My Experience with Cake Batter Cookies

So, I Really love Pinterest!

I find all kinds of goodies on there. From Recipes, to Crafts, to Writing tips, to Homesteading ideas...

Pinterest inspires me as it does millions of other happy users.

(To see what else I am interested in, find me @ (www.pinterest.com/joatvegas)

Today I am going to talk about my own experience trying the "new" idea of cake batter cookies. 

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​​I found this idea on Pinterest, first mentioned by (and in later posts attributed back to)
Sally's Baking Addiction. Her blog is simply amazing... loads of beautifully photographed
and detailed yummy recipes!

The picture to the left is from her website, click on it to take you to her....

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First,  you should know that I am an excellent cook...

BUT..

​I personally SUCK at making cookies. I am probably the worst
​cookie-making grandma ever, because I DON'T make cookies...

When I do, they are too dry, too soft, too hard, or too weird.

That is until, I found Sally's post on Pinterest!

And this one from the Cookie Rookie..........................................................(Click on pic for more Cookie Rookie Cookie Ideas)

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The first four batches came out beautiful, mind you, I didn't bake them yet because I, silly girl that I am, and much to the chagrin of my family, decided to make all these cookies after I just started a new diet!

I would have to freeze them to eat them another day....

Which was fine by me. I'd prefer to have frozen cookies on hand. That way I can bake only a dozen at a time instead of the normal four dozen typically end up with when making a batch. In my house, one dozen equals four dozen in terms of how fast they are consumed.

So inspired was I, that I rushed out and bought the ingredients for not only the strawberry ones described, but also for a couple other flavors I thought I'd try after searching cookie ideas on Pinterest.

Back to the making of the cookies...

The possibilities for combinations are truly endless. I ended up making twelve different kinds, and ironically enough, it was the strawberry/white chocolate that my family (when I finally did bake them) liked the least! They said the artificial strawberry flavor was just too strong... So nothing bad about the recipe itself!

Here's the combos I used:

(Betty Crocker Cake Mix)                                                (Add-Ins)
French Vanilla with ............................................................  Flaked Coconut & Dried Cherries
Chocolate   with ...................................................................  Salted Caramel Chips*
Strawberry with .................................................................... White Choc.Chips
French Vanilla with ............................................................  Mint Extract, Andes Mint Chips, Green Dye
French Vanilla with ............................................................  Butterscotch & Toffee Chips*
Lemon with .............................................................................  Almond Slices
Red Velvet with ...................................................................  Semi-Sweet Choc. Chips
Butter Pecan with ..............................................................  Caramel Bits*
Super Moist Golden Vanilla with .............................   Pistachio Pudding**
(Duncan Hines)Spice Cake Mix  with ......................Raisins & Oatmeal 
(Btty Crckr)French Vanilla with ................................. Milk Chocolate Chips
(Btty Crckr)French Vanilla  with .................................Toffee Chips & Instant Coffee*
* My family's favorites
** For the pistachio I forgot to add either white chocolate chips and/or pistachio pieces. I will next time!!     
                                                                                                          

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The Recipe is simple:

1 Cake batter box
2 Large Eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup veg. oil

Plus your add-ins...

• For chips I use the whole bag (11-12 oz)
• or for 2 kinds of chips I use 1/2 bag of each flavor
• For Pistachio, I used a small instant pudding mix (the size that requires 2 cups of milk if you had made it as a pudding)
• For the Coffee/Toffee I used 6-8 Tablespoons of the Hills Bros. Cappuccino/French Vanilla (I prefer the English Toffee Flavor, but Wal-Mart was out that day)
• For the Mint Chocolate Chip, I used WAY TOO MUCH dye! I was going for a mint green, and ended up with a shamrock green.. A little dye goes a lo-o-o-ng way! 
• For Oatmeal Raisin, I dropped 1 cup of Oatmeal and 1 cup of raisins into the mix
• For Lemon/Almond, I used a small bag of sliced almonds from the baking aisle

BTW, the Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Raisin smelled EXACTLY like their "normal" counterparts, and taste just as good!

I will never make cookies any other way. This was easy, fast, and fun!

And I love most how versatile the recipe is......

Thanks again to http://sallysbakingaddiction.com and www.thecookierookie.com !!

I hope this inspired you......

Now excuse me, I have to go defend a freezer-full of 400+ cookie dough balls!

Until next time,
​T.B. Cooper

Now, a few things I learned about these cookies:

1. They are STICKY!! I usually use my hands to roll balls out of cookie dough (It reminds me of when I was in elementary and I'd get to school early and get to help the lunch lady prepare the cookies for the day), but it was impossible with this batter...... Until I remembered seeing somewhere something about cooking spray. I already use it to spray my spatula when I do Crispy Rice Treats.... So I used a teaspoon to scoop up the batter and placed it into my sprayed-greasy-hands and rolled an average of about 35 cookies per batch.
2. Freeze them on cookie sheets for about an hour. Once frozen, drop into large ziploc bags (gallon size) and be sure to label what flavor they are.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes, THEN, open oven and with a fork press cookie balls flat. They WILL NOT FLATTEN ON THEIR OWN. Then, bake another 5-10 minutes depending on your oven, and how crisp vs. chewy you like your cookies.
4. Do NOT make the mistake of cooking these like "normal" cookies, 8-10 minutes is not enough!
5. These cookies will not last in a cookie jar, or tupperware for more than three days before the flavor and consistency changes, and they become "stale."