If you’re looking for a fun recipe to bake this weekend, this is a great one! Here’s why:
– They keep in the fridge or freezer so you can have these for dessert throughout the week. In fact, they are better cold (ask Matt).
– The procedure and ingredients are a great balance of being fun and interesting, without being overly complex or stressful (unlike my 17 step cardamom buns yesterday…).
– Classic flavors. Who doesn’t a good brownie? Especially with cream cheese?
– The “camouflage”, which is done by using cream cheese and then tinting some of the cream cheese with cocoa powder, is GORGEOUS! And you can have fun with the pattern!
P.S. I normally do healthy twists on desserts, but not with these- this is a typical full sugar, fat, etc dessert recipe!
Camouflage Cheesecake Brownies
Cream Cheese Mixture:
- 8 ounces regular cream cheese
- 1 egg, (directly from fridge, not a room temp)
- 1/3 cup (66g) sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Fudge Mixture: Bon Appetit has great pictures and videos for all these steps if you want! I’m just summarizing their steps here.
- 10 tablespoons (142g) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (200g) white sugar
- 3/4 cup (80g) cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs, from fridge
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (63g) all purpose flour
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Place a piece of parchment paper in a 9×9 square baking pan and spray with oil.
Cream Cheese Mixture:
- In a medium bowl, heat cream cheese using a double boiler (see bon appetit link step 2 for details on how to do that) until soft, about 6ish minutes
- Remove bowl from heat source. Stir in egg, 1/3 cup (66g) sugar, vanilla extract, and 1/4 teaspoon sea salt.
- Divide cream cheese mixture in half (one half will be cream color and the other will be light brown). To one half, add in a heaping teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and stir. Set aside
Fudge Mixture: Bon Appetit has great pictures and videos for all these steps if you want! I’m just summarizing their steps here.
- Place butter, sugar, and cocoa powder, and salt into a large bowl. Heat using same double boiler method until butter has mostly melted, about 8 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly for a few minutes.
- Add in eggs and vanilla extract and whisk vigorously.
- Add in flour and mix in with a spatula.
Assembly:
- Pour in about three quarters of the fudge mixture into your 9×9 pan and spread out evenly.
- Use a large spoon to spoon small blobs of the cream cheese mixtures on top of the fudge on top in a random pattern.
- Use a large spoon to spoon small blobs of the remaining fudge on top.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick can come out cleanly. Let cool fully before cutting and serving (we enjoyed this more once it had sat in the fridge).
YUM!! I will be making these many times during the year. I love chocolate and cream cheese. Easy to make and delicious! Thanks!!
Thanks for sharing! The creamcheese really makes a difference!
We made these again for an outside “social distance” less than 10 people family gathering. They are sooooo good! Decadent actually!! It is fun to make dessert from scratch too. Thanks!
So happy to hear that! I agree- that fudge definitely has a rich decadence to it!