Pt 2 Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Closer Looks

 

"Pt 1 Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Not One-at-a-Time Dolloping" primarily describes using a cooky press to push out chocolate chip cooky dough. As presses don't gracefully dispense dough having add-ins, my method incorporates a DIY food bottle funnel. Let's look more closely.

Closer Looks at Cooky Presses

I looked on the web for a means to push out chocolate chip dough. I spotted some presses that included piping nozzles in addition to dough disks. Amazon displayed a few such devices, the magic find word being "biscuit", which British commonly refer to stateside "cookies" Another site is Ebay. Weirdly, seems many US companies sell cooky presses and icing decorator guns separately.

I actually own Wilton Dessert Decorator Pro Stainless Steel Cake Decorating Tool So far, I tried it once, thinking I could pipe nice angel food cakelets. Big fail, as the oven temperature totally collapsed the edges. Interesting discovery: the screw-on collar fits my Wilton cooky press. Some day I'll try the decorator collar with my press and see about squeeze-triggering chocolate chip cooky dough.

Funnel Formations

The following slides from "Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Not One-at-a-Time Dolloping" video explain just about everything needed to DIY cooky press funnels.

In the cooky dough dispensing stage (squeeze trigger, pinch dollop, deposit), I decided to skip on trying the soda bottle funnel. I favored the other two because the diameters were bigger, and the distances from dough tube to spout were shorter.

Mini and Regular Chocolate Chips

For thIs recipe, I've used most of the same type dough. I varied on using mini chocolate chips for one batch, and regular chocolate chips for the other. Notice side-by-side contrast for size and quantity between them.

"How Many Chocolate Chips in a Cup? (standard, mini, jumbo, & chunks)" contrasts quantities of chocolate chips per cup portions depending on the size of the chips. Minis are much smaller than regulars—"About 6½ mini semi-sweet chocolate chips equal 1 morsel-sized chocolate chip."

"How to Measure Chocolate Chips Correctly (2022)" further states: "Chocolate chips are measured by weight, volume, or count. The most accurate way to measure chocolate chips is to weigh them on a kitchen scale."

A related link is "How Many Chocolate Chips in a Tablespoon? (Depends on chip size)" provides details about factors that affect counts, including molds, ingredient variations and chocolate type. The table lists "1 Tablespoon (14 grams)". My mini chips bag (Nestle) lists one serving as 1 T (14 g), 70 calories. My regular chip bag (Hill Country Fare) lists one serving as 1 T (15 g), 70 calories.

The article shows a table for chips per tablespoon (14 grams). The minis count is 135, and the regular chips (standard) count is 28. Thus, a mini weighs a smidge more than .1 gram, and a standard weighs .5 gram.

More Chocolate Chip Nibbles

"0.1-3g Chocolate Chips Making Machine Fully Automatic" looks to be a marketing site that describes a chip-making machine's capabilities, with spec overviews. I'm thinking the machine is likely able to make chips as small as minis. FWIW, I never see fractions or tolerances for grams in nutrition tables.

"How are Chocolate Chips Made in a Factory? 4 Steps" summarizes the chip-making process that starts with melting the ingredients together and ending with creating the morsels. Both sites have the same embedded YT video of the machine in action.

"How Hershey's Chocolate Is Made and Packaged HD" shows interesting details for variety of their products., especially WRT mass manufacturing and packaging.

Cooky Bitefuls

I got curious about cooky mass production. Lookit those cookies go!

• "How It's Made: Chocolate Chip Cookies" provides details about "puck" dimensions and baking time near the 4-minute mark.
• "COOKIES PLANT" starts showing dispensing (extruding) pieces onto trays starting about 1:25 (6 rows). Note some nozzles rotate to form some cooky types. About 3:10, the shows wire-cut drop cookies.
• "TerraSana visits cookie factory" provides an an abbreviated look at huge-quantity cooky production.

Potentially Squishy Calories Calculations

The calorie counts were problematic for this recipe primarily because of stats for chocolate chips. Nutrition tables for my bags of mini chocolate chips and regular chocolate chips stated calories per tablespoon. One brand stated a tablespoon as 15 grams, and another brand stated a tablespoon as 14 grams. Formulation can affect stats. Imho, gram weights and small serving sizes for items as teeny as chocolate chips can leave lots of room for inaccuracies.

The stats in the Calories and Sodium section in "Pt 1 Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Not One-at-a-Time Dolloping" is theoretical. I don't really know how much tolerance is in gram weights per tablespoon. Another big factor in stats "slop" is the size of my cookies. They're not factory-made exact; some are undersized, some oversized. All were yummy!

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"Pt 1 Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Not One-at-a-Time Dollopin"

"Pt 2 Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Closer Looks"

"Low-effort Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies"

View more cooky recipes.

Pt 1 Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Not One-at-a-Time Dolloping

 

Cooky press users, use your press to pump out chocolate chip dough by using a DIY funnel made from the top of a food bottle. Dough scoopers and other one-at-a-time dollopers, you can reduce the tedium and repetitive travel between dough bowl and pan. Squeeze the press trigger, pinch/deposit dollop, move to another spot on pan, repeat.

 

Rec: Use cake mix cooky dough for ease and doability. View the video for the recipe start to finish and guidance for making and using your own funnels.

At the end of April, I published "Low-effort Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies", my go-to cooky dough recipe using cake mix, oil, eggs, and chocolate chips. The actual base dough is without chips, and suitable for using a cooky press.

For thIs recipe, I've replicated most of the dough. I varied on using mini chocolate chips for one batch, and regular chocolate chips for the other. Notice side-by-side contrast for size and quantity between them.

Funnelling Cooky Dough with Cooky Press

At the end of May, I published "Pt 1 Revisiting Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies, Plain and Chocochip Batch". By the time I got to dollopingthe second pan, I wearied of scooping, and used an icing spatula to shape mostly squares. An idea for less tedious dolloping percolated—a funnelly attachment.

The main process difference from my previous cake mix cooky dough recipe is dispensing, using a cooky press and funnels made from tops of food bottles. Each DIY funnel shape has a larger end that fits between a cooky press dough tube and screw-on collar, with the narrow end aimed toward the pan.

Cooky Press, in Case You Don't Have One But Might Consider One

Typical cooky presses come with stenciled disks (often seasonal themes) for fast, consistent-size dough dispensing. Chocolate chips are no-gos because they're oversized for the stencil openings. BTW, cooky press mechanisms tend not to be strong enough for oatmeal cooky doughs or similarly thick doughs.

Seems many cooky presses resemble each other for looks and functions. I myself have "wilton preferred press cookie press", but don't remember when I got it. Some disks look different than ones I have.

Two articles with images/videos that show my use of cooky press:

• "A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch"
• "Kool-Aided Cake Mix Cookies Combo Batch" 

Some resources for cooky presses:

• "Tips on Buying and Using a Cookie Press"
• "How to Use a Cookie Press"
• "How to Use a Cookie Press"
• "Best Cookie Presses for Thick Dough: Buyer’s Guide for 2022"

If you get really hot to trot on speed and ease, electric cooky presses are available.

Calories and Sodium

This recipe's numbers are very similar to the ones in "Low-effort Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies". The yield for that recipe was 40 (from using a scoop and icing spatula for dolloping).

This recipe using DIY funnels for dispensing yielded 55 cookies, 28 in the first half batch, and 27 in the second half batch. The caloric totals deviated from the previous recipe because, this time, I adopted nutrition table info from the chocolate chip package.

Actually, another wrinkle is having obtained 28 cookies in the mini chips batch and 27 in the regular chips batch. If I'd been smarter about the eventual dolloping, I would have eked out one more dollop for the latter batch.

Dividing the dough for 2 batches:
Calories = 2715/2 = 1357 C for each half batch
Sodium = 3020/2 = 1510 mg for each half batch

Mini chocolate chip cookie yield: 28
Calories: 1357 + 567 = 1924 divided by 28 cookies = 69C/cooky
Sodium: 1510mg/28 cookies = 54mg/cooky

Regular chocolate chip cooky yield: 27
Calories: 1357 + 530 = 1887 divided by 27 cookies= 70C/cooky
Sodiurm 1510mg/27 cookies = 56mg/cooky

For the regular chocolate chip cookies, if I had squeezed out 28 instead of 27, calculations would have been easier. In any case, the numbers would have been 67C and 54mg sodium.

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"Pt 1 Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Not One-at-a-Time Dollopin"

"Pt 2 Cooky Pressing Choco Chip Cooky Dough, Closer Looks"

"Low-effort Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies"

View more cooky recipes.

Those Two-Tone Confetti Cupcakes

This article is one of my rare ones about food that is more analysis than recipe. Last month, I made Cinnamon Two-Tone Cupcakes with 1/2 box of yellow cake mix, using Wilton two-tone cake inserts. I observed that the interior columns of the cakes were blobby. This time, for the other half box, instead of a cinnamon and nutmeg mix for the interior part, I used 3 tablespoons of rainbow jimmies.

This batch came out worse looking than the cinnamon ones. The interior "columns" seem to have clumped together, some pooling at the bottom. The (confetti) jimmies look smeary after baking. I'm thinking that the combination of moistness and baking temperature partly dissolves those decorations. (A magnified pic in Confetti Cupcake Bites shows the same kind of smeariness.)

Icing

I used 1/2 recipe for simple powdered sugar glaze, omitting the vanilla. I used a fork to stir 1 1/2 tablespoons of water into a container with 1 cup of powdered sugar. With the cupcakes bunched together on the cooling rack atop a baking pan, I poured the glaze onto the cupcakes.

I had set the iced cupcakes in refrigerator for an hour or so, then "sugared" them up as follows:

1. Poured some red-color sugar on a saucer. (Happy Valentine's Day today!)
2. Placed each cupcake upside down onto the sugar and rotated the cake to coat its top.
3. Placed each of the cakes right side up.

Note: The image at the top of the article shows some cupcakes with glaze only and others with glaze and red sugar.

Post-batch Thoughts

 Batter Process
For the time I spent on dispensing the batters into the Wilton inserts and achieving the blobby, bland-looking baked results, I would not make the confetti version again. (If making confetti cupcakes, blend in maybe 5 to 6 tablespoons of jimmies into one batter bowl, foregoing Wilton cupcake inserts.)

The cinnamon two-tone cupcakes, although blobby, show visual contrast and taste really good. The image at page 31 of https://app.box.com/s/r62gd7ax0ctgjcw9os6bih5ic1z12vva shows more details than the image in the cinnamon cupcake article.

 Cake Topping Process
For future cupcake icing projects, I would pour the icing in small, tight circles or dip the tops of the cakes into the icing container. And I'd sugar them immediately instead of waiting till later. Why not coat with frosting?

• I don't have any canned frosting in the house and don't want to buy any.
• I have loads of powdered sugar I want to use up but don't want to make frosting using perishables like butter and milk.
• I want to use up some of the many colored sugars I have in the pantry.

Cinnamon Two-Tone Cupcakes

Around Thanksgiving, I went to Michael's and spotted an intriguing Wilton gadget for making two-tone cupcakes. The design is for making two-tone cupcakes—"Fill the inner portion of the insert with one flavor or color of batter and the outer ring with another". I bought one that day, and another one a few days later, both times using a 50% off coupon. Grand total came to $7.00 + sales tax.

Before trying out the gadgets, I decided to look up info and recipes. Did I get an eyefull. Lots of complaints!

• Messy!
• Time consuming!
• While pulling up gadgets,
  • Batter stuck to gadgets before falling from gravity, resulting in a gloppy mess. (I'm thinking surface tension because of viscosity.)
  • The batter that stuck to the gadgets would also pull up paper liners.
  • Misalignment of inner ring and outer ring of gadgets resulted in batter seeping from one area to another.

With all those complaints in mind and some commenters' suggestions, I hoped to avoid sorry pitfalls. I made sure to include the following actions in the recipe:

• Spraying oil into the Wilton gadgets and cupcake pan before pouring the batter in.
• Omitting paper liners in the pan wells.
• Initially pouring a small layer "outer" area batter into pan before placing Wilton gadgets. Doing so was intended to prevent breach between contrasting batters.
• Carefully pouring batters by using small measuring cups that have little spouts. (Some bakers suggested piping the batters, but I consider the step to be extra work and wasting bags.)

Cinnamon seems to be a common flavor for cinnamon rolls, coffee cakes, and some muffins, but not so much for cakes and cupcakes. I did run across recipes for dozen-quantity muffins that called for cinnamon and nutmeg. And the pans were standard 12-well cupcake pans. Thus, my recipe has a not-so-common cake flavor (using 1/2 box of cake mix) and instructions for using Wilton two-tone cupcake inserts.

Video-recording the recipe process was a new experience for me. Generating the YouTube video and subsequent .pdf file were even more adventuresome. A future blog article will be about having used Microsoft Movie Maker, Acoustica (audio editor), and Irfanview (graphics editor) WRT to the video and secondary files.

As has been my tradition with recipes, I include a pixstrip, this one showing the following image areas:

1. Implements
2. Ingredients
3. Spray oil with pan and Wilton gadgets
4. Mixed cake batter, with cinnamon and nutmeg beside it
5. Blending of cinnamon and nutmeg into the smaller bowl batter
6. Dispensing of batters into the pan with Wilton gadgets(combo image)
7. Removal of Wilton gadgets before placing the pan in oven
8. Baked cupcakes
9. Iced and some sliced-open cupcakes

Implements

• Electric mixer
• Mixing bowls
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Rubber spatula(s)
• Cupcake pan
• Wilton cupcake insert (I used two.)
• Cooling rack
• Butter knife or similar for removing cupcakes from pan

Ingredients

• 1/2 box cake mix—white, yellow, vanilla to contrast with cinnamon/nutmeg
• ingredients for half-box recipe, using the box info for guide
  • eggs
  • cooking oil
  • water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• spray oil
icing or some other cupcake topping (I used a freebie Wilton decorating icing. I've provided links to alternative toppings at the bottom of the article.)

Instructions (Have the cake mix box handy!)

1. Preheat the oven (350°).
2. Prepare baking pan and Wilton gadget(s) with spray oil.
3. Weigh 1/2 box of cake mix powder, and prepare the batter as instructed on the box.
4. Pour 1/3 of the batter into a smaller bowl, and blend the cinnamon and nutmeg in. (Initially, I tapped and mixed a little of the cinnamon and nutmeg into the batter before divvying it into two portions.)
5. Pour a small layer of "outer" batter into each cupcake well.
6. Place gadget(s) into wells and dispense inner batter, then outer batter. Lift gadget(s) and place into wells needing filling. Repeat this step until finished.
7. Remove the gadget(s). Place rack in oven and bake for about 18 minutes. YMMV
8. Test cupcakes for doneness with toothpick.
9. Remove the pan of baked cupcakes and place on cooling rack. Run a knife along the edges for loosening them.
10. Decorate as desired.

Post-recipe Thoughts
Despite my oil-spraying of my cupcake pan and the Wilton inserts, the center cupcake columns looked blobby, and seemed more voluminous than the "outer" cupcake parts. I was surprised that they more resembled the globby one at Baking Bites than other nice and straight ones.

The next time I make two-tone cupcakes, I'll spray more oil, and I'll try using rainbow jimmies for the center columns. (2/19/2016—Baked a batch. Read "Those Two-Tone Confetti Cupcakes" for my results assessment.)

Nutrition: The cake mix box states 260 calories (prepared) for each serving, 10 servings a box. So, the cupcakes are about 110 calories each, plus an additional ~40 for the sorta light smear of Wilton icing. (Sigh, I miss the recent olden days when cake mix weighed 18.25 ounces and served 12 instead of the current 15.25 ounces for 10 servings. Grrr! Reduction by ~16%, jeopardizing *FORMERLY RELIABLE* results and yields.)

Alternates to cupcake toppings (viewed by me for possible future use), in two cases, part of main sweets recipes:

• Cinnamon Roll Icing (3 C powdered sugar and 4 T milk for making 1 1/2 C icing)
• Cinnamon glazes for scones (1 C powdered sugar, 2 T milk, 1/2 t cinnamon)
• Cinnamon sugar topping for coffee cake muffins (1/4 C melted butter, 1/3 C granulated sugar, 1 T cinnamon)

Confetti Cupcake Bites

My recipe makes half-size cupcakes, using nonpareils and jimmies in two half batches during one baking session. Contrast the results of the sprinkle types, and decide on your own single or duo sprinkle-type morsels. I've been dancing around using both kinds of sprinkles for cake mix cookies in a couple of previous recipe articles. This time, I'm talking about using cake mix for actual cake.

In case you're unfamiliar with differences between nonpareils and jimmies, "Sprinkles, Demystified: An Explanation of All Types" explains a main difference as shape—round for nonpareils and cylindrical for jimmies.

Round Sprinkles: These can more specifically be referred to as nonpareils. These are those teeny-tiny round balls that can come in a single color or in rainbow.

Cylinder Sprinkles: Sprinkles with a cylinder shape are made by mixing up a paste ...a little slower to “bleed” color than the nonpareil type of sprinkle. ....In some parts of the United States, particularly Pennsylvania and the Northeast, this type of sprinkle (the chocolate type in particular, it seems) are referred to as “Jimmies”.

Caution: Nonpareils "bleed" rather readily in moisture, even more so with cake batter than with cooky dough as in my "Rainbow Nonpareil Cake Mix Cookies" recipe. Thus, minimize time and effort when stirring nonpareils into batter.

My pixstrip shows the following image areas:

1. Implements
2. Ingredients
3. Mixed cake mix batter
4. Batter divided into two Pyrex bowls—with nonpareils in the left bowl and jimmies in the right bowl
5. Each batter type in separate cupcake pans
6. Baked cupcakes
7. Cut sample cupcakes for visual contrast
8. Some cupcake bites arranged in a tin

Implements

• Mixing bowl
• Electric mixer
• Cup for eggs
• Measuring cup(s) for dispensing batter
• Tablespoon measuring spoon for measuring sprinkles
• Spatula for scraping batter
• Same-size bowls if making separate batches of nonpareil and jimmies batter (If making only one kind of cupcake, skip using these two bowls.)
• Cupcake pans

Ingredients

• 1 box cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Golden Vanilla.)
• Eggs (as listed on box)
• Cooking oil (as listed on box)
• Water (as listed on box)
• Sprinkles as follows (option a, b, or c—pixtrip shows option "a".):
  1. 2 T nonpareils for 1/2 recipe, 4 T jimmies for the other 1/2 recipe
  2. 4 T nonpareils for a whole recipe
  3. 8 T jimmies for a whole recipe
• Spray oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Spray pans with oil.
3. Follow box instructions for mixing powder, eggs, oil, and water together.
4. If making separate nonpareil and jimmies recipes, divide the cake batter equally into two bowls. (I used two Pyrex bowls and evened out the weights.) If making a batch with only one type of sprinkles, skip this step.
5. Add the sprinkles.
• When using nonpareils, measure and very lightly stir them into the batter to minimize color "bleed".
• When using jimmies, measure and stir them into the batter, but don't worry about color "bleed".
6. Scoop the batter into the pan wells, each about 3/4 full. (For more crunch in the nonpareil version, sprinkle an additional pinchful over each well after dispensing the batter.)
7. Bake for about 17-20 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick.
8. Remove the baked cupcakes. Tilt them in the wells or place them onto a cooling rack to cool.
9. Frost if desired. Beware of extra effort required and added calories in gilding the lily.

Post-Recipe Thoughts
Interestingly, the heat seemed to cause the jimmies to diffuse. That is, after baking, the jimmies looked wavy instead of retaining their rod shapes. But the jimmies morsels didn't bleed and change the cake color like the nonpareil morsels did.

When working with nonpareils, remember that they're itty bitty spheres. When I first opened the jar, I tilted it. Out came several orbs, rolling freely on the table, a challenge to easily stop their willy-nilly, runaway movements.

Cake mixes that already contain jimmies are available. When I made the jimmies version of cake mix cookies, using Betty Crocker's Party Rainbow Chip mix, I didn't think to sift it to measure the amount of jimmies. Maybe some day I'll break down and buy another box, remembering to check out the amount of jimmies before baking something.

Rainbow Nonpareil Cake Mix Cookies

Multicolor sprinkle decorations for packaged cookies, cakes, and cake mixes tend to more often be jimmies than nonpareils. These cookies vary from the ones I made when I used the Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip cake mix. Instead of using cake mix that already includes multicolor jimmies, I used basic cake mix and added rainbow nonpareils. (Wilton's product name is Rainbow Nonpareils.)

"Sprinkles, Demystified: An Explanation of All Types" explains a main difference as shape—round for nonpareils and cylindrical for jimmies.

Round Sprinkles: These can more specifically be referred to as nonpareils. These are those teeny-tiny round balls that can come in a single color or in rainbow.

Cylinder Sprinkles: Sprinkles with a cylinder shape are made by mixing up a paste ...a little slower to “bleed” color than the nonpareil type of sprinkle. ....In some parts of the United States, particularly Pennsylvania and the Northeast, this type of sprinkle (the chocolate type in particular, it seems) are referred to as “Jimmies”.

My pixstrip shows the following image areas:

1. Implements
2. Ingredients
3. Stirred cake mix and nonpareils (dry ingredients)
4. Stirred eggs and oil (wet ingredients)
5. Blended dry and wet ingredients in the larger bowl
6. Raw dough in pan
7. Baked cookies in pan
8. Cookies on a cooling rack (some flipped back to right side up)

Implements

• Cooky pan(s)
• Pastry blender
• Mixing bowls (one medium-large, one small)
• Measuring cup (optional for cracking eggs individually before pouring them into bowl)
• Tablespoon for measuring out cooky dough
• Spatula for scraping dough onto pan
• Cooky spatula for lifting and transferring baked cookies
• Cooling rack for baked cookies

Ingredients

• 1 box vanilla cake mix (I used Betty Crocker French Vanilla.)
• 4 Tablespoons Wilton Rainbow Nonpareils
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup cooking oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Use the pastry blender to stir the cake mix powder and nonpareils together in a medium-large bowl.
3. Use the pastry blender to stir the eggs and oil together in a small bowl.
4. Pour the eggs and oil mixture into the larger bowl and combine the ingredients.
5. Use a round tablespoon to scoop the dough. Shape to rounded, level, or concave height.
6. Drop the spoon's dough onto the cooky sheet, using the rubber spatula to ease out each lump.
7. Bake for about 9 to 11 minutes until the edges are lightly browned.
8. Use the cooky spatula to lift and transfer the done cookies onto cooling rack.

The batch made 38 cookies, ~65 calories each.

Post-Recipe Thoughts
Those nonpareils in these cookies "bled" slightly into the dough during mixing, turning the dough a light bluish gray. Interestingly, enough of the nonpareils' texture remained so that after baking, the cookies still had some crunchiness within the soft texture. Eh, at some time, I should try another cooky batch with jimmies in an egg-oil-powder dough to see if the jimmies bleed.

A few months ago, I actually did bake a jimmies version, using Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip cake mix, but I used butter instead of oil. Looking at pix I had taken of the process for "EZ Buttery Confetti Cake Mix Cookies", the jimmies did not bleed and tint the egg-oil-powder dough.

The nonpareils came free with a supermarket promotion. Normal price would run about $1.75 for the 3-ounce jar. The four tablespoons amounted to over half the jar, thus, about a dollar's worth. Cake mix tends to run slightly more than a dollar for a 15.25-ounce box. The oil cost about 30¢, and the eggs cost about 34¢.

If I calculate the cookies as having free nonpareils, each cooky comes to a little over 4¢. If I include nonpareil price, each cooky comes to about 9¢. Sure, a big price difference. OTOH, you make them fresh instead of buying them from a store or bakery. Yum—freshness and lower cost!

For a quick reference to price of eggs and oil, scroll to the bottom table at "Whataburger Pancakes, Mix, or Scratch". (I calculated costs of scratch pancake ingredients, an egg and oil being two of the items.)

Minty Choco Chip Pudding

Look ma, no cooking! Just combine, whisk, stir, and pour ingredients into cups. Ready to eat within minutes. Reasonably lo-cal at a smidge over 200 calories each container.

The idea for the flavor came from a recipe for mint soft-serve ice cream that's in page 20 of the Cuisinart Instruction Booklet (for soft-serve ice cream maker). Having tried the recipe and stirring in grated Wilton Dark Cocoa Mint Candy Melts, I figured the flavors can transfer to a pudding recipe. The ingredients for the ice cream are as follows:

1 cup whole milk, well chilled
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1 teaspoon mint extract (may use peppermint or spearmint)
4-5 drops green or pink food coloring

The boxed instant vanilla pudding, which I had on hand, listed the following ingredients for the normal recipe:

1 package instant pudding powder
2 cups of milk [Whisk into pudding powder for 2 minutes.]

In assessing suitable amounts of additions, I considered the following factors:

• The pudding fluids amounted to 2/3 of the ice cream ingredients.
• The ice cream contains lots of air, thus, spreading out mint flavoring by volume.
• The pudding powder already contains sugar.

My pixstrip shows the implements I used (YMMV), the ingredients, and the cups of pudding.
Ingredients

• 1 package instant pudding powder
• 2 cups of nonfat milk
• 1/2 teaspoon spearmint extract
• 4 drops green food coloring
• 2 ounces grated Wilton Dark Cocoa Mint Candy Melts, replaceable with chocolate chips, minty or otherwise

Instructions

1. Whisk the powder and milk for two minutes.
2. Add the extract.
3. Add the food coloring, one drop at a time. More on that later.
4. Stir in the grated candy. Otherwise, you can add Hershey's or Nestle mint chocolate chips, which you might find either at your supermarket.
5. Pour into 4 containers. Sprinkle some candies or chips on top if you like. Eat now or store in fridge for consumption later.

Post-Recipe Thoughts
Good that I guessed right to not put in a whole teaspoon of the extract. As for the food coloring, I wish I had thought earlier to try the blue food coloring, a drap at a time, as the pudding started out vanilla yellowy. Y'know, blue and yellow make green. Oh, well, next time.

I stirred in candy melts, which I had grated and stored in the fridge awhile back. I did experiment with a few regular-sized chocolate chips for bouyancy. I spooned a very small sample of the mixed pudding into a paper cup and stirred in the chips. The pudding had thickened up enough during whisking so that the chips did not sink to the bottom. (Yay!)

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A similar but different pudding recipe: "Really Quick Mixed-flavor Pudding"

Chocolate Cereal Blocks Etc

The classic Rice Krispies cereal treat has been around for decades. Over time, I’ve noticed these cereal yummies have undergone two noticeable changes:

• Microwave directions for melting butter and marshmallows, replacing the kettle method
• Proliferation of pre-made packages

Chocolate Cereal Blocks Etc is my frequent deviation from the classic cereal treat, which I most recently prepared for a picnic. Received several raves, so I said I’d send out the recipe. Wellll, in the midst of writing it up, it started shaping up to be another blog article recipe. This recipe uses (in order) butter, caramel vanilla marshmallows and chocolate rice cereal for the cereal blocks. The ganachy icing has peanut butter meltable candies and chocolate frosting. For more details and ideas about the icing, read A Convenient Ganachey Icing.

The classic Rice Krispie blocks recipe uses 10 ounces of marshmallows, which throws a monkey wrench into cereal bar recipes if using Kraft novelty flavor marshmallows. (Curses! Kraft used to put out the novelty flavors in 10-ounce packages, but they’ve gotten greedy and now put them out as 8-ouncers!)

For convenience of those who want to make the classic blocks, I’ve pasted the very simple cooks.com recipe (printer-friendly). Deviation info follows.

CRISPY TREATS (MICROWAVE)
Printed from COOKS.COM
________________________________________
1/4 c. butter
4 c. miniature marshmallows
6 c. Rice Krispies cereal

Substitute 40 large marshmallows.

Butter microwave bowl big enough to hold all ingredients; microwave marshmallows 2 minutes then stir. Microwave again 1 minute. Stir in and mix well the Rice Krispies. Butter hands and put this mixture in a cake pan, flatten, cool and cut into squares.

My deviations from the cooks.com recipe:

• Primary ingredients:
• 3 tablespoons butter instead of ¼ cup (4 tablespoons)
• 10 oz. bag of Kraft caramel/vanilla marshmallows
• 8 cups Cocoa Pebbles. Key concept is chocolate rice cereal.
• Pan: I lined the pan with wax paper that overlapped two opposite sides. I used spray oil on hands instead of butter.
• Icing: I microwave-melted 4 ounces of Wilton Peanut Butter meltable candies (available at craft stores), stirred in 4 ounces of spreadable frosting, and microwaved some more, but using lower power. I poured the warm icing over the cereal mixture and squeegeed (using old but clean tool) it into the crevices.
• Yield: The cooks.com recipe says to cut the batch into 24 pieces. I cut my batch into 48, although some came out a bit smaller than others. Your sizes might vary also, depending on how well you wield your knife. :-)

4-ingredient Raspberry Chocolate Fudge

This recipe is a variation of the Convenient Fudge recipe that I published nearly a year ago. Caramel, peanuts, and chocolate were in the fudge, although I omitted brand IDs. This time, I'm calling out brand names and products—Duncan Hines' Frosting Creations mix of raspberry powder {"Flavor MIx") and the base frosting ("Frosting Starter"), Kraft marshmallows, and Wilton meltable candies (chocolate this time).

I'd run across various complaints about the Duncan Hines (DH) base frosting. Bakers loved the powder, but complained about frosting sliding off cakes and not having the characteristics of normal frostings. Well, because I had two of the base frosting and two of the flavor packets, I thought making fudge might be a good way to avoid cake disasters. The results were very nice for taste and mouthfeel.

From past experience with chocolate chips and Wilton candies, it seems the Wilton candies have a lower melting temperature or density than chips. The results seem less hard than when using chips. Using both DH AND Wilton resulted in fudge that was quite soft. The Other prefers more fudge firmness, which is doable by refrigerating the fudge instead of keeping it out at room temperature.
My pixstrip shows images for utensils, ingredients, mixing, and post-mixing. (The images inside the dashed section show preliminary preparation before the microwaving.)
Utensils (spray oil being a bridge from utensils to processing)

• Large mixing bowl
• Large cooking spoon
• 2-cup measuring cup or jar
• Butter knife (for mixing flavor powder into base frosting)
• 8" x 8" pan, prepared with spray oil
• Cooky spatula (for cutting fudge into pieces)

Ingredients

• 16 oz. Duncan Hines Frosting Creations base frosting
• Duncan Hines Frosting Creations raspberry flavor packet
• 12 oz. Wilton chocolate meltable candies
• 1 1/2 cups Kraft marshmallows or 15 large marshmallows (one of my few instances of brand loyalty)

Instructions

1. Using a butter knife, make a deep hole into the frosting and stir the powder into it.
2. Melt chips or other meltable candy the large mixing bowl in the microwave oven, using reduced power. Check about a minute or so for about two rounds of heating.
3. Add the mixed frosting to the bowl. If necessary, microwave another minute or so until you can easily blend the ingredients with the spoon.
4. Add marshmallows to the bowl. If necessary, microwave another minute or so until you can easily blend the ingredients with the spoon.
5. Blend the ingredients with the spoon.
6. Pour ingredients into the spray-oil prepared pan.
7. Refrigerate for no more than two hours. (If longer, the fudge could be difficult to cut.)
8. Cut into 64 pieces (8 x 8) or fewer. (FYI, the paper cups are available at craft stores and baking supply outlets.)

Note: Instead of waiting 2 hours and cutting the fudge block with a knife, you can wait 1 1/2 hours for cooling, then use a cooky spatula edge, pressing down. The pic shows the 8 x 8 fudge grid and spatula. If edges of middle fudge pieces look a little warped, lightly shape them.

October 29—Fudge variation: Made a mint fudge, using the mint white chocolate powder instead of respberry, and Wilton green meltables instead of chcolate meltables. Raves all around!

Macaroons (egg whites replacement)

Last month, I offered up cake mix macaroon cookies, and I mentioned gluey coconut clumps in context of macaroons. I still think macaroons are gluey and clumpy, but my results taste better than macaroons I remember from way back. This recipe includes information for substituting egg whites with Wilton meringue powder. It also includes my best guess for coconut calories, espite the coconut package squishiness for numbers of servings and calories.

In researching macaroon recipes, I noticed many used egg whites. I myself prefer to avoid recipes that call for only egg whites or only egg yolks—arggghhhh, leftover egg yolks or leftover egg whites! I recalled I have a container of Wilton meringue powder, which I used for making meringue cookies once. (They came out light and airy, but were not a big hit in the household.)

Macaroons should be a good way to try using up some of the powder, I thought. The container showed substitution information of 2 teaspoons of powder and 2 tablespoons of water for one egg white. Interestingly, I could not find macaroon recipes that showed substitution. I encountered macaroon recipes that specified beating egg whites lightly to beating them to stiff peaks. I decided to beat the egg white substitute to a froth.

I looked up macaroon recipes mostly for fewest ingredients, which is my main standard for simplicity. The Scribbler macaroon recipe is intriguing for both simplicity and complication. The blog owner was gracious and prompt in responding to some questions I posted.

The simplicity was in the basic ingredients. The complications lay in the decorative areas, nicely detailed for those who like to add flair to their macaroons. The Scribbler recipe shows several appealing pictures and lists steps to achieve the visual effects.
My pixstrip shows five image areas:

1. Implements
2. Ingredients, dry and wet
3. Mixed ingredients in one bowl
4. Dough spoonfuls on a parchment-lined pan
5. Baked macaroons

Implements

• cooky pan(s)
• pastry blender
• mixer
• medium-large mixing bowl
• small mixing bowl
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• rubber spatulas
• parchment paper
• cooling rack for done cookies

Ingredients

• 3 C flaked coconut (~10.5 oz, 3/4 of 14-oz. package)
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1/3 C flour
• 2 T and 2 t Wilton meringue powder and 1/2 C water
  (You can use 4 egg whites.)
• 1 t vanilla extract, optional (I forgot to add it!)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Line the baking pan with parchment paper.
3. Pour the coconut into a medium-large mixing bowl, breaking up the lumps.
4. Add the flour and sugar into the coconut, using the pastry blender to blend well.
5. In the smaller bowl, mix the water and meringue powder together. (I mixed on low speed for one minute, then medium speed for one minute.)
   Note: For using only egg whites, lightly beat them.
6. Add the extract, if you want extract, (Or fuggedaboutit it like I did.)
7. Pour the beaten egg whites or egg-white substitute ingredients into the larger bowl.
8. Use the pastry blender to stir the ingredients together.
9. Use a tablespoon to scoop the dough.
10. Drop the spoon's dough onto the parchment-lined cooky sheet.
11. Bake for about 15-17 minutes until the edges are lightly browned.
12. Transfer the done cookies onto cooling rack.

Calories and coconut servings
The recipe yielded 34 macaroons, calculated to about 66 calories each, 40 that come from coconut—almost 2/3 of each macaroon's calories. YMMV. The coconut was the most problematic ingredient for calculating calories. The package of coconut contains 14 ounces (396 grams).

The nutritional table shows 70 calories for every 2 tablespoons (15 grams) and claims 27 servings for the package. If dividing 396 grams by 15 grams, however, the total servings is 26.4. The front of the package prominently claims to contain 5 1/3 cups. If calculating VOLUME servings at 8 servings per cup (16 tablespoons per cup), the number of servings should be 8 x 5.33, or (gasp!) slightly fewer than *43* servings.

November 14, 2013: I made a double batch to take to a workplace potluck. Instead of using a pastry blender, I wore latex gloves to blend the dry ingredients, then later used a couple of large cooking spoons to stir the egg-white replacement fluid into the dry ingredients. My yield was 84 cookies, about 52 calories each.

A Convenient Triple-dose Pnutty Butter Cooky Batch

AHOT (Austin Heart of Texas) Event

AHOT, an organization for printed circuit board design professionals, recently held its annual Vendor Day. It was well-attended—maybe 100ish. Renowned speaker Tom Hausherr, EDA Library Product Manager at Mentor Graphics Corporation, delivered 4 different presentations. The event had 16 sponsors this year, up from 12 last year. You can download the announcement pdf with hyperlinks to the sponsors and speaker if you are on LinkedIn.

Cooky Musings

I decided to take in cookies as I did last year. I'd been wanting to try out a boxed peanut butter cookie mix. Both Krusteaz and Betty Crocker put out a peanut butter cookie mix. Each brand's box contents weigh 17.5 ounces and call for 1 egg, 1 T water, and 3 T oil. The standard yield is 36 2-inch diameter cookies. (I myself wound up with 44.)

I like PB cookies okay, but think of them as somewhat boring. I decided to turbocharge the peanut flavor. I started out mixing the batter according to the box instructions, then added peanuts and Wilton Peanut Butter Flavor Candy Melts—for sale at bakery supply stores and craft shops. Other than dose up the flavor with chopping up and mixing in the two additives, I didn't modify the box recipe.

After I removed a baked batch out of the oven, I was surprised that the chopped candies seemed to have disappeared. I anticipated they would be like chocolate chips or chocolate chunks and be visible. I'm not that knowledgeable about the Wilton candies, but it's possible that they might have a lower melting temperature than chocolate chips and just melted into the cookies during baking. In any case, I received rave reviews for the hefty peanut flavor.

It did take me awhile to settle on a name, although I kicked around other titles, such as "Xtra P-nutty PB Cookies", PB and Pnutty Madness Cookies", "P-nut Trio Cookies", "Triple P-nut cookies", and "P-nut Trilogy". Ed E, a Vendor Day attendee and enthusiastic praiser of my cookies, was the one who suggested "P-nut Trilogy".

Ingredients

To keep the recipe looking uncomplicated, I've listed a somewhat compressed list of ingredients. People experienced enough with cooky baking will have no problems whipping up a batch. Novices might need to peruse the list a little more closely.

• 1 pkg peanut butter cooky mix, ingredients stirred together per instructions (usually requiring combining of water, egg, oil)
• 4 oz. peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 4 oz peanut butter flavored candies, coarsely chopped (e.g., Wilton brand)

Equipment

• cooky pan(s)
• pastry blender
• bowl
• measuring cup
• measuring spoon(s)
• small rubber spatula
• cooky spatula to lift and transfer baked cookies
• cooling rack for done cookies

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Pour the cooky mix powder into a medium-large mixing bowl.
3. In a cup, combine the egg, water, and oil.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the larger container and use a pastry blender to stir the ingredients together.
5. Stir in the chopped peanuts.
6. Stir in the chopped candies.
7. Use a round tablespoon to scoop the dough, then level it.
8. Use the spatula to turn and drop the spoon's dough onto the cooky sheet. (This dough was very dense. After a few dollops, I put on vinyl gloves to shape and dispense the dollops individually.)
9. Flatten and spread the dough using the bottom of a glass.
10. Bake for about 8 minutes.
11. Use the cooky spatula to lift and transfer the done cookies onto cooling rack.

Additional Past Cooky Recipes

• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch [Valentine]
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--Easter
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--German Chocochip Bites