Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

AKA "Heaven" in my book.

This stuff is delicious. And addicting. Consider this your warning.

I was first introduced to this recipe at my baby cousin's 1st birthday party in July. My aunt made it as her contribution to the seemingly endless buffet of deliciousness. I was waiting for a good opportunity to make it, and it finally came.

Girls' night. Hell yes.

Tomorrow, I am driving 1.5 hours to go spend a night with a bunch of my girlfriends from college. We have Bethany's baby shower on Sunday, so we decided to make a night of it and get together, just the group of us, tomorrow so we can catch up. Also, it's probably our last hoorah as a group (with no children!) before Bethany has her baby. Sort of the end of an era, if you will. :(

I'm guessing that with a room full of women, this will be a hit.

I apologize in advance for the crappy photos. I only had my cell phone camera accessible. I figure crappy photos are still better than no photos. If I make this again someday soon, I'll update with better ones.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extra
- 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened (I used light cream cheese)
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
- 3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. In a small sauce pan, melt butter and brown sugar over medium heat. Stir continuously until the brown sugar dissolves.

2. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla extract. Set aside to cool.

3. Beat the softened cream cheese and confectioner's sugar for 1 minute.

4. Slowly beat in the cooled butter/brown sugar mixture. Beat for an additional minute.

5. Stir in the chocolate chips.

6. Pour mixture into serving bowl and refrigerate. (Note: The mixture will be very liquid-like at first. Refrigeration is necessary to make it a better consistency. If you are running short on time, you can also throw the mixture into the freezer for a little bit.)

7. Garnish with additional chips (optional). (I used a spoon to scoop and position extra chips on the top of the dip. This is what my aunt did and I think it makes for better presentation.)

Serve with vanilla wafers or graham crackers.

(Another note: After refrigeration for an extended period of time, your dip will be very solid and un-dippable--your wafers or graham crackers will break! To achieve the best consistency, remove from the refrigerator 15-30 minutes prior to serving.)


UPDATE: All of the ladies loved this. I wanted to add that a little bit of dip goes a long way. When I first made this, it looked like NOTHING at the bottom of my KitchenAid bowl. For a second, I thought maybe I should have doubled the recipe. Once I poured it into my serving dish, however, I saw that it filled the dip bowl right to the top. At Girls' Night, we only had 6 people... we barely even made a dent in this dip! Granted, we had a ton of other snacks, but when eating the dip, a little bit is enough for each cookie. It's very sweet!