Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies

After taking a short hiatus from the baking world, I have once again become inspired to expand my culinary efforts! My newest inspiration is Sally's Baking Addiction. If you think you've never heard of her, you probably have. She has some of the BEST food photography I've seen on the web.

I somehow came across her recipe for Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies, then began to explore her website. She made me excited to bake again, and now that I'm settled in my new home, I'm able to bake more often! My goal is to bake twice a week for the next year, one pie or cake and one other recipe. Hopefully I'll be able to bake more, but we'll see! Back to the cookies...

These were some of the best cookies I've had in a while, and to me they were the perfect consistency of crunchy and chewy, my favorite! The sprinkles add some fun and the extra ingredient just finishes of the recipe for a perfect flavor.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 1/4 C yellow or white boxed cake mix
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 C (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/2 C light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1.5 tsp vanilla
1 C chocolate chips
1/2 C sprinkles

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed. Mix in the egg and vanilla until creamy.

2. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not OVERMIX the dough. Fold in the chocolate chips and sprinkles.

3. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour, or up to 4 days. This step is mandatory. The dough is fairly sticky, so chilling the dough is required in order to avoid the cookie from spreading too much.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5. Scoop rounded tablespoons of the cold dough onto an ungreased baking sheet. Shape your cookie dough balls to be "taller" than they are wide, as pictured above. Make sure to keep dough chilled when working in batches. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly browned. (Mine took 10 minutes exactly). The centers will still appear very soft, but the cookies will set as they cool.

6. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 4 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.