Gooey Bars (aka Cream Cheese Bars)
I have no idea what these bars should actually be called or where this recipe really came from… It’s likely to have come on the back of a cream cheese box for all I know. (Actually, Google helped me to find this recipe which is the same). This is another recipe that my family loves. My sisters practically know this recipe by heart. Similar to the “best dang thing ever bars”, my sisters also prefer to underbake these bars, hence the name gooey bars. I tend to like my bars fully cooked so they hold their shape better. If you prefer an even gooier texture, take these out of the oven a couple minutes early.
I know some of you will shudder at the thought of using a box cake mix. I agree that in general, I would much rather make a cake/cookie/brownie from scratch. For starters, it’s a lot more fun as a baker to measure everything out and follow a recipe that has more than two steps. Not to mention knowing exactly what is in your food (and being able to pronounce it all!) I do however believe that boxed cake mix has a time and a place. One of those places being in this bar.
These bars taste almost like a cheesecake with a great chewy shortbread crust. Everyone that tried one really enjoyed them and Hubby ate an embarassingly large number of these bars.
Gooey Bars
Yield: 30
Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 eggs
1 pound powdered sugar
1 8-oz package cream cheese
Directions:
Mix cake mix, margarine & 1 egg with fork. Press into bottom of greased 9 x 13 pan, set aside.
Beat powdered sugar, cream cheese and 2 eggs for 4 or 5 minutes. Pour over cake mixture.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Cool completely. Cut into bars.
Recipe from my step mom
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I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
How yummy, and the color is so beautiful!
beantownbaker — March 18th, 2013 @ 10:59 am
Yes, I absolutely love the color of this curd!
I love fruit curds. This combination sounds wonderful. I’ve been wanting to make passionfruit curd for a long time. Hopefully I will get to that soon.
beantownbaker — March 18th, 2013 @ 11:00 am
The passionfruit curd is definitely my favorite of all time. It’s just such a unique flavor.
I love lemon curd on a good fruit quickbread. I once made lemon loaf with lemon curd and it was to DIE for. How long to curds typically keep in the fridge?
beantownbaker — March 18th, 2013 @ 3:21 pm
Oohhh… double lemon – sounds delicious. They never stay around very long when I make them, but I think they’d be fine in the fridge for a week or two.
this sounds delicious! I’ve got some key lime curd in my fridge, not sure what I’ll do with the last bit of it…
beantownbaker — March 19th, 2013 @ 12:48 pm
Key lime curd – YUM! Did you juice them yourself? They’re so tiny.
I love the idea of a blackberry lime curd… two of my favorite flavors married into curd! I love meyer lemon curd, too 🙂
beantownbaker — March 19th, 2013 @ 12:47 pm
I still haven’t been able to find meyer lemons at my store. Of course, I haven’t looked too hard either…
This looks delicious! And I love anything that gives me a use for egg yolks, since I use whites so often.
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:18 pm
I’m the same way. I hoard recipes that take divided eggs. Now that I started making ice cream, I need more that use whites…
If you make a cake or something with the curd in it or on it does it need to be refrigerated?
beantownbaker — April 4th, 2013 @ 7:15 am
I used this curd in a cake: http://www.beantownbaker.com/2013/03/coconut-almond-cake-with-blackberry-lime-curd-filling.html and the leftovers were stored in the fridge.
This looks amazing, but I was wondering how much it made, I have picked enough blackberries to make 3 times this. Xx
beantownbaker — October 23rd, 2013 @ 12:26 am
It made probably 2.5-3 cups of curd. Hope you enjoy it!