Butter Cookies

I must admit I've gotten a little lazy recently with baking.  It used to be a big hobby of mine, but now I only find myself doing it when required.  And even at that, I generally find myself taking the easiest way out.  Take the two cookie exchanges I had this past weekend as example.  Originally, for each, I had intended to try out recipes that looked unbelievable on Pinterst.  After reading through the steps and ingredients, though, it was just too much...too many ingredients, too many steps, too much effort!  And then I remembered another Pinterest recipe, that looked just as yummy, but with waaayyy less to worry about.  At this point, you probably don't have to guess which way I went...both times!
The recipe is a Paula Deen recipe, and combined with the fact that butter is in the title, it's probably a given that they're tasty!  But even better...they're easy.  I made them in chocolate for the first cookie exchange and in red velvet for my second, and can attest to the fact that both were ooey, gooey, and yummy!  I will warn you, though, that it is very important to bake them for just 12 minutes...any more and they lose that gooeyness that makes them delicious.  As for modifications, I hate to pretend I'm "smarter" than Ms. Deen or anything, but I did find adding chips (chocolate chips to the chocolate one and white chocolate to the red velvet) helped add some needed crunch.  I'm not adding them to the recipe below because they weren't part of the original, but I would suggest them!

Butter Cookies

• 1 box cake mix
• 1 egg
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• confectioner's sugar

1.  Cream butter and cream cheese.  Add in egg, vanilla extract, and cake mix.  Mix well.  Cover and refrigerate for an hour or two.

2.  Preheat oven to 350.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll batter into 2-inch balls and the roll into powdered sugar.  Bake 12 minutes.  

3. You may need to top the cookies with more powdered sugar when they are done baking.

This is my favorite kind of recipe...easy, but with big results!  They were pretty much gone at both exchanges, so I feel confident saying they're tasty:)