Cream Cheese Brownies

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, things have been a little crazy since it’s almost finals time and I’ve been traveling a bit.  But hopefully I’ll be better about updates, especially once finals are over!

Every year my family goes to my grandparents’ house in Connecticut and we spend the day with my Great Aunt and her friend.  Since I usually go there before Sunday I make it my goal to bake something that I’ve never made before, and this year it was cream cheese brownies.  

I’ve been wanting to make cream cheese brownies ever since I saw the Bobby Flay Throwdown about brownies.  The one where the people he challenge make goat cheese brownies… yeah, I’ll be making those eventually.  Anyway, all of the recipes that I looked up weren’t really what I was looking for, so when I found a plain brownie recipe on epicurious that looked good I decided to change it up a bit and give it a shot.

If you love chocolate this is the brownie for you, they’re dense but still creamy and rich.  And the cream cheese mixture takes the brownie to a completely different level.  As someone that can’t eat a lot of chocolate the cream cheese adds a creamy and savory aspect to the brownie that, in my opinion, makes it even more delicious. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

For the Brownies:

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cold large eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

For the Cream Cheese Swirl:

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Start by preheating the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and lining a 8x8 inch baking dish with tin foil or parchment paper.  After lining the pan grease it and set aside. 

Beat the cream cheese and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy, an electric mixer would probably be best for this, but I had to improvise.  Slowly add in the sugar and the egg separately.  Add in the tablespoon of flour and continue to mix it for another minute or so.  Place bowl aside for when the brownies are done. 

Put the cocoa powder, butter, sugar and salt into a heat proof bowl and place over a sauce pan of simmering water.  Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the simmering water.  This might seem like a weird way to melt the butter, but it works and within about 10 minutes the butter melts and the cocoa, butter, sugar and salt combine into a chocolaty paste. 

Take the bowl off of the double boiler and add in the vanilla.  Next add in the eggs one at a time, making sure that they’re completely mixed in before adding the next one. 

Then, add the flour and mix until there are no lumps in the batter.  Continue to mix for another minute (or 40 strokes as the recipe calls for). 

Pour into the greased baking sheet and pour the cream cheese mix onto the brownies and swirl into the mix.  Don’t over-mix the batter and the swirl or else you won’t be able to see it. 

Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean when inserted in.  Let the brownies cool and then cut into 16 squares.