The folks over at Bean Bag Bakery gifted me a box of assorted gluten free and vegan cookies and treats. Please note that the company produces gluten free/vegan items in a shared facility with items such as wheat, egg, soy, peanuts, and tree nuts. Please read the Allergen Caution and Warning section below.
About Bean Bag Bakery
As many of you know, I love to support small business. Here’s a little about the bakery as stated on their site: “Bean Bag Bakery’s founder, Mitch Wool, grew-up in the family business, watching each morning as his mother baked her famous, homemade chocolate chip cookies. Mitch and his friends would line up outside of the kitchen door to snag a sample straight out of the oven, and the rest were sold to the hundreds of happy customers that Mitch’s parents treated like family. Soon, they added oatmeal raisin cookies and brownies to the list, and for the next 40 years, the deli garnered a reputation for the freshest, most delicious cookies around. In fact, Free Cookie Friday became their most popular day of the week!”
Today, Bean Bag Bakery offers a variety of cookies and bars, including vegan and gluten-free options shipped right to your door!
Cookies, Brownies, and Blondies
My bright red box arrived quickly and was packed well with an ice pack and plenty of decorative plastic wrap inside. Each treat is packaged individually. I must admit that it was a lot of fun digging through the wrap to uncover all of the amazing treats. Each cookie, brownie, and blondie is priced at $4.99 each. Having previewed several allergy friendly baked goods, this is the best pricing I have seen. Let me share my thoughts on each item that I tried.
Chocolate Chunk Cookie:
The Chocolate Chunk Cookie was by far my favorite. I do have a soft spot for this classic cookie. The taste was amazing. There was the perfect amount of chocolate. I loved the softness of the cookie. They were large in size – they literally are almost as big as my entire hand. The only draw back was that the thinness of the cookie causes it to break easily. But alas, broken cookies taste just as delicious as whole cookies!
Oatmeal Raisin and Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
Both the Oatmeal Raisin and the Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies were really good as well. Both had great flavor and texture. They were just as large as the chocolate chip cookie. They are thicker and held up much better without breakage. These were my son’s favorite.
Chocolate Brownie and Blondie:
I am a self-proclaimed brownie snob. While tasty, the brownies did not remind me of a brownie. They were much more like a cookie bar. Still good, just not a brownie in my book. The Blondie was very good, but again, it was a chocolate chip cookie bar. Both were sizable and held up well.
Allergen Caution & Warning
Delicious treats are wonderful, but for those of us dealing with food allergies and intolerances, safety is more important. I specifically asked the Founder, Mitchell Wool, to address cross contamination. Here is his exact statement to me: “Yes, our gluten and gluten free products share the same equipment. We take cross contamination seriously and prepare our gf products on separate days or they are 1st in production when all equipment has been cleaned and sanitized.” Based on this statement, The Bean Bag Bakery’s gluten free items are produced on shared equipment which poses significant contamination cautions for those with Celiac Disease.
Another issue that I had and brought to the attention of the owner were the ingredient lists. In my opinion, they are incomplete.
The ingredient list above does not include a subset of ingredients for items such as the flour, Just Egg product, margarine, and chocolate. In order to make a fully informed decision about the safety of an item, we would need to see all of the ingredients for these items.
For instance, here are the ingredients for the Just Egg product (from the company’s site): Water, Mung Bean Protein Isolate, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Contains less than 2% of Dehydrated Onion, Gellan Gum, Natural Carrot Extractives (color), Natural Flavors, Natural Turmeric Extractives (color), Potassium Citrate, Salt, Sugar, Tapioca Syrup Solids, Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate, Transglutaminase, Nisin (preservative).
We all know that ingredients matter. Without knowing the ingredients for all components of the cookies and bars, it is difficult to verify the safety.
Also, there are peanut products used at this facility. So this would not be safe for those with a peanut allergy. The same risk is for wheat and tree nuts as well as products are made on shared equipment.
Final Thoughts
While all of the Gluten Free/Vegan treats from The Bean Bag Bakery were delicious and affordably priced, especially for their significant size, there are a few cautions. Their ingredient lists are a bit ambiguous and incomplete, and there is a risk of cross contamination. Their products would not be appropriate for those with Celiac Disease due to the shared equipment. Those with food allergies and/or intolerances would need to proceed with caution due to the cross-contamination issues for various ingredients such as wheat, peanuts, and tree nuts. If there is a doubt, contact the company directly. Make an informed decision for yourself as to what products are or are not safe to consume.
The Bean Bag Bakery produces traditional baked items as well. I would not hesitate to send a gift box to someone who does not have allergies. The items are homemade and delicious!
Disclaimer: I was gifted a box of cookies, brownies and Blondies from The Bean Bag Bakery in exchange for my honest review – which I provided here.
The Gluten Free Gathering 