ooey gooey butter cookies.

more backlog people.

i was home for mother's day and my assignment was dessert.

apparently i'm known to be/have a wicked sweet tooth.
side note: our neighbors across the street when i was a kid owned a bakery called sweet tooth which i always thought was cute stuff/best bakery name ever.

anyway, i've been wanting to try ooey gooey butter cookies for awhile because well with that name how could they be bad?

but my delay had to do with a conflict of recipes.

ms.smitten has an entirely different cookie then the one pictured above.

well ok, not entirely different.
the end result appears shockingly similar.

the difference was yeast.

yeast is an entirely other beast.

yeast takes planning.

yeast takes patience.
i used yeast once and it was a screaming success. literally.

but at this point, i just wasn't up for it.
after an entire weekend of family, friends, etc, i was ready for easy, delicious and sinful.

hence the ooey gooey butter cookies which would likely make julia sigh with shame.

that is until she tasted them.

start with these ingredients.

that's one box of cake mix ( i know, i know).

one egg

and one stick of melted butter.

mix together for 2 minutes until batter starts to hold together.

should resemble this.

 press into a pam-sprayed 11.5x13 pan.

the next layer consists of ingredients i forgot to take pictures of.

excellent.

so that's one 8oz container of softened cream cheese.

2 cups of confectionery sugar.

1 teaspoon vanilla.

1 egg.

the batter will be thin, light and smell like heaven.

pour this layer over the cookie-style layer.

bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes.
i waited for cookies to get a little golden but still have a little jiggle on the top layer.
some wiggle room if you will.

immediately dust with confectionery sugar and let cool completely.
since i was in buffalo, naturally my parents back porch made for the perfect fridge.
being it was may and 45 degrees was beside the point.
still, we had to wait to eat them till after glenn's delicious mother's day feast.

what can i say?
the cream cheese layer is like the best part of most cheesecakes.
the cookie part gets a bit crispy, yet stays chewy.

really a great marriage of textures and flavors.
apparently.
because somehow you find yourself eating about 5 of them.
i also cut these into teeny, tiny little numbers.
people feel less guilt this way.
i'm always looking to delay the guilt.
it's the catholic in me.