Recipe Review: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Recipe Review: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

 Ingredients

            1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

            1/4 teaspoon baking soda

            1/4 teaspoon sea salt

            1/2 cup butter, softened

            1/4 cup white sugar

            1/2 cup brown sugar

            1 egg

            2 teaspoons vanilla extract

            1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

             

            1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix

            1 1/3 cups water

            1/3 cup canola oil

            3 eggs

Directions

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls; place onto a baking sheet, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

3. Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer to break up. Add the cake mix, water, and canola oil; continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed. Spoon into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 full. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake.

4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake portion of the cupcake  comes clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

 Ease of Preparation: Overall this recipe was literally a piece of cake. Although the directions include making cookie dough, I bought pre-frozen cookie dough pieces to use instead. This is a good trick to make these cupcakes even easier and more accessible for working busy people. For those who have more time on their hands or who really enjoy the cooking process would probably want to follow the true recipe. The vanilla cupcake mix was boxed and took about five minutes to make. Overall, using the frozen cookie dough and following the remainder of the recipe, the preparation took around 15 minutes and was anything but difficult.

Quality of Recipe: My only complaint with the quality of the recipe was that the cooking time was a little off. The recipe suggested cooking the cupcakes for 20 minutes; however, the cupcakes ended up taking only around 10 minutes. I also think that adding frosting to the recipe would be a good idea. The cupcakes came out of the oven looking a little uneven and unattractive and could look more put together and appealing if topped with some type of icing.

Taste: These are outstanding! The cupcake remained moist while the cookie baked perfectly within it. The consistency of the two together was so great that I ate three in one sitting. I recommend these to everyone not only because they taste amazing but also because they are so easy and quick to make!