
If you follow My Baking Addiction on a regular basis, you may have caught on to the fact through my Lemon-Blueberry Coffee Cake post or through Facebook that I am going through an incredibly lazy phase. I’m going to pull a little Milli Vanilli circa 1989 and blame it on the rain.
The weather is incredibly depressing here in Ohio. The gloomy skies are perfect for mid-afternoon naps, but they’re quite awful for natural light food photography. In fact the photos in this post were taken during a storm; needless to say, they are certainly not my best work.
Amidst my lazy phase, Brian needed a chocolate fix and asked me to make chocolate chip cookies. I totally wasn’t feeling it, but since every relationship is based upon compromise, I offered him an alternative that would quell his craving and take me no longer than 10 minutes to prepare. That way I was able to get back to my couch, fuzzy blanket, and DVR while he had his chocolate demons quieted.
These cookies are so ridiculously simple that I’m almost embarrassed to post them. But I figured we all have those moments when a craving strikes and baking from scratch is the last thing we want to do. Taking a little help from a box mix may not be for everyone, but sometimes I’m all about taking a help from where ever I can get it! Last week was certainly one of those times. With five simple ingredients, you’ll have warm gooey chocolate crinkle cookies in no time. They’re soft, slightly chewing and definitely satisfying.
Simple Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Yield: 18 cookies
Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup confectioners' sugarDirections:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract until well blended. Place confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl.
3. Using a medium cookie scoop (1 ½ tablespoons), drop balls of dough (dough will be sticky) into the confectioners’ sugar, roll to coat. Gently form dough into a ball by lightly rolling between your palms.
4. Place dough balls on prepared baking pan about two inches apart.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 7 to 9 minutes. The bottoms will be set but middles will look slightly undercooked. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on pan before removing to a wire rack.
Notes:
- These cookies are best served fresh out of the oven; however, they will keep in an airtight container for 2 days.
- Doctor up these cookies even more by playing with different extracts and add ins. I think a little orange zest would be a great addition, or try adding in a little mint extract for easy Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles.
- This base recipe does work well with other box flavor varieties, I have tried it with lemon cake mix which resulted in delicious, chewy lemon cookies.
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{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a box mix every now and again. Especially when it leads to something as delicious as these cookies! I am *totally* picking up a lemon cake mix the next time I’m at the store.
The only cake mix I’ve seen that doesn’t translate well into “cake mix cookies” is red velvet. Never seems to work… BUT cherry chip is yummy. My fav is definitely the lemon though.
Boy do these look great! Jamie your the best and always seem to have recipes to cater my cravings! Keep it up!
I make a similar recipe for chocolate crinkles and when I made my choc chip cookie dough stuffed ones I used it too, minus the sugar. I don’t add vanilla and I use milk. Believe it or not my recipe is actually a “light” recipe! either way you spin it…GREAT brownie like cookies.
I’ve made similar lemon ones. Only instead of the oil, using 1c Cool Whip (which I guess is just oil though isn’t it?) and 1 egg.
I’ve never made these using a cake mix before! What a great way to shorten your time in the kitchen when you’re not really feeling it. I know I wouldn’t pass these up!
These look delicious! It’s always nice to have a quick and easy recipe on hand for times when you’re in a baking mood, but feeling lazy.
I am happy. Just got home from the grocery store with 6 various boxes of cake mix and came to the computer to find the wonderful Jamie’s blog post. Yay for buy one/ get one sales!!! See ya, can’t waste precious baking time writing about how much I love this blog and all that stuff
Good idea to use cake mix! Never heard of using cake mix for these before!
What a brilliant idea to use cake mix. They look really delicious and quite professional.
Great recipe! I love having quick and easy recipes like this on hand!
Hi! I just found your blog recently and am planning to try out the glazed donut muffins for breakfast tomorrow:)
What a great idea this crinkle cookie recipe is! I have the Nestle one and bake them every Christmas season – they are a favorite around here. It’s nice to know we can have a “quick fix” now for the rest of the year!
Thanks for sharing – I love learning new ideas and recipes from blogs. Have a great night.
When you’ve got a serious chocolate craving there’s nothing wrong with a little help sometimes! These would cure any craving for sure.
They may be as you say, *ridiculously simple* but they sure make for a pretty cookie with all their crinkles dusted with confectioners sugar. Love the peek of the red-striped straw in the photo.
I feel your pain on the gloomy weather, it is always grey in Vancouver! These cookies look like the perfect pick me up! Thanks!
A big bite of that cookie would taste devilish… Looks rich and yum
These are my best friends favorite cookie! She always says “I can never get them to crinkle properly”, haha. I’ll send this recipe her way!
What a great cookie recipe for when you are feeling lazy!
It’s always nice to have a fall-back simple recipe for those times you don’t want to or feel like putting much effort into it. Thanks for sharing!
Very clever! I never would’ve thought about using cake mix for cookie dough.
Thank you! It’s great to have a few recipes that you can just throw together and get something yummy.
These look great, Jamie. I love the photograph—so well lit. Beautiful.
I make similar cookies for a lot of my family events. I just use the cake mix, eggs, and oil in mine. My dad loves ones make with the carrot cake mix. Another thing I do when I make them with a lemon cake mix. I fill my 1/3 measuring cup about half full of oil, then finish filling with lemon juice.
You might slowly be convincing me that it’s nice to have a cake mix on hand once in a while….Going to try making a few of my own to stash away. These look yummy!
My very favorite cookie is similar to this one but uses strawberry cake mix and cool whip. I only make it at Christmas time because it is too dangerous to have around, I eat the whole batch in a day!
Did you replace the oil with cool whip? I really want to make strawberry cookies
Delicious cookie. Nice photo!
Ahh…brings back memories – my Mom used to make these. Very yummy! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I completely wouldn’t have guessed the recipe was so simple from looking at those gorgeous cookies! It’s so nice to have a few easy to assemble recipes on hand – love these!
Thank you SO much for these! I have a few boxes of mix that I’ve been wanting to use but haven’t felt like making what they’re intended for. I just might give this a shot.
love how fast and easy these are! im totally making these for my next chocolate attack.
Yum… These cookies look incredible!
I made these last night – ridiculously easy and incredibly delicious!!! Thanks for posting this!!!
Just the photo makes my mouth water! Love these!
Is it ok to use a different brand of food cake mix? I’m just wondering since I already have a cake mix here.
I am sure it will be just fine.
-Jamie
This looks perfect! I usually buy chocolate crinkles on store and it is so oversweet. I think this recipe will help me to make my own taste of sweet chocolate crinkles.
Just wanted to let you know….that I can commiserate with you regarding the rain. I live in Louisville, KY….and it has been raining nearly every day for the past two weeks!!! I know they say that April showers bring May flowers….but this is crazy!!! However, this lovely recipe does indeed look like a wonderful “pick me up”…..just the thing to satisfy my chocolate craving and also my love of recipes that aren’t too hard or time consuming. My daughter comes home from college this week (YA-HOOOOO!!) and I can’t wait to bake these together with her!! As always, thank you for sharing your wonderful indeas and personal thoughts~ Rain, rain, go away, bring me a chocolate cookie to stay!
I love crinkle cookies. mine always seem to have a lot of powdered sugar on them haha.
Would these cookies work if you skipped the coating of powdered sugar? Or would it make them stick to the pan or something like that? I’m looking for a simple recipe to make with a spice cake mix, but I want to top them with cream cheese frosting!
Lauren–
Thanks for visiting. They are realllly sticky, so I am not sure how this will work. Best of luck!
–Jamie
Thanks for the tip! I’ll try both and see how it goes.
FYI, I made this recipe with a boxed spice cake mix, orange zest, orange extract, and dried cranberries. I skipped the powdered sugar step, and even though the dough was sticky, it made delicious cookies. Thanks for the great recipe!
I made this recipe for a Labor Day BBQ at our house this past weekend and it was a huge hit. No one guessed that they were from boxed cake mix! Everyone said how fudgy, moist and chewy they were. One guest even asked for a glass of milk to go with his cookie!
I make the lemon cookie recipe all the time…I send cookies to our military sometimes twice a month…the lemon cookies have been all over the world to My Navy boys and they love, love, love them….they travel well too, sometimes 4-6 weeks to reach the ship!!!
i know these are best the first day made but would freezing them work?
Desiree-
I have never frozen these cookies, but I’m betting they’ll be just fine. Happy Holidays!
Jamie
Jaime these are the BOMB!! I made these as soon as I saw the recipe since I had all the ingredients already and took them to work to “test” them out. The only complaint I got was “why didn’t you bring more?!” ;o) I can’t wait to try the other flavors that the other posts have talked about. They all sounds fabulous. Thanks for another great add to my files!!
Okay – so I took your advice and made these cookies – and was so excited after tasting the first batch that when I was taking out the second batch tripped and they landed all over the floor…LOL.
Thank goodness I bought two packages of cake mix.
Grace
Ok – I just made these and used mayo instead of oil – MOIST!
Karen-
I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for stopping by and providing your feedback- have a great day!
-Jamie