recipe of the week: ooey-gooey chocolate cookies

My friend sent me an amazing recipe. I love chocolate, and this recipe delivers! I realize my opinion may not carry much weight for you, so I conducted a scientific, researched and recorded rating test for the recipe. My results are below. Enjoy!

Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Cookies

1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

1.) Leave butter and cream cheese on the counter until room temperature.
2.) In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. If using a stand mixer you might want to scrape the sides of the bowl once to ensure the butter and cream cheese are fully combined.
3.) Beat in the egg.
4.) Beat in the vanilla extract.
5.) Beat in the cake mix.
6.) Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

7.) Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls
8.) Roll in confectioner's sugar.
9.) Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
10.) Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and "gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if desired.

Here are the results of the objective kitchen taste test:

1. fresh dough, licked from beaters: delicious, a bit like chocolate cake

2. chilled dough: good, though much stiffer than fresh dough

3. not-quite-done-baking cookie, hot out of the oven: burnt tongue deduction. let 'em finish cooking

4. just-done-baking cookie, hot out of the oven: delicious and messy

5. slightly-cooled cookie: wow. this is why I love chocolate

6. fully cooled cookie: amazing. these mellow a bit with age (hours), and retain their chewy-ooey-yumminess

7. day-old cookie: delicious. fresh & chewey-tasting
** note: the first batch failed to make it this far. See #9.

8. sure-I'll-try-one-with-you cookie: (because I wouldn't want to be rude to those who might try one in my kitchen) didn't have to fake the "wow I didn't realize these were so good!" results.

9. Had-to-make-another-batch-because-the-first-didn't-last-more-than-a-day cookie: back to the lab... hard day's work, but somebody has to do it. :)

Try it at home, add your results!