Who doesn't love a batch of freshly baked brownies? But finding the time to bake them can be a challenge. Enter the new Duncan Hines Oven Ready Homestyle Brownies—a frozen brownie batter—which promise the ease of "ready to bake" with "no prep and no cleanup."

What we found. We purchased the Duncan Hines Oven Ready Homestyle Brownies chocolate-fudge flavor (they also come in chocolate-chip flavor) and held a bake-off against a brandmate, Duncan Hines Family-Style Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownie mix. Surprisingly, both took about the same time to prepare and bake: a little less than 40 minutes (that includes time for the oven to preheat). But the mix requires eggs, oil, a measuring cup, bowl, mixing spoon and baking pan, and you'll have to clean up the dishes. The frozen batter comes ready to bake in a recyclable tray. When we passed both brownies around to our staff, many preferred the frozen batter brownies over the mix. But almost everyone said that both brownies would satisfy a chocolate craving, and they would quite happily eat either. The deciding factor is cost. A package of the frozen batter cost us $3.69. The brownies made from the mix would cost $3.19 (that price includes the eggs, oil, and vegetable spray to grease the pan). The frozen batter yields 12 brownies and the mix makes 18. If you do the math, that works out to 31 cents per frozen batter brownie compared with 18 cents per mix brownie. Brownie for brownie, the frozen batter is almost twice as expensive.

CR's Take. The New Duncan Hines Oven Ready Homestyle Brownies live up to their claim of "no pots, no pans, and no bowls," and they are a pleasing chocolate fix. But is their more expensive price worth it? Only you can decide if you would rather wash the dishes and keep the change.