However, I’d never made Snickerdoodles. I was extremely lucky to find the recipe for “Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles” on AllRecipes.com. The cookies came out perfect for freezing: slightly crispy on the outside, but soft and chewy inside. Because they’re so soft, you can eat them straight out of the freezer without breaking your teeth. And of course, there’s nothing like ice cream when it’s 100 degrees outside.

I changed the recipe slightly to use all butter, and I will mention I think it’s important to use real vanilla extract. The Snickerdoodle is a simple cookie and every flavor is on display.

Snickerdoodle Ice Cream Sandwiches

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream together butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 minutes (exactly). Allow to cool for a few minutes on the sheet before moving to a cooling rack.

After the cookies are completely cool, match them by size into pairs. Line a dish with wax paper and put it in your freezer. Put a scant scoop of ice cream on the bottom cookie, and gently flatten with the top cookie. Put the sandwich into the lined dish immediately (don’t try to work in batches – I made that mistake first and it was a melty mess). Use wax paper between layers of completed sandwiches.

I bake a lot, especially cookies. My specialty is butterscotch chip. So how did I make it 30 years into my life without knowing about cake mix cookies?

For anyone else who may not know, the cookies use cake mix as a base, then you mix in whatever you want – nuts, chips, candies, etc. My sister Rebecca recently told me about them so I decided to try them out for myself.

Holy moly were they easy!

I’ve been craving a chocolate cookie, so I chose a chocolate fudge cake mix and peanut butter chips. It took less than five minutes to mix up the batter and get the first dozen in the oven.

The cake mix cookies came out with a great texture: crispy on the edges but soft and chewy in the middle. And they tasted like Reese’s peanut butter cups, always a win. I’m thinking next time I’ll do a red velvet cake mix with white chocolate chips.

The recipe I used came from Cooks.com and is super simple. It yields 48 cookies, but I made mine gigantic so only ended up with about 25. I also used slightly more chips than the recipe calls for, but not quite the whole bag.

Cake Mix Cookies

• 1 package of cake mix (any flavor)
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup of oil
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 cup of chopped nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, etc.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat together the cake mix, egg, oil and water, then stir in your “goodies.” Drop by teaspoons about 1 inch apart onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.