It's time to warm up your kitchen with seasonal sweet treats. These fall baking mixes are easy to prepare and will leave the house smelling divine.
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6. Baker’s Corner Apple Cinnamon Quick Bread and Muffin Mix
Baker’s Corner is one of the house brands at Aldi, and the limited-edition Apple Cinnamon baking mix has just hit store shelves. This mix can be used to make one loaf of quick bread or a dozen muffins. I opted for the quick bread loaf option, and all I had to do was add water, oil, eggs and applesauce to the mix.
It baked for just under an hour, and the loaf rose beautifully in the oven. Popping it out of the pan felt effortless, and it sliced like a dream. I liked how the recipe called for 1/2 cup of applesauce. It added moisture and a fresh twist, while cutting down on the need for extra oil. However, I did find the overall flavor to skew more artificial. To make it more autumnal, I would add cinnamon to the mix; it didn’t feel like there was quite enough!
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5. Duncan Hines Dolly Parton’s Caramel Sheet Cake Mix
I will always love you, Dolly, but this particular cake mix from Duncan Hines fell a bit short for me. The caramel sheet cake mix is part of the Dolly Parton collection, and it was very easy to prepare. The mix is combined with milk, eggs and melted butter and baked in a 13×9-inch pan.
Once the cake cooled, I topped it with a caramel sauce that comes included in the box. This sauce is combined with melted butter as well as an optional 3 tablespoons of confectioners’ sugar. I found the caramel sauce to be a bit thin when only the butter was added, so I thickened it with the optional confectioners’ sugar. One tablespoon rather than three was enough to thicken the sauce.
In terms of texture and flavor of the cake, this mix wasn’t a standout. I was hoping for something a little different and with some pizzazz, but it ultimately just tasted like any other cake mix. That being said, the box also gave directions for a caramel apple sheet cake, which adds thinly sliced Granny Smith apples to the top of the cake. If I were to prepare this baking mix again, this would be the way to go.
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4. Betty Crocker Caramel Apple Cookie Mix
This seasonal cookie mix from Betty Crocker couldn’t be easier to prepare. All you have to do is combine the mix with a stick of softened butter and one egg. The cookie dough had a fantastic consistency, and it was easy to scoop and bake.
The cookies emerged from the oven a bit on the pale side, and the flavors felt a little artificial. That being said, there was a very intriguing “mix it up” option listed on the back of the bag. It suggested spreading each cookie with Betty Crocker prepared cream cheese frosting, adding chopped fresh apple and finishing with a drizzle of thick caramel sauce. This is exactly how I’d make them more luxurious!
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3. Miss Jones Baking Co. Maple Donut Glazed Muffin Kit
You would never guess these maple donut glazed muffins are gluten-free. Eggs, milk and melted butter are combined with the gluten-free mix and spooned into greased mini or standard muffin tins.
I was surprised when I had significantly more batter than the recipe indicated. The mix is supposed to make 24 mini muffins or 12 regular muffins. I easily filled a 24-count mini muffin pan and had enough leftover to make four more regular-sized muffins.
The maple-flavored icing threw me for a loop. The recipe on the box calls for combining the packet with 2 tablespoons of water. However, this resulted in an incredibly thin glaze that looked quite different than the thick glaze depicted in the photo on the box.
Thin glaze aside, the flavor and texture of these donut muffins were amazing. I paired them with a warm cup of coffee on a chilly fall morning. I can certainly see myself making the muffins again, but next time, I’ll add the water for the glaze just a few teaspoons at a time until it reaches a more attractive consistency.
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2. Bettergoods Maple Brown Sugar Blondie Bar Mix
Bettergoods is a private-label brand at Walmart, and I was excited when I spotted this mix for maple brown sugar blondie bars. The baking mix is combined with an egg, melted butter and some water before it is spread into an 8×8-inch pan.
Once the bars are completely cooled, there is a prepared maple icing packet to drizzle on top. The incredible aroma of these bars lured me in even before I took the first bite. I could smell the maple, cinnamon and brown sugar notes as they were baking, and the taste did not disappoint. The flavors were bold and didn’t have the fake aftertaste I found in some of the other mixes. These bar cookies were very easy to prepare and would make a great addition to any fall dessert table.
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1. Trader Joe’s Pumpkin & Spice Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix
For me, there was one clear winner in this taste test of fall baking mixes, and it was head and shoulders above the competition. The pumpkin and spice snickerdoodle cookie mix from Trader Joe’s is so good, it could easily pass as homemade.
These cookies are the best of all worlds. The cookie dough itself has all the pumpkin pie flavors we crave this time of year, but then the cookies are taken to a whole new level by rolling the unbaked dough in an incredible sugar and spice mix. This might be the best snickerdoodle I have ever tasted. The classic cinnamon-sugar combination gets an autumnal boost with ginger, nutmeg, allspice and clove.
Pick up a few boxes of this cookie mix as soon as you see it in stores. I’m sure they’ll fly off shelves this season.
