I was thinking of making some spice cookies as an excuse
to make an anise frosting (to use up some anise flavoring
that came with small bottles of other flavors). I just
realized that I have a box of spice cake mix in my cupboard,
so thought perhaps I could use that for the cookies.

But I can't find any general instructions online for making
cookies less "cakey" than cake mix would result in. I was
able to find plenty of recipes that *use* cake mix to make
cookies, but the ones I found all used the same added
ingredients (oil, eggs, water) as were called for in the
original cake mix instructions.

Is there some rule of thumb on how to make a denser cake
from a prepared mix? Some sort of standard changes to the
amount of oil and/or number of eggs, perhaps?

As a further complication (or maybe it would actually help
in this case!), I'd prefer to substitute applesauce for some
of the oil, to reduce the fat content.

So...any ideas on how to make fairly firm cookies (that will
take a hard icing well) from prepared spice cake mix?


Thanks!
Patty

Patty Winter wrote:
> I was thinking of making some spice cookies as an excuse
> to make an anise frosting (to use up some anise flavoring
> that came with small bottles of other flavors). I just
> realized that I have a box of spice cake mix in my cupboard,
> so thought perhaps I could use that for the cookies.
>
> But I can't find any general instructions online for making
> cookies less "cakey" than cake mix would result in. I was
> able to find plenty of recipes that *use* cake mix to make
> cookies, but the ones I found all used the same added
> ingredients (oil, eggs, water) as were called for in the
> original cake mix instructions.
>
> Is there some rule of thumb on how to make a denser cake
> from a prepared mix? Some sort of standard changes to the
> amount of oil and/or number of eggs, perhaps?
>
> As a further complication (or maybe it would actually help
> in this case!), I'd prefer to substitute applesauce for some
> of the oil, to reduce the fat content.
>
> So...any ideas on how to make fairly firm cookies (that will
> take a hard icing well) from prepared spice cake mix?
>
>
> Thanks!
> Patty

I have made biscotti from cake mixes many times.

Searching for my notes right now, but it basically amounted to adding
only butter and eggs to the dry mix, no other liquids. Form the very
thick batter into a long log, and bake until light gold (I used yellow
or lemon cake mixes.) When it has cooled a bit, slice into 1/2" to 3/4"
cookies, lay them flat on the sheet, and return to the oven until
lightly browned. I sometimes flip them over, to bake both surface evenly.

Googling on <cake mix biscotti> returned a lot of hits...

Dave

In article >,
Dave Bell > wrote:
>
>I have made biscotti from cake mixes many times.

>Searching for my notes right now, but it basically amounted to adding
>only butter and eggs to the dry mix, no other liquids.

>Googling on <cake mix biscotti> returned a lot of hits...

Dave, thank you very much for this suggestion! I did find some
biscotti recipes and went that route. You were right--only butter
and eggs, plus some extra flour. I used mostly butter, with some
canola oil. I bagged the applesauce idea, since I needed to keep
the dough on the dry side, so it was damn the calories, full speed
ahead! :-) Oh, I did add some dried cranberries (chopped slightly
in the Osterizer to make them smaller) and sliced almonds.

I actually cut back the final baking time (after cutting the sheet
of partly baked dough into biscotti shapes) and left them a little
moist. Really dry biscotti always disintegrate with crumbs all over
the place when I bite into them, which annoys me. :-) But mine were
plenty firm enough to dip partway into a thick powdered-sugar icing.

The icing should be dry enough this morning that I can wrap the
biscotti and get ready to give them to friends.

So anyone else who's looking for a pretty and very easy gift,
biscotti from cake mix are a snap!


Patty