Texas Gold, Chess Squares, Golden Gooey-ness!

FINALLY!  My first dessert post!  If I was still in the military, a dessert recipe would honestly be the first recipe I'd be blogging about.  When I was working full time, trying to balance family, home, and school life, I would try to cook every night (which of course wasn't always successful).  The one thing that I know I would make time for on the weekends is baking desserts!  I'm guilty of having a huge sweet tooth and am always game for trying out different cake, cupcake, brownie, etc. recipes!

This particular dessert I've never had or heard of before.  The pin that I have saved calls it "Texas Gold" and the website calls it "Chess Squares."  All I know, it that it's easy to prepare, only uses 5 ingredients, and a hit with my family.

Source: kevinandamanda.com via G on Pinterest

The recipe, thanks to Kevin & Amanda's blog, talks about how they wanted to originally try making something called "Crack Pie" (I hope to try this one day!), a dessert from Momofuku Milk Bar in New York.  They were turned off from trying it because of the 22 ingredients and almost 2+ hour prep time!  Thank goodness they shared this quick version!

Alas, the recipe and directions:
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
4 cups (1 lb) powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 300 and spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray. Mix cake mix, melted butter and one egg to a soft dough. Press into the bottom of the pan. Mix powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and remaining two eggs until smooth, about 1-2 mins. Pour on top of crust. Bake at 300 for 40-50 minutes until top is golden brown.

Seriously, that's all there is to it.  Making these Chess Squares were incredibly simple that it made me check the recipe constantly to make sure I wasn't leaving anything out or missing a step!

Fresh from the oven!

A slice that was devoured in under a minute ;)

Don't be tempted to bake it longer when the cooking time is up because the middle isn't brown!  You'll run the risk of loosing that gooey texture!  As long as the edges are brown, you're fine. :)  My husband, who is the only one in the house without a serious sweet tooth (unfortunately my kids have my sweet tooth), said that this dessert was the right amount of sweet for him.  It wasn't over powering and he enjoyed the texture.

Cheers!