Foodstirs December 2015 Subscription Box Review – Brownie Snowflakes

Foodstirs is a new monthly baking subscription box created by Sarah Michelle Gellar. Every month you’ll receive family-oriented baking kits made with premium and real ingredients, free of preservatives, artificial dyes and flavors. The mixes use organic and non-GMO ingredients when available.  You can also choose to subscribe monthly to their sugar cookie, brownie, or vanilla cupcake mix. You can choose to get the monthly kit or start your subscription with one of the kits in the store.

The theme for December was Brownie Snowflakes.

 The box included a card letting you know the ingredients needed, tools, baking time, quantity, etc. I liked that it broke down the ingredients you need twice (the second time being what you need at home). The box also included a tip, a fact, and a teaspoon – tablespoon conversion.

The instructions. They are step by step with a photo for each step.

The ingredients list (hint, the list is very short – you can click on the photo to see it up close).

The box included lollipop sticks and a snowflake cookie cutter. The cookie cutters in this box aren’t particularly high quality (they’re pretty cheap, but at least this one wasn’t rusting this time).

Foodstirs Brownie Snowflake Mix ($7.95)

Vegan Marshmallows ($1)

Organic Chocolate Chips ($1.50)

Altogether I estimate the value of this box at around $13 max – about half the total price of the box including shipping.

I passed this box along to my husband to prepare, and he followed the directions, coating a glass pan (which was shown in the instructions card) with non-stick spray. When I came downstairs and saw it I asked him why he didn’t coat the pan with coconut oil or use a silicone pan, and he said he was just following directions, which also indicated I should turn the pan upside down to have the brownies release. #neverhappening. We tried lifting the brownies, we tried prying them, we tried cutting off an edge for more leverage. Nope. So above you see my decorated brownie snowflake.

We finally settled on pressing the cookie cutter into the cakey brownies, which used two eggs.

Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work either. The brownie mix was good, but was it $8 good all by itself? Not really. This box has big issues – first, I don’t think they test the recipes with home cooks. Although some instagrammers had better luck than me, nothing really looked all that pretty. We’ve had significant problems with each box.. Second, the value of the box is just way too low for the price paid. And three – they really don’t know anything about brownies! Two eggs makes a fluffy brownie!   You have to call to cancel this subscription. Until I get off my duff and call them, you’ll get to keep on seeing wondrous creations like this one.

You can get a coupon for this box, but it’s by email, so if you’d like one, enter your information in this form, which we will enter in the Foodstirs site, and they’ll send you one. But I strongly recommend taking a look at other baking subscription boxes!

Visit Foodstirs to subscribe or find out more!