Best Brownie Mix? Betty Battles the House Brands

Santa's sick of cookies. At least that's the excuse Store Brand Scorecard's Old Man used every Christmas Eve when it came time to bake a snack for St. Nick. The rationale made sense at the time. Santa's got a lot of houses to go to and a bunch of cookies to eat, so the guy could benefit from at least one treat that cut against the grain.

So in our house, we always made fudge brownies. They were Dad's favorite, so if they were good enough for him, they'd be great for Santa Claus.

Brownies are a reliable, easy-to-bake treat during a hectic holiday season; crack some eggs, mix some ingredients and away you go. They're particularly popular with college kids too, thanks to an optional, ahem, secret ingredient (which we at Store Brand Scorecard officially won't discuss, although we will say that ingredient really isn't holiday appropriate).

In the spirit of our Christmas tradition, Store Brand Scorecard tried out four brands of fudge brownie mix -- one national brand, three store brand varieties -- to see which brownie brand is worth baking for your bucks.