Sweet & Gooey Butter Bars

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Pinterest is going to give me diabetes.  For real. 

 

This recipe has lots of names.  Texas Gold Bars, Neiman Marcus Bars, Gooey Butter Bars… whatever you wanna call it, it is a twist on chess pie.  Chess pie is a southern american dessert that was created with ingredients that could be made using ordinary items from the pantry such as eggs, sugar, butter, etc.   Christina Tosi (the world-renowned pastry chef of Momofuku’s Milk Bar) put her own twist on the chess pie as well.  She aptly named it crack pie.  It’s the Ryan Gosseling of desserts.  Sweet, buttery, & rich beyond words.   This recipe is not quite Crack Pie, but it’s pretty darn close and doesn’t require 9 egg yolks and 24 ingredients.  It’s cheaper, takes less time, and you can find all of the ingredients stashed in your kitchen. So I guess that makes it crackier in a sense.  This blog has sunk to crack-related discussion.  Sorry mom. 

 

Enough about crack, let’s talk about these bars.  You only need 5 ingredients. 

• 1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
• 1 package cream cheese (8 ounce pkg)
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 box powdered sugar (reserve 1/4 cup for topping after cooking)
• 3 eggs
• 1t vanilla

First, you’ll make the crust. 

Pre heat the oven to 350F.  Mix the package of dry cake mix, 1 egg and the melted butter.  This will make a soft dough.  Press it into a 9″x 13″ glass dish.

Mix the remaining ingredients until smooth.  Pour it on top of the crust. 

Pop into the oven for about 45 minutes. Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Slice into bars 🙂

I don’t know when I started becoming such a wannabe food blogger, but I can’t stop making these crazy crackie recipes.  I feel like if I don’t share them here, I’m keeping delicious secrets from my buddies.   My pictures aren’t the sexiest food shots on the web, but you get the general idea.  The lighting in my kitchen is awful at night.  Hopefully this will back up my case to renovate our kitchen 😛 Try not to eat too many.