How To Make Boxed Mixes Taste Better

Homemade typically wins…

…Homemade cards trump Hallmark.  Nothing says “I love you” from my preschooler more than random pieces of string, old food, and shredded paper glued to a piece of heart-shaped paper.

…According to my kids, a made-up story is so much better than one out of a book.  Who wants a quiet reading voice when you could have an insane-o dragon voice as Daddy tells the most awesome story ever?

…And, as most would agree, a batch of anything that takes hours to prepare by hand in the kitchen certainly blows anything store-bought away.  Men away at war don’t have dreams about watching their Mama pour a can of Spaghetti-O’s into a bowl.  Rather, they keep memories of Mama cranking out homemade noodles near to their heart.

However, I’m sure you noticed that I said, “Homemade typically wins.”

I had to say “typically.”  Because in my case, homemade clothes just don’t really look, um, normal.  And I don’t know, maybe a homemade family car isn’t a great idea.

And when it comes to cooking – and I totally agree that homemade fare is almost always best – sometimes a Buy-One-Get-One at Publix on boxed brownie mix happens.

And then the rules change and logic goes out the window.

Well, that BOGO on boxed brownie mix is precisely what happened this week.  And stopping by to pick up a few boxes is precisely what I did.

And guess what??  When it comes to making boxed mixes taste un-boxed, it is totally possible!

I want to share with you a few tricks for making your boxed brownie or cookie mix taste, well, out of the box!  🙂

Boxed Cookie Mix

Start with your box of cookie mix.  I chose Krusteaz. – How in the world do you even say that??  Crusty As?  Crustees?  Crusty Oz?

Anyway, check out the back of the box.  It says to add a stick of butter and one egg.  That’s a good start, but a lot more needs to happen.

1.  Set out the stick of butter to soften.  Crack your egg into a bowl and whisk it up really good.
2.  Pour the bag of mix into a bowl and add the softened butter and beaten egg.

3.  Add in 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of rolled oats.

4.  Add in 2 tablespoons of whole milk.

5.  Add in 1 tablespoon of coconut oil.  This is so important!  The coconut oil is like the final step of the bridge that your cookie takes to cross over from Boxed Land to Homemade-ville.

6.  Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Not the imitation stuff!

7.  Now mix it all up using one of those crazy butter-cutter-inner thingy’s.

8.  Once it has turned into a dough, cover it and stick it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

9.  Cover a baking sheet in foil and do not grease.  This is essential for getting your cookies to crisp perfectly on the edges.  Plop over-sized tablespoons of dough onto the foil and cook (gasp!!) according to the package directions.  And please, once you have scraped out all the dough, lick the spoon.  If you don’t…well, I just won’t believe in anything anymore.

10.  When they are done, cool for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

11.  Lastly but not leastly, put them on a pretty plate and then eat every single cookie.  Your mind will know that they came from a box, but your body will not.  These cookies are a wonderful and tasty master of disguise.

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Boxed Brownie Mix

If the boxed-cookie-mix-turned-homemade-rogue was good, then these re-vamped boxed brownies are “Last Meal Good.”

I started with a box of Duncan Hines brownie mix.

The back of the box tells you to add some oil and water and one egg.  Throw all that rubbish-talk out the window.

Here is your new cast of characters:  (…minus the egg.  I forgot to set the egg up there.)

1.  Into a bowl you are going to add:

• 1/4 cup of coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of coconut milk
• I tablespoon of vanilla extract
• Chopped up chocolate pieces, if you have any
• One well-beaten egg
• The bag of mix

2.  Mix it all really good, and then grease a pan with coconut oil.  Preheat your oven to 350, and then bake the brownies for exactly and precisely 37 1/2 minutes…I’m not joking.  🙂

3.  When they’re done, cool them in the pan on top of a wire rack.  Once cool, sprinkle beautiful, wonderful powdered sugar all over them.

4.  Cut them into squares, serve them on a pretty plate, and then wonder who broke into your house, stole your boxed brownies, and replaced them with these to-die-for homemade ones that your great-great-aunt made.

They are that good, people.

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It is the end of an era…the era of the fear and snobby attitudes towards poor old boxed mixes.  With a little lovin’ and spit shinin’, those Plain Jane boxes can become true beauties.

Header photo by:  Lisa Brewster

Lauren Souers

Hi, my name is Lauren. I am the wife of one fine man and the momma of four (huge) young children – three boys and one princess! I love all of them. I mostly clean up messes and feed people all day, and it’s really fun to write about it. Jesus is the rock of my family – we love and serve a mighty King! I hope you leave here full of hope that “tired” can be good.