Is in that location anything more exciting than a cake mix hack? We've turned a box into pancakes, milk shakes, even quickie peanut butter cookies in the Test Kitchen, but leave it to Pinterest to reveal a brand new cake mix trick we just had to attempt: Cake Mix Pie Chaff.

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The most popular cake mix pie chaff pivot on Pinterest brought us to Hoosier Homemade, who learned this fob at the Duncan Hines headquarters! The ingredients couldn't exist simpler: i (xvi.5-ounce) box cake mix, whatsoever season y'all'd like, 1 whole egg, 3 egg yolks, and 1 tablespoon softened butter. We decided to utilise archetype yellow cake mix to keep things, well, classic.

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Per Hoosier Bootleg'south instructions, I sifted the cake mix into a bowl, then mixed in the eggs and butter. I used a mixer to speed things up, but y'all could do this past hand, as well. The dough was sweet and sticky, almost like edible Play-Doh, with a prissy sheen to information technology. Since our August issue'south nutrient feature is all about summertime pies, I decided to get with a standard size chaff. Could this recipe hack exist used as a fun base for our big, beautiful fruit-filled treats?!

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Rolling out this pie dough was a delight. The texture was super polish and malleable, a nervous-chaff-maker'southward dream! 1 slap-up thing about the dough containing eggs: Yous tin smush things back together if you become a tear or rip. Classic pie dough (which is made without eggs) won't allow you lot practise that.

If in that location'south a decorative crust you've always wanted to try but were too afraid to tackle, now'due south the time since the cake mix dough is so forgiving. One of import footstep is to really focus on is pricking the dough all over with a fork. This helps steam escape and will (hopefully) proceed the dough from puffing up too much. I was a tad too scant with my pricking, as you lot can encounter, because our crust puffed upward quite a bit. Make certain yous pierce all the way down to the plate and be generous! Adjacent time, I might add together pie weights for a little extra help.

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Overall, the crust was delicious! Information technology'south very dissimilar than the buttery, flakey pâte brisée pie crust you're used to. This was more like a cookie crust with a crisp outside and softer, squishy insides, but that's definitely non a bad thing. We can't await to try the same technique with chocolate block mix.

THE PROS
• Easy to tweak the flavor by only using a unlike block mix — can't practise that with regular pie dough!
• Much more forgiving and easier to work with
• Bully cookie-like texture

Come across how we whipped it up:

NEXT: The Easiest (And Cutest) Fruit Pies for Summer »

Erin Phraner is an associate editor in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen.