Cream Cheese Brownies

One of my favourite baking websites is www.joyofbaking.com. I have tried many of its free online recipes, and they are mostly very good and reliable. This weekend I wanted to make use of the leftover chocolate bars from last week's cupcakes baking. Brownies came to my mind, and Ms. Jaworski's website has just the perfect recipe! It's super easy to make - brownie and cream cheese batter is separately made, and then put together, with the cream cheese layer on top of the brownie. To create a marble-like effect, drop a small amount of the brownie batter over the cream cheese surface, use a skewer and swirl it. The concoction is then ready to be baked. It's that simple! The combination of chewy cream cheese and dense chocolate fudge is absolutely heavenly. Here's the recipe (yields about 16 squares)

Brownie Layer:

1/2 cup chocolate bar

1/2 cup butter

1 1/4 cups caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

A pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 160 deg celcius.

2. Line a 9-by-9 inch square pan with aluminium foil.

3. Melt chocolate bar (coarsely chopped) and butter in a bowl over simmering water.

4. Remove from heat. In a mixer bowl, add caster sugar and vanilla extract to the mixture. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with the mixture.5. Mix in all-purpose flour and salt, on medium speed, until batter is smooth and glossy.

6. Set aside 1/2 cup of brownie batter. Place the remainder into the baking pan.

Cream Cheese Layer:

250 gm cream cheese

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

7. In another mixer bowl, mix cream cheese on medium speed until creamy and smooth.

8. Add caster sugar, vanilla extract, and egg. Beat the mixture on high speed until thoroughly mixed.

9. Pour the cream cheese batter over the brownie layer in the baking pan. Spoon small amount of the brownie batter set aside earlier over the cream cheese layer.10. Use a skewer to swirl without mixing the batter to create a marble-like effect.

Baking

11. Bake for 30 minutes or until the brownie begins to brown and pull away from the sides of the pan.

12. Remove from oven, and cool on a rack.

13. Refrigerate for overnight until the brownie is firm before cutting into squares.

(Photography by Yan)