Creepy Crawly Cookies

I decided to try a new hobby – entomophagy. As with most hobbies I enjoy, this will probably prove to be too expensive to pursue very much.

I bought some wax worms from San Diego Wax Worms (http://www.sdwaxworms.com/). $13 for 125 worms plus shipping. Next time (if there will be a next time) I think I’ll have them packed in newspaper instead of sawdust, for the simple convenience of not having to pick apart worms and shavings when prepping them for freezing.

Here’s my video of prepping them.

I decided the darker ones were not worth frying (only 2 moved if I poked at ‘em), and just threw them away.

Today I made cookies. It was supposed to be this recipe (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201307/eating-bugs-recipes-White-Chocolate-Wax-Worm-Cookies.aspx), but I am horribly lazy when it comes to cooking and baking, so I cheated with this easy/quick recipe:

1 box yellow cake mix

1/3 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 bag chips (I used butterscotch, as I had an extra bag)

½ cup nuts (obviously I used my worms instead)

Mix half the cake mix, oil, vanilla and eggs until smooth. Put in chips and nuts, stir until all blended. The dough will be very thick (this was an understatement! I had to quit using the spoon and knead it with my hands to get all the cake mix powder combined in the dough).

Bake at 375f for 8-10 minutes. My cookies were about 9 minutes, and are still soft/chewy (I don’t like crispy treats…partly why I don’t like nuts!)

It was interesting in a disappointing way. I ate one cookie, taking care to notice any particular uniqueness. The worms were chewy themselves (kinda like soggy popcorn – head and legs were like the kernel sheaths), had no distinct flavor apart from the general sweetness of the cookie. I even picked a couple out to eat alone without cookie, and still didn’t really notice anything different. I drank half a glass of chocolate milk. A few minutes later I did have an aftertaste of walnut.

Supposedly wax worms taste similar to pine nuts. I’d rather have pine nut than walnut 😦

So! Verdict is that while I guess they’re okay, I won’t be spending $13 on wax worms. They’re just not different enough to warrant that price.

Next adventure is meal worms, which I can get at Petco for only a couple dollars. They can go in cookies too, which I will try. But I guess they’re good for stir fry also, and I can do BOTH recipes without spending my whole week’s entertainment budget 😉

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