Story Crumbs: A Review

Posted September 19, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book Events and Tours, Book of the Month Recipes, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

This post is sponsored by Story Crumbs. I was given two free cookie mixes in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

I recently stumbled across an Etsy shop called Story Crumbs, which sells cookie mixes inspired by fictional characters. Not only do they have mixes inspired by classic lit like LITTLE WOMEN and ALICE IN WONDERLAND, but they also make mixes for newer books like CINDER and THE CRUEL PRINCE. You can even design and name your own custom mix, perfect for authors wanting to promote an upcoming book!

I emailed the owner, Amanda, and asked if she would be willing to do a co-promotion, and she said yes! A couple short weeks later, I was in my kitchen making two of her classic lit cookie mixes: the Alice and the Jo. I chose these because I have menus inspired by ALICE IN WONDERLAND and LITTLE WOMEN in my most recent cookbook, A LITERARY PICNIC. I also wanted to try these two mixes because the flavors are very different from each other, offering a good example of the range of flavors available.

Now let’s review some cookies! 😀

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Story Crumbs: A Review

Alice: Lavender White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These smelled good before I even put them in the oven! As soon as I mixed the dry mix into the butter and egg, it hydrated the lavender and unlocked the scent. Oh man, it was amazing! When I tried the finished cookies, I loved the chewy-in-the-middle texture and sweet floral aroma. Full disclosure, I’m not the biggest fan of white chocolate, but if you are, these are a great choice.

Fun Fact: This mix is gluten and dairy free. However, you can still sub butter for the coconut oil (that’s what I did, and it turned out great).

Jo: Espresso Oreo Crush Chocolate Chip Cookies

I knew this mix would be my favorite, because I looove chocolate and Oreos! It had a texture similar to an oatmeal cookie and great flavor balance. I especially appreciated the espresso, which elevated the other flavors. I highly recommend eating these cookies while they’re still a bit warm. Those still-melty chocolate chips are divine!

Fun Fact: Story Crumbs has different cookie mixes for each of the March sisters (they can be purchased separately or as a set). If you’re reading LITTLE WOMEN for book club or having a watch party for the movie, you could make all four kinds and rate your favorites!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Each batch said to make tablespoon-sized scoops of the dough and that each batch made 12-14 cookies. I could tell by the amount of dough it made that I’d get more than that, so I used heaping tablespoons and baked for the longest suggested cook time. This came out to 14 of each cookie, and they all turned out great. Both mixes needed 2-3 tablespoons of the optional suggested milk (I think they were designed knowing you’ll probably need SOME milk, but how much will depend on how precisely you measure your butter and vanilla).

My one critique is that I think the instructions should say to scoop the dough into heaping tablespoons instead of just tablespoons. However, the fact that I could make that change and still come out with amazing cookies speaks to the quality of the recipe—it’s not fussy for finicky. If you used a flat tablespoon measurement, you’d just wind up with extra cookies, which is never a bad thing.

As I made these cookies, I kept thinking of dozens of situations they would be perfect for, like Christmas gifts, math/literature combo lessons for homeschoolers, fun sleepover activities for kids, and even a quick bake-together for a book club. The custom mixes would be perfect for an author wanting to promote an upcoming book.

Overall these mixes are super fast, fun, and forgiving. Story Crumbs offers a wide variety of interesting flavors, and I love that you can create your own. I sent some of each batch to work with my husband, and they were all gone by the end of the day!

Other Things Worth Noting:

At time of publication, all Story Crumbs cookie mixes are $12.95.
Non-custom orders generally arrive in about a week.
The baking instructions are available through a QR code on a tag attached to the bag. I think I would prefer this code to be on a sticker attached to the bag so it’s harder to lose. However, it’s possible that a sticker might crease during shipping, making the code harder to scan.
Some mixes are gluten/dairy free. For allergy purposes, it should be noted that the mixes are packaged in a facility not subject to health department inspection. The owner states that she washes all her measuring tools after using them and packages gluten free orders separately from gluten ones, but she can’t promise that there is no cross-contamination. As such, she says they should be safe for people with minor gluten sensitivity but not anyone who might react to small traces of gluten (such as people with Celiac).
I was impressed with how forgiving these mixes are. Even if you make multiple small changes, they still turn out great, which speaks to the quality of the recipe. I think Amanda knows that there are some of us who measure ingredients with architectural precision and some who measure with our hearts, and these mixes work with both philosophies.