Kool-Aided Cake Mix Cookies Combo Batch

Around winter holiday season, chocolate-covered cherries tend to float into my consciousness. Another chocolate and cherry concoction has also been staring at me recently when I open the freezer: ice cream with cherries and chocolate chips "H-E-B Select Ingredients Creamy Creations Cherry & Chocolate Limited Edition Ice Cream". One yummy I wanted to buy so I could add chocolate chips and make cookies with is a cherry-chip cake mix. Unfortunately, have heard the supply is spotty "Betty Crocker Super Moist Cherry Chip Cake Mix".

The basic cooky recipe uses cake mix, eggs, and oil. For flavor and color enhancements, I added a package of Cherry Kool-Aid and 10 drops of red food coloring. Another cooky variation is a chocolatey covered one. BTW, I used Black Cherry Kool-Aid for my "Kool-Aided Cake", an experiment. It turned out so well that I rationalized that Kool-Aided cookies could turn out well. View the video for full details of preparing one, two, or three types of cherry-themed cookies.

While thinking about implementation, I decided that chocolate in a form or two would be interesting. My recent foray into chocolate coating and also chips with mint themes inspired me to borrow from those ideas. The intention, besides making tasty cookies, was to improve on similar processes. Additional ingredients for this combo-batch cooky recipe are red food coloring, chocolate chips, and optionally, white chocolate "bark".

Because of the nature of dough stiffness, I recommend using a tilt-head mixer. If you use a pastry blender, wire whip, or hand mixer, stamina would be helpful. Another helpful item is a cooky press for shaping and dispensing cooky dough pieces. Or you can use a tablespoon-and-spatula method.

Cooky Press Thoughts—Disks

I misplaced my Wilton cooky press container, which showed the baked cooky shapes for each disk. The images for the following models look mostly similar.

• "Preferred Press Cookie Press, 13-Piece"
• "Wilton Cookie Pro Ultra II Deluxe Cookie Press". View the useful image of the disks.
• "Wilton Cookie Pro Ultra II With 3 Bonus Disks. (20)"

Cooky Press Thoughts—Dispenser Trigger Squeezes

Using 1 1/2 trigger squeezes of the cooky press yields suitable size cookies.

• "A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch"
• "Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--Easter"

For the cookies for "Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 4, Choco Unadorned/Coated Minty Cookies", I used two trigger squeezes per cooky. I think the heavier cooky made chocolatey dipping more awkward and used a lot more coating. The yield was fewer than I liked. I'll use 1 1/2 trigger squeezes when using a cooky press.

Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 5, Choco Minty Sandwich Cookies

These cookies are actually Plan B use of remaining unadorned mint chocolate cookies from "Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 4, Choco Unadorned/Coated Minty Cookies". I had run out of melted chocolate after having coated only about one-third of my 40 cookies. It wasn't until the third day that I thought about gussying up uncoated ones. Hmmm, I didn't have spare frosting, but had ingredients for buttercream frosting.

My buttercream frosting recipe called for 3 cups of powdered sugar and typical additional ingredients. "Vanilla Buttercream Frosting". And rather than making pedestrian sandwich cookies, I added 7 drops of blue food coloring to the frosting. Why blue? Eh, I didn't notice that the cap was blue instead of green until I mixed up the frosting. Maybe weirdly, the color looks more mint green than baby blue.

I had only 19 unadorned cookies remaining. I dispensed 1 T frosting each for 10 cookies, mated them with 9 others. (I indulged and ate the single cookie with excess frosting. Yum!) Yield: 9 ~3" diameter sandwich cookies (each ~2 ounces, 255 calories), and one oddball (~ 190 calories)

Note: For future possible sandwich cookies from cake mix recipe that yields 40 cookies, an entire 16-ounce can of spreadable frosting might be enough for 20 sandwiches.

How did I decide the amount of frosting per cooky sandwich? From experimentation with these ~ 3" diameter unadorned cookies, I felt one tablespoon of frosting filled in well.

Musing: Oreo Mint Creme Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are similar to the cookies I made. Mine are bigger, and softer and easier to take small bites of.

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Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 1, Sweetish Thoughts
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 2, Nose 4 Mints N Chips
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 3, Spearymintal Choco Chip Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 4, Choco Unadorned/Coated Minty Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 5, Choco Minty Sandwich Cookies

Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 4, Choco Unadorned/Coated Minty Cookies

My journey started out as intent to make chocolate-covered mint-flavored chocolate cookies. Such examples are Girl Scout Thin MInts, Hill Country Fare Fudge Mint Cookies, and Fudge Mint Cookies (Back to Nature brand).

This cooky recipe uses cake mix, eggs, oil, mint extract, and chocolate chips. The ingredients and methodology are very similar to "Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 3, Spearymintal Choco Chip Cookies". The biggest differences are the cake mix flavor and chocolate chip use.

I visited mostly video sites for melting chocolate and also methodology for coating the cookies. I bought a dipping tongs gadget. Some unknowns going in:

• Cautions about melting process (temperature, durations, microwave vs. double boiler)
• Number of cookies I'd get from my favorite cake mix cooky recipe
• Tablespoon-and-spatula dispensing of dough vs. cooky press
• Baking time—chocolate cookies not as easy to spot browning edges
• Amount of chocolate for coating the cookies—enough vs. too much

The yield was 40 baked cookies. The 12 ounces of melted chocolate chips was nowhere enough—only 12 cookies well-coated and 2 half-topped. Why'd I so badly underestimate the amount of chocolate I needed?

• My inexperience (clumsiness) with coating methodology and failure to revisit sites on baking day
• Too-late thoughts about scraping excess chocolate back into bowl, resulting in overcloaked cookies
• Fear of breaking cookies while coating, thus, handling them gingerly during dipping and transporting

What happened to the 26 unadorned cookies? Most of the remaining cookies wound up in my Plan B sandwich cookies that I didn't think of until three days later. Visit "Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 5, Choco Minty Sandwich Cookies" for details.

On to the cooky making!

Implements

• Pastry blender or electric mixer
• Bowls for mixing wet ingredients
• Bowl for mixing dough
• Rubber spatulas
• Cooky spatula
• Cooky pan(s)
• Cooling rack(s)
• Spoons
• Dipping tongs
• Parchment paper
• Measuring spoons
• Resting plate

Ingredients

• 1 box of chocolaty cake mix
• 1/3 to 3/8 cup of oil (I forgot that my standard recipe uses 1/3 cup. Results were acceptable.)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon of mint extract
• Chocolate chips or other chocolate form for coating (Note: I severely underestimated the amount of chocolate I needed. I managed to coat only about 1/3 of the baked cookies.)

Dough Process (Using Pastry Blender or Electric Mixer for Combining)

For mixing this few-ingredients cooky dough, I used a manual pastry blender. For parceling out the dough onto baking pan, I initially used the method of measuring spoon and spatula, then switched to a cooky press. A cooky press is fast if the dough is single-texture consistent. It's not appropriate if the dough has chocolate chips, nuts, or other items too big to fit through smallish disk holes.

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Mix oil, eggs and mint extract in a large bowl. (Most of the times, I usually break each egg separately into the bowl before adding the other wet ingredients.)
3. Mix in the cake mix.
4. Parcel out tablespoons of dough onto pan, leaving ~1" margins for baking expansion.
5. Bake each batch for up to 7 minutes. (Because the dough is chocolate, checking for browning edges is not helpful.)
6. Cool for ~ 2 minutes before using cooky spatula to transfer them onto cooling rack(s).

Chocolate Coating Process

1. Set aside a large surface for this process. It's also helpful to have a plate for resting dipping tongs, spoon, or fork for handling the cookies.
2. Lay out parchment paper for laying chocolate-dipped cookies onto.
3. Melt chocolate chips or other chocolate forms in a medium bowl until syrupy.
4. Coat each cooky separately, lightly scraping excess chocolate before transferring onto paper.
5. Carefully pull parchment sheet or partial sheets of coated cookies onto rack or pan, and place inside fridge to cool and harden the chocolate.

How long before melted chocolate sets? From "Chocolate-Dipped Cookies"—"Refrigerate until the chocolate just sets, 10 to 15 minutes." From looking at my camera's pic date stamps of cooky refrigeration and bringing them back to the kitchen island, 40 minutes passed. (I probably did some other task during that time.)

Resources for Melting Chocolate and Dipping Items

• "Dipping Cookies, Pretzels, Cherries in Chocolate"
• "Dipping Cookies, Pretzels, Cherries in Chocolate Part-2"
• "How to melt chocolate in microwave : How to melt chocolate"
• "How to Melt Chocolate, the Right Way! - Kitchen Conundrums with Thomas Joseph"
  This site provides corrective action if the chocolate misbehaves in the melting process.

Cooky Stats

Yield: 40 ~3" diameter unadorned cookies
 12 fully coated (each ~2 ounces, 189 calories)
 2 half-coated (each ~1 1/4 ounces, 129 calories)
 26 unadorned (each ~2/3 ounce, 65 calories)

Note: I used a cooky spatula to divide the coated cookies.

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Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 1, Sweetish Thoughts
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 2, Nose 4 Mints N Chips
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 3, Spearymintal Choco Chip Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 4, Choco Unadorned/Coated Minty Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 5, Choco Minty Sandwich Cookies

Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 3, Spearymintal Choco Chip Cookies

The journey to these simple-to-make munchies started out with a discussion about chocolate mint cookies. I meandered to researching mint flavoring and food coloring for mintifying chocolate chip cookies. I wanted them have the color, taste, and chippy looks of mint chocolate chip ice cream, but avoid overdosing.

"Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 1, Sweetish Thoughts" describes my initial journey towards my cooky recipe. It started out with a friend's recommendation for a minty iced chocolate cooky. I got to thinking about similar cookies, then about other sweet, minty yummies. I wondered about mint flavorings, of which I included some info.

"Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 2, Nose 4 Mints N Chips" describes my deeper dive into making a mint chocolate chip cooky, greenish to resemble mint chocolate ice cream. As I would add food coloring and extract, I wondered about their shelf lives. I pointed to various recipes, calculating dough weights for inferring appropriate amounts to use. The toll house mini-chip recipe ingredients help me conclude reasonable amount of chips to use.

My ingredients for these cookies are a box of yellow cake mix, 1/3 cup of oil, 2 eggs, 5 drops of blue food coloring, 3/4 teaspoon of mint extract, and a 10-ounce bag of mini chocolate chips. For saving time and elbow grease in mixing up this dense cooky dough, I used my tilt-head stand mixer. I mixed the liquid ingredients with the balloon whisk, then switched to the flat beater paddle to add the cake mix, then the chips. I doled the dough portions onto a baking pan using a measuring spoon and rubber spatula.

Ingredients

• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• 1/3 cup of oil
• 2 eggs
• 5 drops of blue food coloring
• 3/4 teaspoon of mint extract
• 10-ounce bag of mini chocolate chips

Process (using pastry blender or mixer for combining)

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Mix oil, eggs, mint extract, and food coloring in a large bowl. (I tend to break each egg separately into the bowl before adding the other wet ingredients.)
3. Mix in the cake mix.
4. Fold in the chips.
5. Dole out tablespoons of dough onto pan, leaving ~1" margins for baking expansion. (I use the measuring spoon with rubber spatula method.)
6. Bake each batch for ~ 10 minutes, checking for browning at edges.
7. Cool for ~ 2 minutes before using cooky spatula to transfer them onto cooling rack(s).

I preheated the oven to 350 for about 10 minutes while I doled the dough portions onto a baking pan, between level and rounded tablespoons. Baking time was ~ 10 minutes, about the time cooky edges became slightly brown.  YMMV for amount of time, especially if your parcel out bigger dough dollops than mine. BTW, with bigger dollops, you should allow bigger margins and increase baking time.

Newish to Cooky-making Process?

Visit step-by-step details at "Minty Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies" (w/images) and "EZ Mini M&M Confetti Cookies" (narrated video, article w/images).

My baker's basic "pre-flight" suggestions:

• Have plenty of food-preparation surface(s).
• Acquire and line up all your ingredients.
• Line up all your implements (bowls, cooky pans, measuring cups/spoons, etc.)
• Remember to preheat the oven.

For additional help, the web and YouTube are LOADED with cooky recipes and advice. If you want the easiest way to step into cooky baking, start with refrigerated cooky pellets (located near refrigerated biscuits).

Cooky Stats

Raw ingredients weight and the chips: ~35 ounces
Yield: 51 ~2/1/2" diameter cookies (24 for 1st pan, 27 for 2nd pan)
Calories: 78 each (3990/51)
 (cake mix powder, 1800, chips, 1400; oil, 650; eggs, 140 -> 3990)

Post-recipe Notes

• The amount of 3/4 teaspoon mint extract seemed reasonable.
• Baked color was less green than I hoped for, some color interference because of slight browning, maybe. Might have been OK to use 7 drops of color instead of 5.
• Weight evaporation from baking was about 2 1/2 ounces.

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Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 1, Sweetish Thoughts
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 2, Nose 4 Mints N Chips
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 3, Spearymintal Choco Chip Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 4, Choco Unadorned/Coated Minty Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 5, Choco Minty Sandwich Cookies

Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 2, Nose 4 Mints N Chips

My mind percolated about making cookies that would integrate yellow cake mix, mini chocolate chips, mint extract, and blue food coloring. This cooky should resemble mint chocolate chip ice cream. I became curious about some of my ingredients.

Shelf life of food coloring? Shelf life of mint extract? What kind of mint is in my extract? Difference between peppermint and spearmint? Difference between peppermint oil and peppermint extract? How much extract to use? How much food coloring? Use blue instead of green? Amount of chocolate chips?

Shelf Life of Food Coloring

"Does Food Coloring Go Bad? How Long Does Food Coloring Last?" answers, "shelf life of food coloring is almost indefinite. Food coloring does not have raw ingredients in them that can go bad."

Shelf life of Mint Extract

"MINT EXTRACT, PURE, COMMERCIALLY BOTTLED — UNOPENED OR OPENED" answers, "Properly stored, mint extract will generally stay at best quality for about 3 to 4 years."

I'd written my "Minty Choco Chip Pudding" recipe article awhile back, so I wondered about the extract's safety and potency. Still Tasty site's info:

How can you tell if mint extract is still good? Mint extract typically loses flavor over time - if the extract develops an off odor, flavor or appearance, it should be discarded.

I did a sniff test after noting that the fluid was transparent. Yup, strongly minty!

Peppermint, Spearmint, Oils, Extracts

For this article, I'm emphasizing more about the cookies than mint. Visit "Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 1, Sweetish Thoughts" for sections where I contrast peppermint vs spearmint, and peppermint oil vs extract. BTW, my bottle of "McCormick® Pure Mint Extract" lists both spearmint and peppermint oils, along with water and 89% alcohol.

Ideas for the Cooky Recipe Extract, Food Coloring

A recent discussion with a friend about mint chocolate cookies spurred me to consider making a batch. A little uncertainty about seeing obvious doneness for chocolate cooky dough got me to thinking of using a lighter-color cake mix. Also, I thought the cookies might look kinda cute if they resembled colors in mint chocolate chip ice cream. Several sources gave me enough ideas about amount of mint and food coloring, and eventually, amount of chocolate chips.

I searched in my blog for mint and found Minty Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies and Minty Choco Chip Pudding, both from 2014.

The cooky recipe is similar to the spearymintal cookies, except for different means of mint flavor, kinds of chips, and cake mix flavor. At that time, I used a pastry cutter for mixing.

The pudding recipe uses both extract and food coloring. I had referred to page 20 of the Cuisinart Instruction Booklet (for soft-serve ice cream maker) for mint ice cream (ingredients: 30 ounces). The pudding ingredients weighed 19 1/2 ounces. The ice cream called for one teaspoon of extract. I hedged my bet and used half the amount for the pudding. Turned out to be the right decision. I had used green coloring; would use blue another time.

"Addictive Double Chocolate Mint Cookies" calls for 1 teaspoon mint extract to make a batch of 36 cookies. I decided I needed to calculate the dough weight (29 ounces), although I consider the recipe to fussy for my taste.

"McCormick® Pure Mint Extract" intrigued me with "Mint Brownies: Prepare and bake 1 package (21 ounces) brownie mix as directed, stirring 1/2 teaspoon extract into batter." One-half teaspoon! Now I needed to find out what recipe with added ingredients would weigh that would warrant a seemingly teeny amount of extract. I found an 18-ounce box fudge recipe that called for 3 T water, 1/2 cup of oil, and 2 eggs. OK, powder amount is close enough. The added ingredients would add about another 9 ounces. So, one half teaspoon of extract for 29 ounces of dough.

Gauging Appropriate Amount of Chocolate Chips

I usually use regular-size chips, commonly packaged for 12 ounces each bag. I wanted to try mini-chips. OK, so mini-chips packages weigh less, and cost about $2.50. Seems the smallness gives the taste buds pretty good bangs for buck. Anyway, the recipe for "Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Mini Morsel Cookies" calls for a 10-ounce package of mini chocolate chips. The weight for flour, sugars, butter, and eggs totaled 31 ounces. I concluded the entire pack of chips was a reasonable amount for my spearymintal cookies.

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Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 1, Sweetish Thoughts
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 2, Nose 4 Mints N Chips
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 3, Spearymintal Choco Chip Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 4, Choco Unadorned/Coated Minty Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 5, Choco Minty Sandwich Cookies

Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 1, Sweetish Thoughts

I recently tried some chocolate-covered mint chocolate cookies, Fudge Mint Cookies (Back to Nature brand), recommended by a friend. Mmmm. Got me to thinking about other minty chocolate cookies. I recalled my supermarket sells Hill Country Fare Fudge Mint Cookies. They're square, minty chocolate with chocolate coating. Decided to look up more similar cookies.

I thought I recalled that Girl Scouts has a minty cooky. Yes! Thin Mints, tersely described in "Meet the Cookies".

The Google results for "girl scout cookies mint chocolate" yielded not only a pointer to the Girl Scouts Thin Mints info, but also loads of pointers to DIY recipes.

All three brands of minty chocolatey cookies, besides sharing characteristics of minty cooky coated with chocolate icing, use peppermint oil. I wondered how that differed from peppermint extract.

Contrasting Peppermint Oil and Extract

"What Is the Difference Between Peppermint Oil & Peppermint Extract?" explains:

The fundamental difference is that peppermint oil is made of pure peppermint, while peppermint extract is essentially a flavored solution—a little peppermint and a lot of something else.

Peppermint oil is the pure, concentrated oil—known as an essential oil—derived from the stems and leaves of the peppermint plant. … An extract is a mixture of an essential oil and a medium—usually alcohol—that helps carry the flavor. … Never ingest pure peppermint oil, which can be toxic in large doses.

Hmm, my bottle of "McCormick® Pure Mint Extract" lists both spearmint and peppermint oils, along with water and 89% alcohol. Speaking of peppermint and spearmint, …

Contrasting Peppermint and Spearmint

From Taste of Home's "What’s the Difference Between Peppermint and Spearmint?":

Peppermint is an incredibly pungent—almost spicy—herb. … And though peppermint is perhaps the better known of the two, it’s actually a natural hybrid of spearmint and water mint. … much more potent than its counterpart. Because peppermint is a mix of two types of mint, it contains a higher content of menthol (40% as opposed to spearmint’s 0.5%).

From Chowhound's "What Is the Difference Between Spearmint and Peppermint?":

Spearmint, containing less than 1% menthol is the far more delicate with a subtly sweet profile, and thus often found in savory dishes; much less likely to overpower other herbs and spices. … peppermint is actually a hybrid of spearmint and water mint. At 40% menthol, it is the surly, punchy and powerful member of the Metha family, and the intensity of it’s “minty” flavor borders on spiciness, earning it a fitting name.

Both Taste of Home and Chowhound sites contain expansive explanations and also links to recipes that use either kind of mint.

Other Sweetish Scent o' Mintal Thoughts

My mind meandered to mint flavored sweets. Hmm, Junior Mints, Peppermint Patties, Andes Mint candies, grasshopper pie, mint chocolate chip ice cream, …

I also thought about articles I'd written that contained mint: Minty Choco Chip Pudding and Minty Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies

My mind started percolating about another cooky recipe that would integrate yellow cake mix, mini chocolate chips, mint extract, and blue food coloring. This cooky should resemble mint chocolate chip ice cream. I needed to confidently determine the amount of extract and food coloring to use.

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Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 1, Sweetish Thoughts
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 2, Nose 4 Mints N Chips
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 3, Spearymintal Choco Chip Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 4, Choco Unadorned/Coated Minty Cookies
Scent o' mintal Journey, Part 5, Choco Minty Sandwich Cookies

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

A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--German Chocochip Bites

My convenient cooky recipe this time is my third one using cake mix. The other two have Valentine's Day and Easter themes. The German Chocochip Bites evoke German chocolate cake taste with predominance of chocolate, coconut, and pecans. The recipe yields about 55 soft and chewy cookies.

• 1 box chocolate or devil's food cake mix
• 1 can coconut pecan frosting
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 6 oz. chocolate chips
• 2 eggs

Note: The stated weight for a standard-size box of cake mix is 18.25 ounces.

The following baking equipment required:

• 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 350 degrees.
2. Pour the cake mix powder into a medium-large mixing bowl.
3. In a bowl or large cup, combine the melted butter, eggs, and frosting.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the larger container and use a pastry blender to stir the ingredients together.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Use a round tablespoon to scoop the dough so it looks more than rounded and less than heaping (about a 4-teaspoon measure).
7. Use the spatula to turn and drop the spoon's dough onto the cooky sheet.
8. Bake for about 13 minutes.
9. Use the cooky spatula to lift and transfer the done cookies onto cooling rack.

If you want to make smaller cookies but more of them, level off the tablespoons of dough instead of rounding them. Bake for about 10 minutes instead of 13.

Note: My German Chocochip Bites cooky is an adaptation of a foodista recipe for Coconut Pecan Cookies, which calls for 4 ingredients: yellow cake mix, coconut pecan frosting mix, melted butter, and eggs.

A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--Easter

This article is a sibling recipe to my Valentine cooky recipe. This simple recipe requires only 4 ingredients:

• 1 box vanilla or otherwise light-color cake mix
• 1/3 cup of oil
• 2 eggs
• various-color sugars

Note: The stated weight for a standard-size box of cake mix is 18.25 ounces.

The following baking equipment required:

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

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pour the cake mix powder into a medium-large mixing bowl.
3. In a bowl or large cup, mix the oils and eggs.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the larger container and use a pastry blender to stir the ingredients together.
5. Complete the process as follows according to the cooky size and number you want (larger/fewer—40 vs. smaller/more—50).

Flat-tablespoon Method (Shown in pic strip at article title.)
Yields about 40 cookies.
1. Use a round tablespoon to scoop the dough.
2. Flat-scrape the excess with a rubber spatula.
3. Use the spatula to turn and drop the spoon's dough onto the cooky sheet.
4. Flatten and spread the dough using the bottom of a glass.
5. Sprinkle color sugars over the dough disks.
6. Press cooky cutter shapes all the way through the dough disks.
7. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Domed-teaspoon Method
Yields about 50 cookies.
1. Use a round teaspoon to scoop the dough so it looks more than rounded and less than heaping (about a 2-teaspoon measure).
2. Use the spatula to turn and drop the spoon's dough onto the cooky sheet.
3. Flatten and spread the dough using the bottom of a glass.
4. Sprinkle color sugars over the dough disks.
5. Press cooky cutter shapes all the way through the dough disks.
6. Bake for about 8 minutes.


6. Use the cooky spatula to lift and transfer the done cookies onto cooling rack.

Note: Using a cooky shooter is also suitable for dispensing the dough. If using a shooter, sift the powder before mixing in the wet ingredients, in case there are soy "pebbles" that can clog up the pattern disk(s).

The cookies are soft right out of the oven; the edges become slightly crunchy after a few minutes.

A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch

Make the cookies with a basic recipe using cake mix, eggs, and oil. I timed this article for making red, heart-shaped cookies for Valentine's Day. (Combining Red Velvet and strawberry flavors results in a nice red color—not too dark, and not pink.) The resultant chocolaty and strawberry flavors are a bonus. This simple recipe requires 4 ingredients:

• 1/2 box Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix (Only Duncan Hines makes this flavor.)
• 1/2 box strawberry cake mix
• 1/3 cup of oil (For a slightly nutty flavor, replace 1 tablespoon oil with sesame oil.)
• 2 eggs

Note: The stated weight for a standard-size box of cake mix is 18.25 ounces.

The following baking equipment required:

• cooky pan(s)
• pastry blender
• couple of bowls
• bowl(s)—one for mixing dry ingredients, one for mixing wet ingredients (unless you use a large cup for the wet ingredients)
• cooky spatula to lift and transfer baked cookies
• cooling rack for done cookies

Heart-shaped vs. Round cookies

• If making round cookies, a measuring spoon and spatula also required.
• If making heart-shaped cookies, a cooky shooter with heart-shape disk highly advised.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift or otherwise dry-mix the cake mix powders together thoroughly into a medium-large mixing bowl.
3. In another bowl or large cup, mix the oils and eggs.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the larger container and use a pastry blender to stir the ingredients together.
5. Dispense cooky dough as follows according to the shape you want.

Cooky shooter dispense method
For heart-shape cookies, my method is using a cookie press, which resembles a caulking gun, to push out the dough. (The disk resembles a "Y".) I use 1 and 1/2 trigger squeezes for each suitable-looking cooky. (I myself don't care for the cooky-cutter method, as the dough rollout is not all that fun.)

Round cooky dispense method
For round cookies, my method is as follows:
1. Use a round tablespoon to scoop the dough.
2. Flat-scrape the excess with a rubber spatula.
3. Use the spatula to turn and drop the spoon's dough onto the cooky sheet.
4. Additional option: Flatten and spread the dough using the bottom of a glass.
6. Bake each batch about 10 minutes.
7. Use the cooky spatula to lift and transfer the done cookies onto cooling rack.

The cookies are soft right out of the oven, but become slightly crunchy after a few minutes. The yield can be as high as 4 and 1/2 dozen.