Gooey Butter Cookies

My sister's boyfriend's family makes a ton of cookies for Christmas. This year she got to take part in the tradition and brought back a tin of cookies. I ate pretty much all of them and these ones stood out to me the most. I knew just from the taste that cream cheese was in the recipe, but otherwise I had never had any cookie like it. After pestering my sister (and her bf) for days, we finally tracked down the recipe. It originated from Lottie + Doof. If you've ever had gooey butter cake before, you'll know what to expect but in cookie form. Nevertheless, these are amazing and should definitely be a staple from now on at my family's table!

Gooey Butter Cookies

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 pound cream cheese

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 vanilla bean, scraped 

3 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Confectioner’s sugar for rolling and dusting

First make sure everything is at room temperature. Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar with a wooden spoon. Then add the eggs, vanilla seeds, and extract until combined. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. The dough will be pretty light. Then cover bowl tightly and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Since it's cold outside, I just set the dough on our picnic table for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Fill a shallow bowl with about 1 cup powdered sugar. Form slightly heaping tablespoon size balls, roll between your hands, and roll in a bowl of powdered sugar. Place on prepared baking trays 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes and take out before any browning occurs. I let them bake until at least one of the cookies was very very lightly golden on the edges. 

Let cool on the baking sheets until the cookies reach room temperature. They will be very soft even when cooled. Store and serve cold since they are delicate. Another blog suggested adding an extra egg yolk for more stability in the dough. 

The site says the cookies will last for a week in the fridge. I stored them in a cake dome layered with extra powdered sugar.