to gather from our own kitchen.