What recipe do you associate with your mother? I was interviewed by the Hungry Squared podcast with that exact question. And the recipe I associate the most with my mom is her Oatmeal Choco Chip Cookies Recipe made from a spice cake mix because she introduced me to the deliciousness of cookie dough.
Even though my mom was a stay at home mom before that was made an acronym (SAHM), she moved in a direction somewhat counter to the cliche. She didn’t adore cooking or baking. Vacation was her favorite because then we would eat out. She wasn’t obsessed with home beauty (or perhaps our budget didn’t allow for it). But our home was always comfortable and we never went hungry. Most of the time I remember being well fed. But given her being less obsessed with food preparation it’s difficult for me to conjure up a recipe she loved. She made my dad bake the Thanksgiving pies and do the Saturday pancakes. She stuck to meals that fit the budget and filled up ravenous kids. So we ate many casseroles. I think we would have eaten many pasta dishes if my dad hadn’t hated spaghetti.
What do you remember from mom?
When it comes to baking, I remember mainly breads and cookies and cakes from my mom. Those recipes usually involved a box mix of some kind (aside from the bread because the breadmaker with boxed mix hadn’t been invented). This was a rather unique thing in her prime mothering time. Semi-homemade wasn’t an acceptable thing yet, schools didn’t require professionally prepared, individually wrapped treats. It was quite the opposite, moms that weren’t preparing from scratch were a bit odd. My mom said that her Home Ec teacher in high school said that unless you have access to lots of eggs (like 6-8 per recipe) your cakes are just as good from a box mix. She never forgot that and I grew up just fine. Goes to show that love gets put in the food no matter how you make it.
Not just licking the bowl
The best part about my mom loving this cookie recipe was that she openly admitted she loved the cookie dough. Again this was a while back, cookie-dough ice cream appeared on the scene when I was a teen. So to have an adult tell me that eating cookie dough was ok and tasty was not the norm. But we ate spoonfuls of it. She didn’t just let me scraper the bowl, she let me have a little spoonful. This was monumentally unique. She even commented later in life that she felt those moms that scraped the bowl too clean were kinda mean mamas.
This love of cookie dough expanded to the point in my teen years I made chocolate chip cookies (good old Nestle recipe) with friends and we’d plan to only eat the dough never actually bake cookies. And I credit my mom with that great idea. When she broke the barrier of only licking to bowl, my perspective changed. This may not seem earth shattering to anyone, but I think a little social defiance like that really brings a mom closer to ya.
Now my mom makes these cookies with my kids when we visit and naturally we still eat a little cookie dough off the spoon.
Oatmeal Choco Chip Cookies from a cake mix
Pretty easy and quick with a cake mix and just like spice oatmeal cookies, but with a delicious chocolate chip cookie
Ingredients
- 1 box of spice cake mix
- 2 cups uncooked rolled oats
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup cooking oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup chopped nuts
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350
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Combine all the ingredients and mix well
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Drop from a spoon on an ungreased cookie sheet
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Bake for 12 minutes
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Cool the cookies on the sheet for 1-2 minutes then remove to cookie rack to finish cooling.
Recipe Notes
Spice cake mix isn't always available in stores. And I am sorry to say that all my attempts as substitution didn't turn out the color of these or the correct spice level for me. So it's a necessary ingredient in my mind.
