Fancy a Cheesecake Brownie?

Do you like cheesecake? And brownies? Here’s the perfect recipe to marry the two and give yourself a sugar high in the process. But a delicious sugar high at that. I’d heard about cheesecake brownies for ages, but never eaten or made one. Since I seem to have a lot of free time on hand nowadays, I found myself a recipe and decided to try it. End result, everyone who ate it seems to be utterly enamoured by it. I still prefer my brownies and cheesecake separate. But hey, we must give the people what they want. And if cheesecake brownie is what they want, then cheesecake brownie is what they’ll get.

Don’t skip any of the steps, or take shortcuts. You absolutely must let the cake cool in the fridge for 3-4 hours, if not overnight. Otherwise the cheesecake layer won’t set. Also, this is best eaten chilled. The brownie layer is more fudge-like, than cake-like.

Here goes.

Ingredients

120 grams butter

120 grams dark chocolate

200 grams brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

65 grams flour

Cream Cheese/ cheesecake layer:

225 grams full fat cream cheese, at room temperature (I used Flanders Mascarpone)

65 grams castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 tbsp dark rum

Process:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Prepare a baking tin, around 8-9 inches with baking paper.

In a double boiler (take a glass bowl which won’t shatter with heat, and hold it over a pan of simmering water), melt the butter and chocolate.

Remove from heat and whisk in the sugar and vanilla extract and rum. Then add the eggs,

one at a time. Keep whisking. Stir in the flour and keep whisking the batter. Remove 1/2 cup of this brownie batter and keep it aside. Pour the rest of the brownie batter into the prepared pan.

For the cheesecake layer:

In another bowl, whisk the cream cheese/ mascarpone with a hand mixer till it is smooth. Then add the sugar, vanilla, and egg and beat till creamy and smooth. Now spread this batter over the brownie layer. Spoon little drops of the reserved brownie batter on top of the cream cheese batter. Run a wooden skewer through this top layer till it has a marble effect.

Bake in the preheated oven for about30 minutes or until the brownies are set. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Do NOT take it out of the tin. Then cover and refrigerate the brownies  for 3-4 hours or overnight. Once chilled, remove the brownies from the pan by lifting with the ends of the baking paper and transfer to a flat surface. With a sharp knife cut into squares. Keep wiping the knife with a damp cloth between cuts.