Itty-bitty brownies

By AL SICHERMAN, Star Tribune

Last update: October 28, 2009 - 12:14 PM

Itty-bitty brownies

Two new Pillsbury items caught Mr. Tidbit's attention this week. To be clear, these are items from the baking-products (flour and mixes) part of Pillsbury, the part that was spun off from the baked-products (frozen and refrigerated) part of Pillsbury when General Mills bought all of Pillsbury but had to sell the baking-products part to International Multifoods, which more recently was acquired by J.M. Smucker. (With a name like Smucker, it has to be not General Mills.) So these two are (Smucker) Pillsbury products, not (General Mills) Pillsbury products. Clear?

Anyway, first we have Brownie Minis brownie mix. The box contains two envelopes of just-add-water brownie mix and two little oven-safe plastic pans, each with cuplets to make six darling little mini-brownies. So the box makes 12 total miniature brownies, with (admittedly) very little effort.

At one store the box, which contains a total of 7 ounces of mix, sells for $2.25, the same price as a 15.9-ounce box of regular (Smucker) Pillsbury brownie mix. Adding 40 cents for the oil and egg you need for making the regular brownies, that $2.65 brownie mix produces 16 2-inch-square brownies, each of which, judging by the carbohydrate, sugar and sodium content in the nutrition facts on both boxes, is the rough equivalent of a "serving" of two Brownie Minis.

The regular mix's 16 brownies cost 17 cents each; the Brownie Minis' six two-mini equivalents of a brownie cost 37 cents each -- a whopping 117 percent more. But they are darling.

Aerosol frosting

The other new (Smucker) Pillsbury item is Easy Frost "no-fuss frosting" in aerosol cans. Each can contains 13.5 ounces of frosting and at one store sells for $3.47, where a 16-ounce tub of (Smucker) Pillsbury's ready-to-spread frosting (how much "fuss" does using that involve?) costs $1.95. So Easy Frost costs 110 percent more per ounce. But it has one advantage: With the aerosol can, you can squooch some frosting directly into the middle of a baked cupcake!

AL SICHERMAN