Baking Cookies with Trader Joe Cake MIx

I was visiting a relative and wanted to bake some cookies using cake mix, eggs, and oil. She showed me her two boxes of cake mix, a Trader Joe's Golden Yellow cake mix, and a Duff's Zebra cake mix. I chose TJ's. This baking experiment produced results that differ from my standard cake mix cookies.

Standard cake mixes from Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, and Pillsbury weigh 15.25 ounces each these days. (Grrr! They used to weigh 18.25 ounces apiece.) The Trader Joe mix was 28 ounces. Funny thing, though, is that the pan and well sizes all claim the same thing—2 8" or 9" round layers, 9" x 13" rectangle sheet, or 24 cupcakes.

Wasn't sure I wanted to double my usual added ingredients (2 eggs and 1/3 cup of oil) for making the cookies because TJ weighed nearly twice as much as DH, BC, or Pillsbury. So I hedged my bets. My relative had larger eggs on hand than I usually do, so I used three. For the oil, I upped the amount to 1/2 cup. I should have taken TJ's cake ingredient requirements to be added into account—3 eggs, 1 cup water, 1 cup oil. BC, DH, and Pillsbury each call for 3 eggs, 1 cup or so water, and 1/2 cup oil—half the oil that TJ calls for.

Forged ahead with making the cooky dough with the pastry blender, then shaping cookies onto pans and baking at 350° for about 12 minutes each pan. The yield was 56 cookies. They tasted ok for not having additional enhancements.

Post-Baking Thoughts

• The cookies stuck to the pan, requiring scraping with a spatula. Would put in 2/3 cup total oil AND spray the pans with spray oil.
• I was correct to use more oil and eggs than normal, and ignoring TJ's yield prediction of same amount as BC, DH, and Pillsbury. TJ's yield was 56, compared to the other brands of about mid- to high 30s.
• Would put in maybe 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract for extra zing.
• Would add chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, or combinations for additional textures.

My Non-TJ Cake Mix Cooky Recipes (Try 'em!)

• EZ Buttery Confetti Cake Mix Cookies
• Minty Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies
• Diff Kinda Choco-chip Cake Mix Cookies
• PC Cookies
• Cake Mix Macaroon Cookies
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--German Chocochip Bites
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--Easter
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch

Cookie Mix Recipe: Fat Deviating

I've been on a roll lately with deviating from sweets recipes—even easy and convenient ones. This time, I deviated from a Krusteaz Triple Chocolate Chunk cookie mix. (Krusteaz has nothing to do with the Simpsons show clown, Krusty.)

The box calls for only 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter and one egg besides the packaged mix. Simple. But I didn't want to use only all butter for the fat.

Sooo, I used half the butter called for. The other half, I replaced with one tablespoon of sesame oil and enough cooking oil to fill 1/2 cup.

Yes, I realized AFTER I baked the cookies that I put in too much cooking oil. I should have added three tablespoons of cooking oil instead of seven, resulting in 400 extra calories (200 calories x 2 oz. oil).

The results weren't disastrous. The cookies came out crispy, and just a mite oilier than if I'd replaced the correct amounts of fat. The cookie webpage claimed the cookies to be "chewy". They had 400 additional calories spread over 46 cookies, which amounted to less than 10 extra calories per cooky.

According to the Krusteaz box's nutritional table, the dry ingredients total 2160 calories (120 calories x 18 servings of two 2"-diameter cookies). A prepared mix of dry and wet ingredients total 3060 (170 per serving). Anyway, if I had prepared my 46 cookies with the equivalent fat substitutions, each cooky would have been 66 1/2 calories (3060/46). Instead, each cooky came to about 75 calories (3460/46).

The Krusteaz box displayed a table that listed yields as follows:

• 56 2" cookies (2 t dough)
• 24 2-1/2" cookies (1 rounded T dough)
• 2 3" cookies (2 rounded T dough).

The nutritional table estimated a yield of 36 2" cookies. As my yield was 46, I'm guessing my tablespoonfuls were somewhere between level and slightly concave.

Although I increased the number of ingredients from the box's recommendation, it was by only two. The sesame oil, a favorite additive of mine, gave the cookies a nutty flavor. The cooking oil reduced the amount of saturated fat because of butter. Yes, overall fat was higher. Next time, I'll try to remember to substitute the right amounts. :-)

My pixstrip panels show the following images:

1. Implements
2. Ingredients
3. Pan with raw dough/baked cookies
4. Plate of cookies (yum)

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