Chocolate Chip PB Cup Gooey Butter Cake

Last week was the end of my 2-year contract at my current job, and the other two nurses who started the same time as me agreed we should celebrate making it through the program. Given that my unit is so large I wanted to bake something that could feed quite a few people, so I decided on a pan of brownies (with icing and crushed cherries, mind you) and another version of Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake which I made several times over the holidays. I found the second recipe on Pinterest and was delighted to find out that it's essentially the same recipe, only this time there's chocolate chips instead of pumpkin. Because I was feeling especially sugar-obsessed, I decided to take it one step further and add a layer of Reese's PB cups in there also. Queue diabetic coma.

Crust:

• 1 box butter-recipe cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1 stick butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 16oz box powdered sugar
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 bag chocolate chips
• 1 large bag Reese's PB cups

Recipe:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Light grease a 9x13in baking pan
• In a bowl combine ingredients for crust, and mix with an electric mixer (it will be very thick)
• Pat into bottom of pan
• Unwrap PB cups and line them up in rows on top of the bottom layer
• Using the mixer again, beat cream cheese until smooth
• Add eggs and vanilla to cream cheese
• Add powdered sugar in slowly as you're still mixing the previous ingredients
• Reduce mixer speed and add in melted butter
• Once everything is blended smoothly add in bag of chocolate chips
• Pour filling onto PB cups and spread evenly
• Bake for 45-60 min (it took me almost 60 min)- the center is supposed to be gooey so don't over-bake!
• Remove from oven and allow to cool completely
• You can also drizzle melted chocolate on the top but I didn't go that far!
• Cut into bars and enjoy!