A simple search of “cake mix cookies” equates to a trillion different easy 3-ingredient cookie recipes. These all purport to taste like bakery cookies – soft, chewy, delicious – AND to be super easy to bake at home; after all, the cookie recipes only use three ingredients.

Well, I chose to use a chocolate cake mix for this recipe not for simplicity, but for an experiment. A bolt of espresso powder, the crunch of walnut, and both the chewiness and sweetness of raisins and dates combined with the luxury of chocolate fudge cake mix create a cookie with DEPTH and determination. The cookie may consist of far more than just three ingredients, but the recipe is still simple, and it’s darn well worth it!

(An aside – SO worth it, in fact, that with a bribery batch of these babies, I like to think my knee surgery was scheduled far ahead of what it could have been without! 🍪🍫☕️😉)

Espresso Chocolate Walnut Raisin Date Cake Mix Cookies

Espresso Chocolate Walnut Raisin Date Cake Mix Cookies

10 Tbs. butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
chocolate fudge cake mix
2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa
2 Tbs. instant espresso powder
pinch of sea salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together the butter and eggs, until soft and smooth.
Add the cake mix, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and sea salt.
Mix well.
The dough will be dark and thick.
Fold in the walnuts, dates, and raisins.

Scoop into 1″ balls and place about 1″ apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Flatten.

Bake for 10-13 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool before bribing your orthopedic surgeon!