Gooey Butter Cookies (Made from Scratch!)
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These melt-in-your-mouth Gooey Butter Cookies are full of flavor and none of the preservatives that are in the traditional cake mix version. This recipe makes 3 dozen cookies in less than an hour. Recipe includes a how-to video!
These gooey butter cookies are the less messy, more portable (and adorable) version of gooey butter cake. They’re a soft and chewy, beautifully flavored, melt-in-your-mouth dessert that is super simple to make, and I think you’re going to love them just as much as I do!
Typically these cookies are made with a box of vanilla cake mix as the base. While cake mix has its place, today we’re baking completely from scratch. Rather than start with a box mix, I used my vanilla cake recipe as the base for today’s cookies.
If reading that makes you panic, don’t! My homemade recipe is so easy and only takes a minute longer than the box mix version (the only extra step is whisking together the dry ingredients!). Once you taste them, you’ll never want to go back to the box-mix version–I promise.
Let’s get to it!
What You Need
These cookies are simple to make, and I think you’ll find they taste much, much better than the cake mix version. Here are the key ingredients you’ll need:
- Butter. This ingredient should come as no surprise! You’ll need one stick of softened, unsalted butter.
- Cream cheese. Cream cheese helps create the gooey texture in these cookies and adds a subtle but important flavor to the finished product. Use the block-style cream cheese (not the kind in the tub!) and make sure it’s softened before you get started.
- Vanilla. No, the measurement below is not a typo; you’re going to add a lot of vanilla to these cookies! To get that strong vanilla flavor that most boxed vanilla cake mixes have, we’ll be adding 1 ½ Tablespoons of vanilla extract.
- Eggs. Your eggs should ideally be at room temperature so they incorporate nicely with the butter and cream cheese.
- Flour. Stick with all-purpose flour, and make sure you know how to measure your flour properly, or your cookies may turn out dry.
- Sugar. We’ll add granulated sugar to the cookies themselves, then roll them in powdered sugar just before baking.
- Salt. Just a teaspoon helps to balance the sweetness and round out the flavor!
SAM’S TIP: I know many of you don’t like cream cheese and may be hesitant to try this recipe when you see it listed under the ingredients. The good news is, these cookies don’t have an overwhelming cream cheese flavor. Instead, they have a strong vanilla flavor and a soft, gooey texture with just a hint of cream cheese–just like gooey butter cake!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Gooey Butter Cookies
- Cream together the butter and cream cheese until well combined, then stir in eggs and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients, then gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients with your mixer on low speed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
- Scoop the chilled dough into 1 ½ tablespoon sized balls, roll between your palms until smooth then roll through powdered sugar.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Don’t over-bake, this will make the cookies dry and hard!
SAM’S TIP: You can chill your dough for longer than 30 minutes, but just keep in mind that you may need to let it sit at room temperature for a little bit before it’s soft enough to scoop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Gooey butter cookies are the cookie form of gooey butter cake, which originated in St. Louis. The creation of the cake itself was actually an accident, but it was so delicious that it became a hit!
There’s extra vanilla in this recipe because the “original” cake mix version has a very strong vanilla flavor, and I wanted to replicate that. The end result has a great vanilla flavor tempered by rich cream cheese and no artificial, “fake-taste” like you’d get from the box!
Yes! These cookies can be frozen before or after baking. Just make sure to wrap them tightly before freezing.
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Gooey Butter Cookies (Made from Scratch!)
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 8 oz (226 g) brick-style cream cheese, softened
- 2 large eggs, room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ Tablespoons vanilla extract, (this is equivalent to 4 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract)
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Powdered sugar, for rolling cookies
Instructions
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together butter and cream cheese until smooth and well-combined.½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, 8 oz (226 g) brick-style cream cheese
- Stir in eggs and vanilla extract.1 ½ Tablespoons vanilla extract, 2 large eggs
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt
- With electric mixer on low-speed, gradually stir dry ingredients into butter/cream cheese mixture until completely combined.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place powdered sugar in a shallow bowl and set aside.Powdered sugar
- Once dough has chilled, scoop by 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized ball and roll between your palms until smooth. Roll through powdered sugar until completely coated and then place on prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 2” apart.
- Bake on 350F (175C) in center rack for 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet before enjoying.
Notes
Storing
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I’ve used many of your recipes and usually l love them, but not this one. Looking at other reviews, there is so much flour that it only really tastes a biscuit, with a similar texture. I don’t get the butter flavor or vanilla. My dough wasn’t dry, it very sticky, even after refrigerating l.
Hi Jen! Unfortunately it sounds like they were baked too long. It’s possible there was a little too much flour, but more likely it was over-baked. 🙁
I followed the exact recipe. My dough turned out great and so did the cookies! I spent some time in St. Louis this summer and am happy I found this recipe!
So moist and delicious. My kids favorite!
These are some of our favorite cookies! I use almond extract instead of vanilla and make sure not to over bake! It’s a wonderful recipe. I think the dry cookie comments are from over baking, pull them a minute before you think they are done
Thank you for the amazing recipe!!
Too much flour cookies were more like biscuits than gooey cookie. I gave this recipe 2 tries because I have used many of your other recipes and they are always good. I weighed all ingredients and I cut back on baking time both came out same
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Kristie! Did you make any other alterations or substitutions? Did you weigh your flour?
I made no substitutions and like I stated in my review I weighed everything. I tried again but this time I cut the flour down to 300 grams they came out much better with less flour thanks.
Hmm that’s very odd. Are you at a high altitude? It doesn’t make much sense that you had to cut the flour that much, especially if you were weighing it, but I’m glad they turned out for you! 🙂
Too much recipe calls for too much flour. Tastes like a biscuit. We were disappointed.
I’m so sorry to hear this happened! Did you weigh you flour? Did you make any substitutions or omissions? How did your dough compare to the dough in my video? Is it possible the cookies were over-baked?
Unfortunately, this recipe was not flavorful enough for me. I’m not sure what I would adjust, but they tasted more like flour than the sweet, buttery goodness.
I’m so sorry to hear this happened! Did you make any alterations to the recipe? Did you weigh your flour? If not you may have accidentally over-measured your flour. 🙁
They tasted like biscuits and were so dry!
Hi Lauren! I’m so sorry to hear this happened! This can happen if they are over-baked or if there is too much flour in the dough. 🙁
Hi in the UK we don’t have block cream cheese only tubs ? Please advise. Thanks so much
Hi Tracy! Unfortunately the tubs of cream cheese typically have additives and I’m not sure how to combat that. Hopefully someone else can chime in with some suggestions. 🙂
3 cups of flour is WAYYY more than 370 grams… use the measurements in grams!!!
A typical cup of flour weighs 125g so 3 cups is indeed 375g. 🙂
I was trying to decide on a different cookie to make and wanted something that I had never tried before. I don’t think I’ve ever had gooey butter cookie so I wasn’t sure what to expect. So I said what the heck, why not.
Then reading the reviews people said the dough was dry and meh, so I decided I would cut the recipe in half which I just had to remind myself to half everything!
The only “change” I made was when I looked up what was 1.5 cups of AP flour in grams it said 180, which is about 7.5 grams less than what the grams in the recipe says… that’s ~1 tablespoon for anyone wondering.
I added my dry ingredients in small batches to make sure it was all incorporated and didn’t get overly dry. (Thinking this was the culprit for some saying it was a dry dough.)
Dare I say, my dough looked exactly like Sam’s did in her video. I’m not shocked either.
After getting the dough all over my hands and powdered sugar all over me and anything I looked at, I cooked them for 13 minutes and they are perfect… did I mention delicious too?
So if you’ve gotten this far and thinking should I or shouldn’t I try this cookie…
The answer is yes… yes you should… and well, if you’re still on the fence? Make half a batch that’s still ~18 cookies.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Katie! 🙂
Excellent recipe. Delicious
After reading the reviews of them both being flavorful I tweaked the recipe as I would with any other take it my own. They came out so beautiful and tasting like a soft fluffy cookie version of a rice crispy treat!!!!
Here’s what I did…
*Only used 1/2 block of creamcheese
*Used 1c light brown sugar and 1/2c granulated sugar
*Used 1-2tbsp of oatmilk (dough looked quite dry. Recommend using only 1tbsp tho.)
*After dough is formed, I folded in sprinkles and half bag of white choc chips.
**Kept everything else the same**
Baked at 350 degrees for 14min. PERFECT!!!!! Hope this helps you all and you enjoy it! (Sorry to page owner)… just trying to help the ppl!! lol
I love cream cheese and can’t wait to make these!