Gooey Butter Cookies

Gooey butter cake is a favorite of many, but sometimes you don’t want a whole slice of cake that isn’t very portable. These gooey butter cookies are a fun substitute, with a crinkle-cookie crust surrounding a soft center. The cookies are covered in confectioners’ sugar, but they’re compact and make a nice addition to lunch boxes and dessert trays. This recipe doesn’t use boxed cake mix, but it doesn’t take long to prepare at all. The addition of nonfat milk powder and cream cheese make the cookies taste amazingly rich. You could always make this gooey butter cake if you want, but making these cookies is a quick way to get some tender, buttery treats that last for days.

Gooey Butter Cookies Ingredients

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

• Butter: Softened butter adds flavor and helps the cookies rise.
• Cream cheese: In addition to helping the butter add air into the recipe through creaming, the cream cheese also makes the dough richer.
• Sugar: Sugar works with the butter and cream cheese to make the cookie dough rise as it bakes.
• Large egg: This helps bind everything and adds protein for a more stable cookie structure and shape.
• Vanilla extract: This ingredient adds subtle flavor and aroma.
• All-purpose flour: Flour helps the cookie form the right shape without providing so much protein that it becomes tough.
• Nonfat dry milk powder: Nonfat dry milk powder, believe it or not, adds a little caramelization to the flavor of the cookies.
• Baking powder: This is the main raising agent for the dough.
• Confectioners’ sugar: You’ll roll the cookie dough balls in this to create the powdery crust of the ooey gooey butter cookies.

Directions

Step 1: Mix the dough

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until all three are blended. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract. Grab another bowl and mix the flour, milk powder and baking powder. When those are combined, gradually mix them into the butter mixture. This will produce a dough; chill the dough for 30 minutes to make it slightly firm.

Step 2: Coat and shape

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Scoop out level tablespoons of dough. Shape each into a ball, and roll them in the confectioners’ sugar. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and place the balls 1 inch apart on the paper.

Step 3: Bake

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes; they should have developed crinkles and turned a light brown. Move the finished cookies off the pans and onto a wire rack to cool.

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Gooey Butter Cookies Variations

• Use coarse/decorating sugar or sanding sugar: Crinkle-style cookies use confectioners’ sugar to coat the exterior of the cookies. Or at least, they’re supposed to use it. You can also try coarse sugar, also called decorating sugar, which has larger crystals that don’t dissolve the way conventional granulated sugar does. Sanding sugar is another option; this looks like decorating sugar but has even larger crystals.
• Try butter extract: Vanilla extract adds a nice background flavor to these butter cookies, but if you really want to taste butter, try butter extract. It’s another flavoring additive like vanilla. You can also combine the two, adding part of the vanilla and making up the rest of the amount in the recipe with butter extract. You can also try using homemade vanilla extract if you desire.

How to Store Gooey Butter Cookies

Place finished cookies in an airtight container and store at room temperature for no more than five days. If you have to stack the cookies in the container, place a layer of parchment or wax paper between each cookie layer. Keep in mind that the confectioners’ sugar may still fall off when you move the cookies again, so be careful when you take them out of the container.

Can you freeze gooey butter cookies?

If you’re not going to eat all the cookies in a week, freeze the remainder. Set them in a single layer on a small baking sheet that’s been lined with parchment or wax paper. Freeze them for about 30 to 60 minutes. When they’re frozen, you can move them to a freezer container and freeze for up to three months. You can place them in a freezer bag, too, but placing them in a more rigid container will help prevent the confectioners’ sugar coating from being knocked off the cookies.

Gooey Butter Cookies Tips

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

How do you ensure the cookies rise and crinkle?

Do not use baking soda instead of the baking powder. The combination of baking soda and cream of tartar in the baking powder is what makes these cookies rise up and form those classic crinkles. If all you have is baking soda, and you substitute that, the cookies will simply spread instead of rising up and developing the telltale cracks of a successful crinkle cookie. You may also want to double-check that your baking powder hasn’t expired.

Can you use powdered sugar to coat these cookies?

If you have only plain powdered sugar that doesn’t contain cornstarch, no. Plain powdered sugar will slowly dissolve on the cookie’s surface. Confectioners’ sugar contains cornstarch, which helps stop that dissolving action. Don’t worry if you have only plain powdered sugar, though; if you also have cornstarch at home, you can mix up your own confectioners’ sugar. Combine 1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Double or triple that recipe as necessary.

How do you ensure an even coat of confectioners’ sugar on the cookies?

Sometimes gooey butter cake cookies are so moist that even confectioners’ sugar has trouble staying in place. If you’re finding patches of exposed cookie, try rolling the cookie dough balls in granulated sugar first, and then coating them in confectioners’ sugar. That will make the cookies sweeter, but it can help a thick coat of confectioner’s sugar stay visible.