How to Make St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake Bars 

CRUST - 2½ c flour - ¾ c powdered sugar - ¾ tsp salt - 12 T butter (1½ sticks) ---> 13x9 pan, with foil sling + greased ---> 350 degrees, 20 minutes GOO - 8 oz cream cheese - 4 oz butter (1 stick) - 1 lb powdered sugar - 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks - 2 T vanilla - ¼ tsp salt ---> 350 degrees, 30 minutes (upper-middle rack)

Seriously y'all have the recipe scheduling of someone who's going through a really bad breakup and eating their way through the pain. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Looking at it I want to make this and add lemon zest!

I am from St. Louis and 1st u are making me terribly homesick. I haven't had any Gooey Butter cake in so long 🥲😋. The recipe was perfect and u did a wonderful job making it. There is only one problem. I want some 😋 Thank u for taking me home and for the recipe. Top Shelf

I've lived in the STL area my whole life. Gooey butter cake is AMAZING and I'm glad people everywhere can enjoy it.

Mom got this recipe back in the early 70's from a lady that worked for Christians Greenhouse in Fowlerville Mi. She told mom that it would be sweet and if she wanted to cut some of the sweetness to use lemon juice. She made mom swear that she wouldn't give the recipe to anyone but me. This is way too cool. Enjoy

This is an iteration of the boterkoek of the Netherlands. If this beats THAT, I'ma turn up on Brian's doorstep... with ingredients!

Someone already added recipe notes, but I also took notes and some of my instructions might be more complete for less experienced bakers. YMMV. Serves: 12 Ingredients Shortbread crust: 2 ½ cups all purpose flour ¾ cup confectioners sugar (aka powdered or icing sugar) ¾ tsp salt 12 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted Goo: 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature 4 oz (1 stick) butter, room temperature 1 pound confectioners sugar 2 whole eggs plus 2 yolks 2 Tbsp vanilla ¼ tsp table salt powdered sugar for dusting Preparation Steps 1. Prepare a 9x13” baking pan by lining with foil “slings” and greasing with vegetable oil spray. Preheat oven to 350°F. 2. Stir together dry ingredients. Stir in melted butter until crumbly dough comes together. Press into prepared pan and dock with a fork. Bake in a 350°F oven, middle of top rack, for about 20 minutes. 3. Cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. 4. Goo: Using paddle attachment and stand mixer, cream together the cream cheese and butter on low speed, gradually adding in sugar until all sugar is moistened. 5. Scrape down paddle and bowl sides. Beat on medium-high speed for two minutes to incorporate air. 6. Scrape again and return to low speed while adding eggs and yolks one at a time. Still on low, add vanilla and salt. 7. Scrape again and return to medium-high speed for two minutes. Scrape once again and pour over prepared crust. Smooth evenly over crust, including into corners (try using an offset spatula). Tap pan bottom on the counter several times to get air bubbles out. 8. Bake at 350°F, middle of the upper rack, about 30 minutes or until golden brown on top and the center is a little jiggly but the edges are set. 9. Let sit at room temperature about 3 hours to cool. It will fall a little bit as it cools. Top crust will be crispy like a meringue. 10. Use foil to lift from pan. Slice into 12 servings. Dust with powdered sugar and serve. ====== To ATK……… I did sign up for your free access but it only lasted two weeks and the high pressure sales attacks go on and on. I have purchased two of your books in the past but gee they weren’t that awesome and maybe 5% interested me. You want people to buy a big book with years worth of recipes and then buy the same the next year with that year’s recipes added. Never complete. Never satisfying. Want to sell a book on your best deserts? I’ll buy! Recycled stuff I wasn’t interested in the last time around, meh. You won’t increase sales with paywalls. I just don’t and won’t use your site enough to justify the cost to me. I sure as heck don’t mind sharing my notes to make your videos accessible to the disabled since you aren’t interested in doing that yourself. Look at other cooking channels, the highly successful ones. They don’t paywall people because in the long run it just doesn’t work. Give a sprinkling of recipes for free as samples. Have staff answer questions in comments or note questions that are popular and answer them in videos. This works for Dan, right? It works for KAF. There are so many things you could be doing to improve your bottom line but just can’t let go of the false belief that paywalls bring customers. Geesh.

I love how they dance around what they want to say - this is crazy amount of calories and sugar! Who are we to break the tradition?

"And now we scrape the bowl." A half cup of filling still on the side. I am driven batty by their inability to give a proper bowl scraping.

That's the evolution of the "Mille Feuilles" recipe for its simplicity.

Follow with 20 units of subcutaneous insulin

You have to explain how you can wait 3 hours. What's the secret?

I must say, she's one of the most naturally charismatic people I've ever seen.

My Mom, Would make this cake. And she would add shredded coconut 🥥😋

Back in the 90s I used to buy this dessert from the frozen section called Bambino Huey. I used to hide them from the rest of the family because no one appreciated them like I did lol Does anyone else remember that? The closest thing I've ever found to it was gooey butter cake. This looks good but I think I prefer the traditional method.

I'm sure you could make a chocolate one too. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Been eating for 40yrs never get tired of our St Louis gooey butter

🩷🍴😋BUTTER CAKE😋🍴🩷 Start - 0:40 -CRUST- 2½ cups of flour ¾ cup powdered sugar ¾ teaspoon of salt ~mix 12 tablespoons of melted butter ~mix ~pat down in your greased pan, poke with fork, 175ºC for 20 minutes -GOO- Kiri cheese 12 pieces ½ cup of room temperature butter ~mix at low speed, while adding sugar 4 cups of powdered sugar ~scrape ~mix for 2 minutes ~scrape ~mix at low speed, while adding eggs one by one 2 full eggs 2 egg yolks 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon of salt ~scrape ~mix at medium-high for 2 minutes ~add ontop of the crust ~smooth out and knock ~175ºC for 30 minutes ~cool down 🩷🍴😋ENJOY😋🍴🩷

Russell’s is great!

Oh how I have missed St. Louis gooey butter coffee cake! Test Kitchen.. Please, please do your version of a St. Paul Sandwich next !

More like diabetes cake

from St Louis... this is NOT how you make gooey butter cake...a very dumbed down version of the recipe... it should NEVER have cream cheese in it

That looks so good! I may try this for Sunday's dessert. Thank you 😊

Looks good but not much butter for gooey butter. Billy Parisi does the traditional yeasted version--amazing.

ONE POUND of sugar... Why do Americans love sugar soooooooo much. 😫😫😭😭

Any recipe that used the word goo sounds totally gross and unappetizing. EW! 🙄

Oh man I’m from St Louis and I love gooey butter cake…I soooooo shouldn’t watch this lol

Looks easy and good. I've never had this cake before. I like the name, Gooey Butter Cake.

Bryan could BBQ an old phone book and I'd eat it.

Who uses 12 teaspoons! Just give me grams,

Is there anything less healthy 😂

Robinson Frank Harris Michael Lewis Steven

I'm preparing to make this, can I use less sugar and if so, do I need to substitute with anything else?

Williams Deborah Taylor Kenneth Wilson Mark

OMG I'm drooling! I'm sitting here in my living room watching this and saying to myself, "I got everything except cream cheese!" Time to make a run to the store! This looks soooooooo creamy and delicious!!!!

Why couldn't you add lemon juice/zest to create a lemon version or other flavorings? Eggnog around the holidays?

I agree with David Seymour that c*e*m c*e*s* tastes bad.

Brown Ronald Gonzalez Lisa Moore Gary

Excited to make this! Love recipes from the show

Young William Walker Jose Wilson Daniel

Two whole eggs why did you have 5 in that glass bowl?

This is NOT St. Louis gooey butter cake! I really hate when ATK does this to recipes

Way way way Too Much Buttter but it like looks addictive! I just realized a man brought this in to work a few years ago and it looked gooey! Ooey Gooey Butter Cake is what he called it! Another recipe I call a Cardiovascular Event Cake!

My grmma made something like this from recipe out of a church cookbook. I remember the gooey part bcuz I got to mix it up, it was.. 1 block cream cheese 1 stick butter I lb sugar powder 6 eggs Salt, vanilla dash I dont remember if it had a crust, I think it had a crust. It tastee like cheese cake to me. She would put strawberries or cherry pie filling it sometimes. 😊😊😊

I grew up in Missouri and I've lived in Hawaii for the last 35yrs, but I've never heard of this until I just went back for a visit, and I'm HOOKED. I'm not sure why, but my topping is more runny, maybe the humidity? and I'm using a hand mixer, maybe that? It's in the oven now, we'll see.....

Never heard of this cake until a coworker made this for us at our pot luck. Oh my gosh it was DELICIOUS!!!!

Looks DELICIOUS! Meet you in St. Louis!

Thank you! Love you guys & your zeal for all the good stuff - friends, food & fun! Lord bless!!❤

Looks easy and good. I've never had this cake before. I like the name, Gooey Butter Cake.

I love butter. But not sweet. Nanaimo bars are too sweet for me. Should I skip this?

Christie is awesome! She can make Ooey Gooey butter bars for me anytime! Oh, wait, that's Bridget and Bryan, sorry. Good recipe.

Thanks. I have seen that recipe since the late 1970s. I remember mom making them , so good. The softer kind is good to ( the gooey butter cake).

I thought the goo ingredients looks like making cheesecake! As cheesecake also uaing cream cheese

I'm scared of him! He's better-looking than I!

I'll bet ol' Bryan makes the absolute BEST gooey butter cakes you've ever had. Mmmm... Mmmmmm

This was good. The texture was great and the crumb on the crust was fantastic. But it was far too sweet. I even cut it down to 3 cups of sugar, but even that was a lot. 2 cups is perfectly fine. I can only imagine that 4 cups make it inedible. You may need to reduce the amount of eggs used also, since there will be less sugar.

Whoops. I was expecting to see cat videos. I thot it read Americas Test Kitten

It looks like face cream! Ha! I'd put my face in that.

I love, love, love St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake.

1 box yellow cake mix 2 sticks butter, melted & divided 4 eggs 1 pkg cream cheese 1 Tbsp vanilla 1 lb powdered sugar Line 13x9 baking pan with foil and apply not stick spray. Mix cake mix, 1 stick melted butter and one egg. Press into bottom of 13x9 pan. Beat cream cheese and vanilla. Beat in 3 eggs one at a time. Beat in powdered sugar. Pour over cake mixture and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Cool before cutting bars. This recipe gives a mutch better bar with the same gooey toping.

I feel like slander charges should be filed.

That looks amazing! Will definitely try this recipe.

ATK HI 😋🍽 Salutations 💌

Does the cake have to be refrigerated?

1:43 "We're ready to make the goo!" hehehe

They look great. Can't wait to try these. Years ago I ate a couple of these years ago and remember the custard flavor strongly resembled that of vanilla cheesecake. Many thanks.

Okay, America’s Test Kitchen…this is before I’m watching (ads are on.). I’m a St. Louisan born and raised who knows and loves Gooey Butter Cake…let’s see what « foreigners » make out of it. P.S. Russels is a good place. But, you can get this anywhere in STL, he could have saved some time and gone to Schnucks (local grocery store chain) lol, but nice to see the shout out to a small business! Edited to add: yes, this dessert is basically sugar and butter with a few things to hold it in place, lol. Looks like you did a good job! Looks like the real thing!

I’ll probably get flak for this but genuinely, Why do they have background actors? As well as this lady, she’s not really helping at all...she’s just...there. It’s all very off setting.

@America's Test Kitchen I have a question about stand mixer vs. hand mixer use. Is more time required to incorporate air when using a hand mixer, since the area of effect is typically smaller compared to a large paddle/beater like the one being used in this video? (i.e. More batter is being mixed at any given time when using a stand mixer with a large paddle than when using the usual two small beaters on a hand mixer. Or perhaps, is a higher speed needed for a hand mixer, with an equal amount of time with a stand mixer? Very curious to know, seeing that I've never owned a stand mixer and never may.

Can’t wait to try this version! I’ve been using the Paula Deen gooey butter cake recipe for years.

For some reason, the goo wasn't super thick, even though I followed the directions and put the correct ratios of ingredients. Could you please tell me what the reason may be?

Butter cake bars!

A work of art, thank you 😊

I will make this for my bday! Looks so good! :D

Oh.My.Gosh. Looks delicious.

Yes please 🙏

I ❤️ BRoof

Russell's is SOOOO good!

Hi.

Is this served at room temperature?

Delicious

Thank you for this recipe!!👍🏼

Ummm... How do I AVOID making this? I'm sorry, but all the fake smiles and corny guitar music in the world can't keep us from becoming unhealthy if we keep eating too much of this kind of thing... It's all fun and games until we need to have our chests sawed open so the doctor can rip our hearts out and put them on plates and try to fix them while our blood cycles through a machine and hopefully we don't die from the anesthesia itself... And, no, I don't want another piece of cake, because I plan on dying from cigarettes lol

Years and years ago I'd get it with pecans. Great

I don’t have use of a standard oven. Toast oven & a Instant Pot are the only appliances that can be used at the moment. I’m going to try to break the recipe quantities down to half or thirds. This looks absolutely sinful.

Before even watching I am sure it’s diabetes causing one 😂

sorry but just CAN'T get behind this one. There is NO CREAM CHEESE in this dessert. That is why it is called Gooey BUTTER cake. I grew up on this in St. louis and the recipe I use is ALL butter and I really don't like the way the top came out. I am sure yours tastes good but it would not remind me of what I ate throughout my childhood. I will say I am VERY glad you didn't use a cake mix OR yeast. there are definitely 2 schools of thought as to what Gooey Butter cake is in St. louis. Just another debate we like to have over area dishes. We do take our food seriously. 😂

👍👍👍👍

I can't tell you how much I love PBS cooking shows 😋 but the interwebs (RU-vid) has really taken over that role, possibly to a greater extent... have you all thought about bringing on internet chefs like Joshua Wiessman or Binging with Babish?

OK, so that makes almost 11 teaspoons of sugar in one piece of this cake. Are you crazy?

This looks so good! I love Bridget and Bryan :D

Yum!!

Do not break the tradition and keep the people sick 🤕

Am I crazy or would this be amazing with some finely ground almond added? I'd probably do it in the shortbread but it might work in the gooey topping instead. I wouldn't do both.

Amazing. I'm making this very very soon

I think that should be called Gooey Sugar Cake Bars to be more accurate. ;-)

wow this looks so easy

I’d eat anything Brian makes 😉

This looks and sounds far, far too sweet for me.