DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHEWIES

I know it's  not Tuesday, but I couldn't get this out last Tuesday.  We are finally having some warmer temperatures than we have had for most of this summer so I decided it was a good day to defrost my chest freezer. Fortunately, for me, it is not a large one.  So that is how I have spent part of my day today.  I always like how clean it looks when I get finished.  It also looks emptier...guess all that "stuff" on the (in)sides takes up a lot of room.  But it is done for probably another year so I thought I would try to get this post out before it is Tuesday again.  Yesterday at church, I saw Jerry, one of the volunteers, and he said, "Those cookies you made last Tuesday were really good."  I was so surprised.  That was almost a week ago.  I just finished eating the last one I saved and they are so - so good. Hope you will continue to read and check them out.

If it's Tuesday, it must be volunteer day at Hillcrest Thrift Shop.  That also means I have to prepare something sweet to share with my fellow co-volunteers.  I am actually enjoying finding some different recipe that I think they will enjoy.  They are still talking about my RANGER COOKIES  from last week.  They were really, really good.

I found this recipe in my old spiral binder that I started YEARS ago when I decided to cut out recipes and glue them in a binder to try when I had time.  I don't think I had ever made them.  At least I didn't write down any comments or dates by the recipe (as I commonly do).

As I usually do, I modified the recipe to reduce the calories as much as I could.  When this recipe was printed in the magazine, you couldn't buy sugar free cake mixes but you could buy ones with the pudding in the mix.  I know because the original recipe says a "plain devil's food cake mix".  I also use a margarine that is 60 % vegetable oil and it worked fine in the recipe.  I had the Toll House Limited Edition Winter dark chocolate and mint morsels left over from last winter that I decided to use instead of just semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I am so pleased that I did.  I love the added mint taste. 


One of the volunteers asked me if I thought you could use caramel chips?  She loves caramel chips.  I told her I thought you could use any flavor of chips that you wanted to.  One of the things I have learned to do since starting this blog is being brave enough to experiment with recipes. 

Here is my updated version of

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHEWIES

1     Pilsbury Sugar Free Devil's Food cake mix (or regular devil's food cake mix without pudding)
1/3  cup water
1/4  cup (1/2 stick) margarine, melted (60 % vegetable oil margarine works)
1     egg
1     6 - oz bag (1 cup) chocolate chips ( I used a Winter mix of dark chocolate and mint morsels)
1/2  cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.

Place cake mix, water, melted margarine, and egg in a large bowl.  Beat on low speed 1 minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Increase the speed to medium and beat one more minute.  Dough will be thick.

Add the chopped nuts and finally the chips.

Drop teaspoons of dough 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.  I used my 1 - inch scoop.

Then dipping a fork in a cup of water,

I lightly flattened the ball of dough.  The fork will stick to the dough if you don't wet it. 











Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until cookies have set but are still a little soft in the center.

Cool the cookies for 1 minute on the cookie sheet before removing them to cool on a wire rack. (The cookies on the left were the first ones I made without flattening them.  I wanted them flatter so I flattened the rest of them before I baked them.)

The recipe made 44 cookies.