Chocolate-Cheesecake Brownies

This post is dedicated to my dear friend, LNG, who had requested that Anjalie & I try out this recipe and post the results. The name itself was quite catchy that put together two of my favourites, Cheesecake and chocolate! We have been planning to do this for a long time. But, unfortunately, we had to keep putting it off. Until now that is! Anjalie & I had a fantastic time making these brownies together. Anjalie, in particular, enjoyed as she called it "scribbling" on the cake to get the characteristic swirls/decorations on the top. All three of us enjoyed the chocolate-y cheesecake taste of the fudge-y, chewy and perfect brownies. It was quite hard to stop eating them after we have each had four, so, beware! :) I did cheat a little- I used extra light cream cheese for the cheesecake part and added 1 tbsp flour to give it some body instead of the full-fat cheese cake. This was my way of cutting down on the calories to feel less guilty about it. But feel free to use and enjoy full fat cream cheese. It will taste great, I am sure! So here is the recipe...

You will need:
For chocolate part:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour



For cheesecake part:
8 ounces full-fat cream cheese, softened or Extra light cream cheese + 1 tbsp flour (for low-calorie option)
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract



Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius (fan assisted oven) or 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a baking dish well and set aside.




Beat egg well until yolks & egg white are well mixed.








In a mixing bowl, melt butter (in microwave or stove top) and bring it to room temperature.

Add sugar and mix well.








Add cocoa powder, salt and vanilla extract and mix well.

Add the beaten eggs and mix well with a spatula. Do NOT whisk or beat it at this stage. We want fudge-y and chewy brownies (this will not rise like a cake).











Add flour and mix well.  Keep mixing and beating with spatula/wooden spoon (do not wire whisk or use hand mixer) until

the batter appears glossy and smooth (see pic to the left). It will take around 1 min and taste check may not be a bad idea either :)

Now for the cheesecake part....





Beat cream cheese (& flour), egg and sugar with a hand mixer...

until smooth and well mixed.

In the greased baking sheet, first spread the chocolate batter (reserving 3-4 tbsp of the batter). Spread the cheesecake batter over the chocolate batter. At this point I thought that my baking sheet was way too large. But I had no choice, but, to carry on...

Now randomly pour the 4 tbsp of chocolate batter again on top of the cheesecake batter.

Lightly run the knife along to mix the top chocolate batter with the cheesecake batter to make swirls...

This is a very enjoyable part and is as easy as child's play. Feel free to recruit your toddler/preschooler to "scribble".

Here is the batter ready to go in the oven. Don't forget to say thanks and kiss your little helper :) Bake for 20-30 mins (depending on the size of your pan and the thickness of your brownies) until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan.

Cut to small squares and serve. Tastes great warm or cold. Beware that it is hard to stop with one! Enjoy!