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Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

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Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies are light and pillowy and melt in your mouth! At only six ingredients, they just might be your new favorite cookie!

close up gooey butter cookie with powdered sugar

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

Serve these Gooey Butter Cookies as part of a Christmas dessert spread with Christmas Brownies, Reindeer Cookies, and soft & chewy Ginger Snaps.

It’s no secret that I’m a cookie lover. Given the choice, I would bake daily and never have to make dinner again. These ooey gooey butter cookies are dangerously easy and pair perfectly with a glass of milk.

For some reason, I associate these chocolate gooey butter cookies with Christmas. Maybe because I’ve made them for cookie exchanges, but they really are perfect any time of year.

Normally, cake mix cookies aren’t my favorite and I prefer to bake from scratch, but these are amazing. Only six ingredients so they’re easy to prep and Julia was able to help.

The end result is a soft, gooey, airy cookie that I couldn’t stop inhaling.

chocolate gooey butter cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar

Tools you’ll need

Ingredients

Below is a list of the ingredients you’ll need to gather to make this recipe, why you need them, and possible substitutions. Scroll all the way down for the full recipe card with measurements.

  • Cream Cheese – You’ll need one brick (8 oz) of cream cheese, at room temperature.
  • Butter – One stick of butter, also at room temperature. They are ooey gooey butter cookies, after all.
  • Egg – One large egg.
  • Vanilla Extract – Try to use a high quality vanilla extract instead of imitation.
  • Chocolate Cake Mix – One box of chocolate cake mix. I like Dark Chocolate Fudge but you can swap out your favorite flavor.
  • Powdered Sugar – Or confectioners’ sugar is needed for rolling and dusting the cookies.
overhead shot of chocolate gooey butter cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar

How to make Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

This section shows you how to make this recipe, with process photos showing the steps to help you visualize it. For full instructions, including amounts and temperatures, see the recipe card below.

  1. First, in the bowl of your stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl, add the cream cheese and butter and cream until smooth. Then, beat in the egg. Then, beat in the vanilla.
  2. Next, add in the cake mix and beat until fully combined. It will be thick.
  3. Then, you’ll cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for around 2 hours to firm up.
  4. Once your dough is chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set them aside.
  5. Pour about a half a cup of powdered sugar into a shallow bowl.
  6. Use a large cookie scoop to portion out the dough into balls, then roll in your hands so they’re smooth. Next, roll the balls in the powdered sugar until lightly coated and place on your prepared cookie sheets, 12 to sheet, leaving about 2″ in between each.
  7. Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes – the cookies should still look soft & gooey when you take them out.
  8. Let them cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling.
  9. Dust with more powdered sugar, if desired.
white platters of christmas gooey butter cookies

Need more cake mix cookies? Try these:

More cookies to dunk in your milk:

Dark Chocolate Salted Cookies

Crisp Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

Click here for my entire collection of cookie recipes.

three gooey butter cookies on a white plate

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close up gooey butter cookie with powdered sugar

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

Melissa Williams | Persnickety Plates
Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies are light and pillowy and melt in your mouth! At only six ingredients, they just might be your new favorite cookie!
4.57 from 23 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Chill Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 22 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 30 cookies
Calories 38 kcal

Ingredients
 

  • 8 ounces cream cheese at room temp
  • ½ cup unsalted butter at room temp
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 15.25 ounce chocolate cake mix I like Dark Chocolate Fudge
  • ½ cup confectioners' sugar for rolling & dusting

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large bowl with your hand mixer), add the cream cheese and butter and cream until smooth.
    8 ounces cream cheese, ½ cup unsalted butter
  • Beat in the egg.
    1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Beat in the vanilla extract.
  • Add in the cake mix and beat until fully combined. It will be very thick.
    15.25 ounce chocolate cake mix
  • Cover with plastic wrap and let chill for around 2 hours to firm up.
  • Once chilled, preheat your oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper. Set aside.
  • Pour about 1/2 cup of powered sugar into a small bowl.
  • Use a cookie scoop (Tablespoon) to portion out dough, then roll into balls, then roll them in the powdered sugar until lightly coated. Place 12 per cookie sheet, about 2" apart.
  • Bake for 12 minutes – the cookies should still look soft and gooey when you take them out.
  • Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then move to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Dust with more powdered sugar, if desired.
    ½ cup confectioners' sugar

Notes

The batter will get very thick so I recommend using a stand mixer, if you have one. Don’t ruin your hand mixer!
Store leftovers covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 38kcalCarbohydrates: 2gProtein: 1gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 14mgSodium: 29mgPotassium: 2mgSugar: 2gVitamin A: 102IUCalcium: 2mgIron: 1mg

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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Originally published June 9, 2016

plate of ooey gooey butter cookies with milk in background


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  1. Myra says

    YUMMMM. I love these kind of cookies! I need to make some ASAP.

    • Melissa Williams says

      I agree, you do! I hope all is well with you & the babe =)

  2. Sherri says

    I just made the Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies, I felt they were easy to make even though I didn’t have a Stand Mixer. Started with a Hand mixer & finished by hand. Seems to have worked just fine.

    • Melissa Williams says

      When I originally made these (many years ago), I think my hand mixer must have been weak because now I make them with the hand mixer & it does just fine.

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