Cake Mix Cookies

Our little family just got home from a "mini-vacation" with my family to celebrate Auntie Julia's high school graduation.

When we got home, we were glad that we had food for lunches and dinner the rest of the week.  Today, during lunch, I realized that I didn't have dessert, and I missed it a little.  So for the second half of the school day, and most of the afternoon, I thought about what I could make for desserts for the rest of the week (yes, with only 2 days left).  We ate a lot of brownies this year, mostly because they are easy to make, and store, and a box can last us for almost 2 weeks of lunches.  I decided that brownies were out, and cookies were in...cake mix cookies.

I was first introduced to them a couple months ago when our family gathered with some friends for dinner and fellowship.  One of the other couples brought cake mix cookies.  They apparently are all the rage right now, and I just couldn't get enough of them.  I asked for the recipe, which she told me right away, and I promptly forgot.  Tonight I found a version that I THINK is pretty much the same as what I was told.

The recipe is pretty basic, and can be changed to suit the palate of whoever is making them.

Our friend only had a lemon cake mix, so she mixed in blueberries (AMAZING).  We had quite the variety of cake mixes to choose from, with a few different mix-ins.  I settled on Devil's Food cake mix with Heath bits mixed in.

Into the bowl went the cake mix, oil, and eggs.

And then I grabbed my trusty whisk...BAD IDEA.

Whenever I whip up brownies or cake, I ALWAYS grab the whisk, so tonight I thought I would do the same.  Yeah, that was a bad idea.  This mix is THICK and certainly more like a dough than a batter, so I spent the next few minutes trying to scrape the cookie mix out of the whisk and back into the bowl, and finally, I had a nice dough.

In went the Heath bits, off came the rings, and I started mixing with my hands.

Whenever I make cookies, I pull out my cookie scoop, trying to make sure that every cookie is the same size and onto the cookie sheet she went.

Nine minutes later, I had these beauties.

Totally don't want to wait for tomorrow's lunch to try them, so a couple of them "accidentally" broke when I was taking them off the cookie sheet.  In our family, broken cookies need to be eaten that evening.  

So the basic recipe for these cookies...

Ingredients:
- 1 package yellow cake mix
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350.  Grease cookie sheets.
- Pour cake mix into large bowl.  Stir in the oil and eggs until well blended.  Mix in chocolate chips.  Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven.  Remove from pan to cool on wire racks.

The possibilities for combinations are endless.  Looking forward to being able to try some other combinations.