Thursday, December 20, 2007

What else ya gonna do with 2 sticks of butter? Chocolate Hazelnut Gooey Butter Cakes


Back down South, they love love love Paula Deen. My mother bought me a set of "The Lady and Sons" cookbooks and I could feel my arteries hardening just reading the table of contents. Despite the health consequences, I agree with Paula that "butter makes it better" so I couldn't resist playing with this recipe from her for "Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes."

She offers that you can easily swap out the cake mix base or the filling ingredients. I took her peanut butter suggestion and made my own variation with Nutella (the hazelnut cocoa goo that stole my heart in college - a jar of that and a loaf of bread was the ultimate broke student luxury). To make it extra decadent, I used a Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Supermoist cake mix and threw in a healthy pinch of ancho chile powder into the cream cheese filling. About a jar of the Nutella stands in for the can of pumpkin in the original recipe.

I think they are supposed to be served warm, but I like to chill them over night and bring 'em up to room temp before serving. They are like cream cheese brownies on speed. It's a fitting end to my holiday baking. I'm now fat enough to float in case I fall off the boat during my sailing vacation in the Bahamas for Christmas.

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