REVIEW: Duncan Hines Gooey Bakes

I say Duncan Hines. You say Pusha T’s verse: “That white frost on that pound cake so your Duncan Hines is irrelevant.”

But, contrary to rap music’s opinion, Duncan Hines is pretty relevant with all its innovative drops. It just made money moves into the frozen aisle with its new Gooey Bakes line with four new products:

• Chocolate Chip Cookie – a chocolate chip cookie with melted chocolate chunk and chips with a super gooey center.
• Confetti Sugar Cookie – a confetti sugar cookie with a super gooey center and with melted confetti chips and sprinkles.
• Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookie – an oatmeal cookie loaded with melted butterscotch-flavored chips and a gooey center.
• Double Chocolate Brownie – a double chocolate brownie with a gooey center and loaded with melted chocolate chunks.

I was only able to find two of the cookies, but if the other two taste half as good, that would still be pretty dang tasty. Between the two cookies, I favored the more true-to-form chocolate chip one. The latter was delicious and festive, but more like a vanilla confetti cake than a sugar cookie.

I was amazed by how easy this made it to have a “fresh” cookie. It was just a minute or so of microwave time. To be precise, I preferred 1 minute 15 seconds for the more melted chunks in the choco chip one, and one minute was fine for the other.

So, you may be wondering what’s different with this and the “Perfect Size” line? From my vantage point, it’s THAT, but even EASIER – no need to add/mix ingredients.

But, because it’s heated up in the microwave, there weren’t any crispy edges. I prefer cookies with crispy edges and gooey centers. That said, the chocolate chip one’s texture feels more like a slightly under-baked cookie, whereas the confetti one is like a cake.

Note that it wasn’t quite as fluffy or risen as Duncan Hines’ mug cakes, but it didn’t seems as cookie-like to me. Also, another gripe was that the confetti chips added nothing; they melted down into white blobs that I thought was unmixed flour.

The size probably also contributed to the perception of cake because each of these babies has NINE servings. I wanted to eat both in one sitting by myself, but I failed. If you find yourself in a cookie surplus situation as I did, you can put it in the fridge overnight and microwave it for a quick minute when you want to consume it. It’s like new again!

Folks, we have entered a new era of cookie craze – from edible cookie dough to these new ready-to-eat frozen cookies – and I’m here for it.

Purchased Price: $3.89 each
Size: 10 oz. box
Purchased at: Meijer
Rating: 9 out of 10 (Chocolate Chip), 8 out of 10 (Confetti Sugar Cookie
Nutrition Facts: (1/9 cookie) Chocolate Chip – 140 calories, 6 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 140 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein. Confetti Sugar Cookie – 140 calories, 6 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 80 milligrams of sodium, 19 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein..