mango on an apple

Ever since Deb at smitten kitchen posted her recipe for cheesecake marbled chocolate brownies, I’ve been trying to come up with an excuse to make them myself.

Then when the Ali P & mango bake fest was drawing to an end on Friday night, we desperately sought excuses to keep the sugar high going, and I was delighted when she mumbled, “I’ve always wanted to try a good cheesecake swirl brownie recipe”. Well, look at that, I just happen to have a recipe!

Recipe adapted from the original smittenkitchen.com post, which was from Gourmet in 2007.

You will need

Brownies

• 4 oz. unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped coarsely – I used extra-bitter Lindt couvertures because I really didn’t want the chocolate taste to be too sweet
• 5 oz. granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp. instant coffee granules
• 1 oz. cocoa powder
• 3.5 oz. all-purpose flour

Cheesecake

• 8 oz. (1 pkg) cream cheese at room temperature
• 3 oz. sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Putting it together

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour a 8″ pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper
2. Melt the butter and the chocolate carefully together in a microwave, or over a double boiler. Add in the coffee granules when it is warm
3. Whisk in sugar, vanilla, eggs, cocoa powder, and flour one at a time, until everything is well combined
4. Pour brownie mixture into the prepared pan, smooth out the top slightly, and set aside
5. In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, or with a handheld mixer, mix together all of the ingredients for the cheesecake, beating until it is smooth and the sugar’s fully incorporated and the mixture feels light and fluffy when scraping down with a spatula
6. Drop the cheesecake batter in dollops on top of the brownie batter. Use a small paring knife or spatula, swirl in the cheesecake batter

7. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the mixture is set enough that when you remove it, nothing jiggles like Jell-O
8. Cool in tray. I put it in the fridge overnight, loosely covered, before slicing into squares.

The brownies are dense, chocolate-y, and chewy, and the cheesecake is just the right sweetness that it doesn’t overpower the brownies. We made quite a few adjustments to the brownies (they’re not the typical Ali P recipe), because the original recipe was just a little too sweet for me. I wanted something more like a dark chocolate brownie on the bottom, so the sugars were called down and I also intensified the chocolate flavour with a dash of coffee and some cocoa powder for good measure. Enjoy!

If you think I’m quirky, you need to meet my mom.

Mom: You know how there’s just been a lot of wasps around this year?

Me: Mmm… (clearly not paying attention)

Mom: So one flew in yesterday when I was working with chocolate and landed in it.

Me: Ew. Gross.

Mom: Well that’s not the point. It sank into the melted chocolate and I had to scoop it out…

Me: *pictures my mom at work, with her little offset spatula, and the poor bee*

Mom: …and so it had six chocolate-dipped legs.

Me: Where is this conversation going?

Mom: So I felt bad because it couldn’t move because its legs were heavy with chocolate, so I thought maybe I’d get some water and give it a bath.

Me: You were going to give a bee a bath?

Mom: Well, no, because then I realized that the chocolate would harden on his legs with cold water and he’d be even more immobile!

Me: …

Mom: So then I left it alone for a while and couldn’t find it around anymore…and then I saw it again this morning in the store. It only had FOUR LEGS left.

Me: Wha?

Mom: I KNOW! I think the bee self-amputated in order to fly again!

Me: … Are we related?