Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies by Paula Deen

I made these for our BIG family gathering yesterday. They are easy AND delicious!!

For those of you looking for a HEALTHY recipe... Paula Deen's are not your best option. Note the BUTTER and CREAM CHEESE... that you don't taste, but they doe make a marvelous cookie that doesn't go hard on you!! I know, you may imagine your arteries clogging as you down these scrumptious morsels of yumminess... but I didn't notice... or mind... ;p  oh, and to make sure we had plenty, I doubled the batch!!

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and "gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if desired.

You can find this recipe and more at FoodNetwork.com