Cake Mix Cookies (a la Andrea)

• 1 18.25-ounce yellow cake mix
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven go 350 F.
2. Dump cake mix into a large bowl.
3. Stir in the oil and eggs until well blended (go ahead, you can even use your clean hands!).
4. Mix in the chips.
5. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls or roll into balls the size of walnuts and place 2 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet and flatten just a bit with your fingers.
6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Do not over bake.
7. Remove from pan to cool on wire racks.

Yield: About 2 dozen 2-inch cookies.

Because there are so many different kinds of cake mixes (with pudding, with double pudding, extra moist and so on), you may need to make slight adjustments to this recipe. For example, I’ve found that with some varieties of mix the dough is so stiff and dry it’s not possible to form the cookies into balls. When this happens I simply add one or two tablespoons of water until the dough is workable. If you want to cut down on fat, try substituting 1/2 cup applesauce for the oil. Variations: You can use just about any combination of cake mix and chips. Example: Carrot cake mix with white chocolate chips; chocolate cake mix with peanut butter chips; devil’s food cake mix with toffee bits chips; German chocolate cake mix with pecans and coconut; white cake mix with crushed pineapple (drained) and coconut.