my achy bakey heart

as far as my top cookies go, this one is way up there.  i first made these over christmas vacation, when i yanked my brother from his lair/computer to be my indentured servant for the afternoon.  it took a bit of persuasion to convince him to get his hands dirty (i don’t even know what to do with the kid sometimes), but he proved to be quite the baker.  i wanted to make them for santa.. i am convinced that if i tell my 18-year-old brother he believes in that jolly man with enough fervor and assertion, he suddenly will.  but since i had to face the facts that my childhood was gone forever, i decided to have my parents take them to a christmas party they were going to.  let’s just say, the cookies did not make it there.  because once you eat one, you just can’t stop.  kinda like pringles. 

i got the recipe from probably the cutest southern lady on the planet (other than my darling mother of course)… ms. paula deen.  she really is adorable.  i want to pinch her cheeks. and hug her. and to have her be my auntie. that is all that i want.  ….well, and to eat her food and not gain an ounce.

but, these babies above are her chocolate gooey butter cookies. or ooey gooey cookies as i like to call them, because i suck at names and this is what i came up with when i was fumbling about trying to remember when my many adoring fans (cough. let me live the dream.) were demanding to know.  they are not necessarily ooey… nor gooey…  but still delightful.  and smooshy (a technical baking term). now enough rambling, and more baking.

what you’ll need: 1 8-ounce brick cream cheese, 1 stick butter (room temp), 1 egg, 1 18-ounce box of moist chocolate cake mix, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, confectioners sugar

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. in a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter together until smooth.  i had to do this cradling my bowl and hand mixer while standing in the pantry so as not to wake up my sleeping roommates.  (have i mentioned that i bake at odd times?) it was awkward and somewhat unpleasant.  i recommend against this.

3. beat in the egg.

(don’t forget to check for shell and other grossness! i say this, because i definitely would forget.)

(a thing of dairy beauty? or a vegan’s worst nightmare?)

4. beat in vanilla extract.

5. beat in cake mix.

when cookie dough attacks!  once you get to the cake beating portion… the cake tends to fight back.  and it almost won.  i kept having to pause to remove its gooey tendrils from ensnaring my mixer entirely.  you pretty much just have to keep at it.  because it will ultimately be worth it.

this will be your lovely dough.

6. paula says to refrigerate your dough for 2 hours so that it will firm up and be easier for ball rolling.  but as we all know, since it seems to be a theme of this blog, i am laaaazy.  so i threw it in the freezer for however long it took me to do the plethora of dishes stockpiled in my kitchen (about 30-40 minutes. i’m a slow washer.  i tend to boogie to the music at the same time.)

7. roll dough into tablespoon sized balls and then roll in confectioners sugar.

8. place on an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. bake for 12 minutes.  let them cool and then sprinkle some more confectioners sugar on top. i think it is impossible to have too much confectioners sugar.

paula’s recipe said that this should yield about 2 dozen cookies.  but, i must have magical powers, because i came out with about 5 dozen.  if only these powers extended to other things, like money and bobby pins.

the verdict: i took these to work, and my pirahna coworkers ate them within seconds.  they are that yummy.  again, pringle cookies.