Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

This week I’ve been both incredibly busy and frustrated, immersed in the world of house hunting. After many months of waiting , I’ve finally been offered a job and now have to relocate before I start next week. So you might think that I’d have been too busy to write and bake a recipe this week – but would I do that to you?

So we’re talking brownies and to be precise, marbled chocolate cheesecake brownies. You may be asking why get the cheesecake involved and not just do normal chocolate brownies but I find that most people have a favourite chocolate brownie recipe and they’re pretty easy to come across, so you don’t need mine. I definitely have a favourite brownie recipe and I’ve been making it for years! I first introduced them to the world a depressingly large number of years ago while still at school where they were very popular and have been making them, usually by request, ever since. Now, for some reason I’ve always kept this recipe a closely guarded secret and now I feel like I cannot change, therefore you probably won’t ever see it here.  Today’s brownie recipe though is still really delicious so I hope you like it!

These recipes are not exactly your traditional brownies though and I’m going to begin with this warning – if you don’t like cheesecake, you’re probably not going to like these brownies!! Although if you don’t like cheesecake, I’m not sure I want you reading this blog anyway – what’s wrong with you?? Oh, you have a dairy allergy?? Then you shouldn’t be eating chocolate either!!! Actually thinking about it, what do you do if you have a dairy allergy and want to make a recipe that contains chocolate? Can you just substitute the chocolate for dairy free chocolate?? Does it melt and bake the same?? So many questions that I’m going to have to find out the answer to!

Anyway, if you do like both chocolate and cheesecake then these are the brownies for you! I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was experimenting with these, but what came out was something that tasted a little like chocolate cheesecake on a brownie rather than biscuit base. Accept that this is what they’ll taste like and you’ll love them. They’re moist and tangy and chocolatey and great – try them! And for those of you who don’t like cheesecake – you crazy bunch – the chocolate brownie part of the recipe makes lovely brownies by itself so you can always have a go at this is you prefer!

Finally before I go, there may not be a recipe posted next week due to the moving, the new job, my probable lack of internet and probable lack of kitchen! I’ll see what I can do!

Some Final Tips Before You Get Started:

• I always melt my chocolate in a bain-marie (ok, a Pyrex bowl balanced over a saucepan of water) but if you don’t want to fuss with this you can always melt your butter and chocolate in the microwave. Just be careful not to burn it by microwaving at a fairly low temperature and taking it out frequently to stir until fully melted.
• Make sure your mixture has cooled sufficiently before you add the eggs. Adding the sugar and flour prior to the eggs should lower the temperature enough but just double check, otherwise you’ll end up with chocolate scrambled eggs. Not ideal.
• I used a standard, supermarket bar of dark chocolate for these which I’m guessing had a fairly low cocoa content because that’s what I prefer for brownies. This is what I’d suggest but if you prefer a more bitter chocolate, say 75% cocoa chocolate when you bake, by all means use it!
• Once baked, unlike normal cakes, a testing skewer inserted into the brownies shouldn’t necessarily come out clean when checking to see if they’ve cooked all the way through. You still want it to be very slightly sticky in order for your brownies to be moist. If it comes out covered in batter however, they still need more cooking time. Go with your gut on this one.

Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

For the Cream Cheese Mixture:

400g Full Fat Cream Cheese

1tsp. Vanilla Extract

125g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

For the Brownies:

200g Dark Chocolate

175g Unsalted Butter

300g Caster Sugar

130g Plain Flour

3 Eggs

A 30cm x 20cm Rectangular Baking Tin

1)      Preheat the oven to 180◦C, grease and line your baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese, vanilla extract, caster sugar and eggs. Stir until smooth, creamy and well combined. Set aside in a cool place.

2)      Place a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with an inch of water, making sure the base of the bowl is not touching the water. Bring the water to boil over a medium heat. Break the chocolate into chunks and place, alongside the butter into the heatproof bowl and melt together, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool slightly once melted.

3)      Mix the sugar and flour into the melted chocolate and butter and stir until combined. Add the eggs and little at a time, mixing until a wet mixture has formed.

4)      Pour ¾ of the brownie mixture into the prepared tin. On top of this, place dollops of the cream cheese mixture before filling the gaps between these with the remaining brownie mixture. Using a skewer, swirl together the cream cheese and brownie until a marbled pattern is created. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until the cheesecake is golden and a skewer inserted into the mixture comes out slightly sticky.

5)      Leave to cool completely in the tin before removing and cutting the brownies into bars.