Paula Deen Chocolate Chip Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

I love Mrs. Paula Deen! Her food is so good!  I have tried so many of her recipes and haven't had many that I didn't like.  We were craving something sweet so we tried this little gem.  It was super easy and everyone like it.  It was great to just grab a little bite!  A definite make again!

Ingredients

Cake Base Layer
1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling Layer
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 (16-ounce) box confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Topping
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat into the bottom of prepared pan and set aside. Still using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add eggs and vanilla. Dump in confectioners' sugar and beat well. Reduce speed of mixer and slowly pour in butter. Mix well.

Pour filling onto cake mixture and spread evenly. Sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup chopped nuts on top of filling. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Don't be afraid to make a judgment call on the cooking time, because oven temperatures can vary. You want the center to be a little gooey.

perfect for fall - pumpkin cake

This is a cake recipe that was shared with me a few years ago.  It was a different flavor then and oh so good. I decided to try some different flavors and came out with this.  This is one of the moistest cakes you will ever have. It is so delicious!  No icing is necessary but you can serve it with some ice cream!  We eat it all year around here....  Stock up on your pumpkin pudding this fall why you can.  You won't be sorry! I may or may not have purchased somewhere around 20 boxes last fall. I am down to 6 and am on the lookout for when it comes back out this year.

Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
1 3oz box Pumpkin Pudding
1 8oz carton sour cream
3/4 cup oil (veggie or canola)
3 eggs
3/4 cup water
1 package cinnamon chips (like chocolate chips but cinnamon)

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Spray a bundt pan with a pretty generous amount. I use Pam but you can use whatever kind of spray you have. Or you can grease and flour it, whatever you are used to.
3. Combine all ingredients except the cinnamon chips.   Mix with hand mixer or in stand mixer for 3-4 minutes until well combined.
4. Once combined, add in the cinnamon chips and stir well.
5.  Pour cake batter into prepared bundt pan.
6. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.
7.  Once done, let cake cool completely (will take a couple of hours).
8.  Remove cake from pan. Slice and serve.

Make this cake on a Friday and eat it all weekend long!  This is also a great cake to take to a potluck or a party. It is so good everyone will want the recipe!  I have tried with a couple of different pudding and chip combos. I'll share those soon!

smores bars

Goodness... goodness in a pan. I had seen these Smores Bars floating around on pinterest for a while.  They were tempting me so I finally made them for our small group on Sunday evening.  These are fabulous. Easy to make and even better to taste! I doubled the recipe and it was enough to make 1-13x9 and 1-8x8.  The secret at the end is to flatten out your dough... stay tuned for that tip.  These are super rich so a small piece goes a long way!

Smores Bars

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs 
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 kind size milk chocolate bars (like Hershey's)
1 1/2 cup (12 oz) marshmallow creme fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease 8" square baking pan.  
3.  Grind your graham crackers to crumbs. I used big crackers and put them in my little chopper to make crumbs.
4.  In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. 
5.  In small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
6.  Divide dough in half and press half of the dough into an even layer on the bottom of the pan.  Use your fingers to make sure none of the bottom is showing.
7.  Place your king size chocolate bars onto of the flattened dough.  2 should fit perfectly.  If you need to, break into pieces.
8.  Spread the marshmallow fluff on top of the chocolate pieces.  This was a little tough.
9.  Use your fingers to make flattened disks of the remaining dough. Place the disks on top of the marshmallow.  Do your best to cover all of the fluff.  
10. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until lightly browned.
11. Cool completely, then serve!

chocolate chip smore cookies

If you love smores and you love chocolate chip cookies, you will LOVE this recipe!  The recipe I followed was for GIANT cookies. I tried to make them smaller but they still end up about 6" in diameter. When I made them a second time, I made them even smaller but they still were around 3" in diameter.  This recipe also makes A LOT of cookies so you could easily half it.

So this is for a smaller sized version. This recipe will make a couple dozen cookies.

What you will need:

-  dough for chocolate cookie cookies

-  graham crackers - I used the Lil' Squares which is about the size of a half dollar

-  chocolate candy bar, broke into squares (I used the 4 square mini bars.

- marshmallows - I used the smores flat ones and cut them in half

First you make the cookie dough or you could buy the prepackaged dough.

Ingredients: 

2 cups plus 2 tbs flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 tbs butter, melted and cooled

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips.

To make the cookie dough: Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low-speed just until combined – the batter should look a little lumpy.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Put in the fridge to chill for around 30-45 minutes. 

After your dough has chilled, you can assemble your cookies. First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Then get your pans ready. Line your cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper (not wax paper, it will burn).  

Take a small spoonful of the cookie dough and flatten it. It should be the size of a half dollar and not real thick.  Do this 6 times and arrange them with plenty of room on your cookie sheet.

Then top each piece of flattened dough with a graham cracker square, marshmallow, candy car square then top with another graham cracker square.  

Now get a spoonful of cookie dough again, a little more this time, flatten it out as well.  Pick up the other dough topped with smores ingredients.  Carefully, wrap the dough around the smore.  Use your fingers to pinch together the bottom cookie dough and the top cookie dough.  You may need to pinch other places of the dough as well. When you are done, it will look like a cookie brick or turtle shell. Make sure there aren't any holes and that you can't see your smore.  You may need to get extra dough to help this.

Complete the rest of the cookies on your sheet.  If you can, line 2 cookie sheets and fill the other pan up as well.  

Bake the cookies for 20-24 minutes at 325.  Once baked, transfer the cookies of the cookie sheet. I left mine on the parchment paper and just moved the paper to the countertop to cool. You can also transfer your cookies to a cooling rack. 

You can serve these cookies warm or they are good room temp.  We ate on them for several days. Store in an airtight container.

 The finished product... a giant smore cookie!