Chocolate Chips and Allergy Issues Solved?

Tomorrow is "National Chocolate Chip Day" and so I thought I'd review a product I recently found on sale at our nearby Kroger.  This is the Cherrybrook Kitchen Arthur Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix which proclaims itself to be "dairy free, egg free, and nut free".  So why not tackle the topic of allergies while I review this product?

First thing to note is that if you follow the directions you can keep this egg, dairy, and nut free.  However be careful about margarine, dairy free it may be but it can also have transfats which are only good in the smallest amounts.  I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter which has no transfats and less fat and cholesterol over all.

That created a secondary problem with the mix being too dry at first.  I hope you can see that in the mix.  This has the 1/2 cup margarine and the 1/4 cup water that the box calls for.  Now, I had two options I felt to remedy this dryness but I went with another 1/4 cup water to not added extra calories.

The result was a much wetter but not runny batter.  Why was it so dry before?  I think it is because the two ingredients you are supposed to add is what I'd add to any chocolate chip cookies minus the egg/s.  So those eggs add a few things to  a recipe that need to be considered, moisture is just one of these so I was anxious to see if the cookies would turn out.

I put them on cookie sheets, ungreased as directed, though a bit worried they would stick, and had a total of 20 cookies as described on the nutritional information of the box.

They baked for 10 minutes, so a bit on the high side of the time suggested but that's my oven.

Here they are!  This is how they turned out in terms of looks. They tasted great -- crispy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside.

However, was the price, much higher than other boxed cookie mixes, worth it in terms of allergy concerns?  Frankly I don't believe so and this is why.  First, the mix still had soy and wheat and those are also common allergens. Second, everything I did, I could do on my own from scratch.  I looked at the ingredient list and I saw nothing I couldn't find or find a substitute for in my kitchen today.

So, Sisters and Brothers, tell me if you've tried these cookies or if you have made your own allergy free cookies.  Of course, I know people are allergic to Chocolate -- sad, very sad -- but I doubt they are reading any of our words in The Chocolate Cult.