It'd been awhile since I'd baked cookies using cake mix. Betty Crocker caught my eye with the Butter Pecan cake flavor. The sale price of $1 was compelling. I tried to duplicate La Moderna Marianita pecan flavor cookies, cheap at about 68 cents for a roll of 28 cookies (6.5 ounces).
The Marianita cookies are crunchy and don't contain actual pecans.
The flavor has a hint of pecan nut skins, smidge of bitter aftertaste.
For attempting crunchiness, I had hoped baking at 325, not 350, and
baking cookies longer than typical cookies would work. I also hoped that
the BC's reduced amount of powder (from 15.25 to 13.25 oz) wouldn't
affect the outcome.
Wellll, the lessons learned for the next time will be to raid some other cake mix box for two ounces of powder to add to the recipe. The dough didn't firm up like in other cake mix cooky dough. It was stickier and harder to load into my cooky press and dispense. Also, next time, I'll try baking the cookies at least 13 to 14 minutes. Sure, I like soft and chewy, but I was trying to obtain the Marianita crunchiness.
View the video for step-by-step process. See the final image for comparison of a plateful each of BC Butter Pecan cake mix cookies and La Moderna Marianita pecan flavor cookies.
Making cookies at home take way more time and energy than buying shelf-stable store cookies. Be sure to block out time for gathering ingredients, equipment, mixing, dispensing, baking, and cooling. Oh, yeah, remember cleanup time and effort!
Cookies and other wheat-dominant products have gotten pricey over time. On the good side, the ingredients for the project came to less than $2: $1 for box of cake mix, 29 cents for 1/3 C oil, and 50 cents for 2 eggs. The yield was 42 cookies. FWIW, cookies baked at home seem to take longer to consume than store-bought. More appreciation for the effort expended? Definitely tastier!
Calories and Sodium
As a side thought, I considered adding chocolate chips. Doing so
would have added extra calories (~30C/cooky) and cost ($1.50 additional
for project). Mmmm, butter pecan flavor with chocolate chips! Related:
"Low-effort Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies" (article, video)
La Moderna Resources
La Moderna cookies are a niche item at HEB. I've not been inclined to seek other products from this Mexico-based company. Memory aid that Moderna is one of the big-name Covid-19 vaccines.
- La Moderna manufactures pasta and soups as well as cookies. Amusingly, La La Maderna's cooky page does not include the pecan flavored ones.
- "La Moderna Marianitas Cookies", 71 cents for 6.5 oz Nutrition info claims 6 servings, 5 cookies per serving. I counted 28 cookies.
- "La Moderna Pecan Marianitas, Authentic Mexican Pecan Cookies, Fun Snacks For Kids, 6.53 Oz, Pack Of 20"
