Cheesecake Swirl Brownies- rich fudgy brownies swirled with creamy cheesecake.
Jump to recipe
Brownies are not something that I bake very often, despite how much I enjoy eating them! I tend to veer towards cake or tarts when I want to bake something. These Cheesecake Swirl Brownies are lovely and fudgy, but the outside edge is quite cakey, which is handy if you have some people who don't really like the fudgy texture.
The cheesecake swirl in the brownie gives them a nice additional flavour; a touch of creaminess against the chocolate. It also makes them look pretty spectacular! Using cream cheese in the UK can be problematic as our cream cheese, including Philadelphia, has a lot more water in it than US cream cheese. So when we use it for baking, mixing it with egg etc, just makes it even runnier. Some bloggers advocate squeezing a lot of the water out of it using a cloth, not something I have tried! I tend to just try and work with it.
You will need to be persistent with this cheesecake swirl brownie recipe, to make sure the cheesecake swirls through effectively. It's worth the effort, though, as they look and taste amazing. See the printable recipe card for top tips on how to do this.
Once you've made a batch, you won't be able to resist eating one while it's still warm!
Yield: 14
Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
prep time: 20 minscook time: 25 minstotal time: 45 mins
ingredients:
Brownie MIxture
- 230g unsalted butter
- 450g caster sugar
- 25g good quality dark chocolate
- 4 eggs
- 125g cocoa powder
- 190g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
Cheesecake Mixture
- 250g light cream cheese
- 1 egg
- 50g sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
instructions
Heat the oven to 180 (170 fan, gas mark 4).
In a pan, melt the butter and the sugar. It should be just bubbling, not boiling at full speed. Stir regularly and watch out for it starting to discolour. You don't want it to start caramelising.
Take it off the heat, break up the chocolate and mix it through until it has melted. Then leave to cool.
In a bowl, mix together the cheesecake ingredients until they are well combined. If it's still lumpy, use a whisk to smooth it out, ideally an electric one, if you have it. Set it to one side.
Once the butter and sugar are well-cooled, mix in the eggs until well combined, then the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. It may be worth sieving the cocoa powder, as the lumps can be quite persistent! It should give you a lovely glossy mixture when it has all been fully mixed.
Grease a rectangular tin well (I used a 13x9x2 this time, but a slightly smaller one would be fine.)
Pour all the chocolate mixture into the tin and even it out.
Swirl the cheesecake mixture through the brownie mixture (see notes section for tips).
Pop in the oven and cook for 25 mins. This will give you lovely fudgy brownies in the centre of the pan and slightly less fudgy ones around the edge. If you prefer them a bit more cakey, add 5 mins. If you like them really fudgy, take 5 mins off! If the cheesecake parts in the middle are turning yellow, it's over baking.
While they are still warm, cut lines across the pan (wiping the knife after each) and then down, until you have about 12 brownies.
Leave for 5 more minutes to cool further and then lift out. They will come out easily, as long as you greased the pan well enough.
NOTES:
For the cheesecake swirl: There are two ways to do this- A) Use the handle of a wooden spoon to drag through the mixture in lines, quickly filling in the gap left behind with the cheesecake mixture. On your first go, you might want someone to help you! B) Spoon blobs of cheesecake mixture across the surface and then use the handle of a spoon to drag through and create the swirl. You'll need to be quite forceful to get the cheesecake to go through instead of just swirling across the top. This is the method I use. Make sure that you don't over-swirl, so that it just turns light brown. You should still be able to see the two distinct colours.
Created using The Recipes Generator
Comments
Post a Comment