A variety of desserts, salads, pies, and cakes will be slathered with Cool Whip this Easter weekend.
It is unusual for this column to mention featured ingredients by brand name.
For the past 30 years, I’ve been impressed by editors to adhere to fair journalistic tactics of not favoring any particular brand, and I’ve usually only taken the opposite approach. For over 1,000 recipes published in cookbooks and published in my column, I’ve had to replace the common term Cool His Whip in the ingredient lists of recipes that include this product. The common term is dairy-free frozen whipped topping, defrost, which is a much more unwieldy and long string of words.
Today’s recipe is a simple box cake mix cookie dough made by my sister Pam, which is moist and delicious with Cool Whip as a secret ingredient.
Cool Whip was invented in 1966 and was born in 1970, making him four years older than me. The product was introduced by Bird’s Eye Brands, a division of General Foods. All brands are now under the General Foods umbrella.
William A. Mitchell, a Minnesota food scientist who died in 2004 at the age of 92, invented Cool Whip as a frozen product comparable to fresh whipped cream, but the latter could be used both as an ingredient and as a garnish. It takes much more effort to prepare and store. . Mitchell is also the inventor who created his lox for NASA’s space program that pops in the mouths of eager young people with an adventurous sweet tooth, making it easy for him to whip up meringue. Mix the powdered egg whites as shown.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, Mitchell held more than 70 patents during his lifetime.
Until 2018, Cool Whip was sold in plastic containers (which were later often reused at home to store leftovers) and marketed as “non-dairy.” In recent years, in addition to light cream and the milk derivative sodium caseinate, skim milk has also been added to the ingredients. According to Jewish beliefs and dietary habits, even before 2018, Cool Whip was classified as a “dairy product” because it contains an ingredient called sodium caseinate.
My sister Pam likes to use yellow cake mix, but any flavor you choose will turn out just as good.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the marketing director for Theater at the Center. You can contact him at pmpotempa@comhs.org or email questions to: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, IN. 46374.
Pam’s “Cool” Cookie Recipe
make 2 dozen cookies
1 carton (8 oz) of Cool Whip, thawed
1 egg
1 box (14 oz) yellow cake mix
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup pecans
1 cup half pecans
direction:
1. Combine 1/2 cup pecan flour and cake mix in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add eggs and Cool Whip and mix well until smooth.
3. Drop heaped teaspoonfuls of batter onto cookie sheets and garnish with one pecan half.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes.
