Don't they have ingredients lists or is that a very European thing?

Sure they do, but nobody seems to have posted it yet.

The exact box in the article (it had a link!) has the following ingredients listed:

Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Leavening (baking soda, monocalcium phosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate). Contains 2% or less of: Modified Corn Starch, Palm Oil, Corn Starch, Propylene Glycol Mono and Diesters, Monoglycerides, Salt, Dicalcium Phosphate, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Xanthan Gum, Cellulose Gum, Carob Powder, Artificial Flavor.

Now I've been interested in cooking for 30+ years, and do all of our home cooking and baking, and there's no way I would believe that I can substitute typical from-scratch/pantry ingredients and get the same result.

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alexdbird a day ago | parent | next [-]

This list isn't really selling it to me! Mmm, aluminium, yummy propylene glycol.

The things you need from that list are Wheat flour (white), corn flour (starch), Sugar, Cocoa, Baking powder, Salt, Vanilla. I doubt carob adds anything that a spoonful of instant coffee wouldn't.

Now I get your point that it wouldn't produce the same result, but I'd be surprised if it produced a worse result.

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wpm a day ago | parent | next [-]

Oh no! Scary looking ingredients! That must mean they’re bad!

	▲	account42 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Oh no! Comment on a long list of ingredients! That must mean they're making the argument I think they are!

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AlecSchueler a day ago | parent | prev [-]

It reminds me of when I first started eating homemade bread. At first I didn't like it because it was different than I was used to, I considered getting the additives myself to get the same texture, but eventually I learned to love it and now can't imagine eating supermarket bread.

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AlecSchueler a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> substitute typical from-scratch/pantry ingredients

Why are you limited to what's in your pantry? Just get the extra ingredients online.

	▲	account42 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Or don't. Or add different additives. When cooking "from scratch" you have the option to make what you like and not what some corporation has determined sells the best. A lot of the extra ingredients are only needed for the latter goal but not for the former.