Quick Cookies: How to Use a Cake Mix to Make Inexpensive Chocolate-Topped Vanilla Cookies (Air Fryer or Oven)
- Leigh
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
These cookies are easy, incredibly good, and relatively inexpensive to make. You start with half a yellow cake mix (save the remainder of the mix for later or double the recipe for 20 cookies) to create soft, cake-like cookies that are tender, sweet, and delicious. Then you top the cookies with a fudge-like glaze. The combination of the soft cookies and chocolate glaze is similar to Berger cookies--a cookie that is made and marketed by a Baltimore, Maryland, bakery and that consists of a shortbread cookie slathered with thick, chocolate frosting. In the case of the recipe I'm posting, the cookies turn out softer and, I think, better for it. Nonetheless, when I make a batch of these cookies, I usually frost only about half of them. My husband prefers the cookies plain, with no chocolate topping, because the cookies are quite good "as is." Either way, I think the cookies are great. They're easy to mix up, air fry in about 10 minutes, and they taste really, really good with a cup of coffee, tea, or milk. And, yes, if you don't want to/have time to make the glaze, you can frost the cookies with canned frosting! Enjoy!
Chocolate-Topped Vanilla Cookies -- Makes about 10
1/3 cup of canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 tablespoons of milk
1 2/3 - 1 3/4 cup of cake mix (half a 15.25-ounce box of yellow cake mix)
In a medium bowl or measure whisk together well the oil, egg, vanilla, and milk. Stir in the cake mix with a spoon (the difference in measurement is because some cake mixes settle more than others--you need to use half of the mix for 10 cookies).
Air Fryer: Cut small pieces of baking parchment to fit your air fryer basket. Drop 1 1/2 tablespoon portions of dough onto the parchment, spacing the dough a couple of inches apart (the soft dough will spread) and no more than two to a piece of parchment. Put a dough-topped piece of parchment into your air fryer basket, put the basket into the air fryer, and air fry the dough at 320 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the cookies are puffed and a light, golden brown. Remove the cookies from the air fryer basket to cool and repeat the cooking process with the remainder of the dough. Make the topping for the cookies and, while the topping is hot, pour/spread it over the cookies. Let the cookies sit until the topping hardens. If the topping hardens up before you finish frosting the cookies, you can reheat the topping in the microwave in 10-15 second increments, stirring it after heating, too loosen it up.
Oven: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Drop 1 1/2 tablespoon portions of dough onto the parchment, spacing the dough a couple of inches apart (the soft dough will spread). Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes or until the cookies are puffed and a light, golden brown. Let the cookies cool completely while you make the topping. While the topping is hot, pour/spread it over the cookies. Let the cookies sit until the topping hardens. If the topping hardens up before you finish frosting the cookies, you can reheat the topping in the microwave in 10-15 second increments, stirring it after heating, too loosen it up.
Topping
3/4 cup of confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of butter
2 - 3 teaspoons of milk (start with 2 and add a little more if the topping seems too hard)
In a small bowl or measuring cup combine all the ingredients and microwave them for about 30 seconds. Stir everything well and top/frost the cookies. You can reheat the topping briefly in the microwave--in 10-15 second increments--if necessary.
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