Disgustingly Great Cheesecake Brownie
Jun. 24th, 2012 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labellementeuseI'm too lazy to take a photo of this and put it on my faux-proper rarely-updated blog so you get it, you lucky things, you. I finally perfected the cheesecake brownie, which I have been making, on and off, for years. Here is the recipe. It draws heavily on the Smitten Kitchen Best Cocoa Brownie, which I must recommend as a really, really good straight-up brownie recipe.
Disgustingly Great Cheesecake Brownie
Brownie:
140g unsalted butter
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 heaped t flaky sea salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 t vanilla essence
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
"Cheesecake" topping:
1 pottle (250g) spreadable cream cheese, allowed to come to room temperature
1 egg
5 T sugar (I used vanilla sugar and it was pretty delicious; you could easily add a few drops vanilla essence instead)
1. Preheat oven to 160 C on fan bake - on traditional bake maybe 180? I haven't done a comparison, I believe that's the standard change for fan-forced vs bake. Also, prepare your standard brownie pan - I use a square silicon one but the rectangular metal ones are classics for a reason, right?
2. In a medium bowl in the microwave melt together the butter, cocoa, salt and sugar, stirring, until it is a warm grainy mess. You can also do this over a double boiler if you don't have a microwave but a microwave is a million times tidier and faster if you have one. It should be warm to the touch but not uncomfortably hot.
3. Hand-beat in the vanilla essence, and then the eggs, thoroughly, one by one. At this point the mixture should be very shiny - you may find the egg sort of separates a little from the mix at first, just keep beating until it all comes together.
4. Add the flour and mix until well combined, and then stir firmly a further 40 strokes. (I know, this is bizarrely precise, but mine is not to reason why, mine is just to make and eat awesome brownie.) Pour into the appropriately greased and lined brownie tin.
5. In a separate bowl, beat together the cream cheese, egg, and sugar.
6. Dollop or spread the cream cheese mix over the brownie mix, then run a dull knife several times through the mixture so that they are still basically separate but a bit mixed up - you should get a nice kind of marbled effect.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until it's set and a little bit firm in the middle. I did 30 and the edges were perfect, the middle maybe slightly overly fudgy for my tastes - but I know that's how many people prefer their brownie, so.
8. Let cool for as long as you can stand. Not very long if you're me but it really is better cooled.
It's just really good, okay?!
Some non-food related cool things:
- Today I read the first 6 chapters of the new Lois McMaster Bujold book, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, which are available for free! from Baen Ebooks. Also you can buy the eARC, which I am trying to resist until November when it's priced more reasonably. But I probably will cave next week so I have something to read on the plane to Australia.
- I was having an awesome solo dance party to Girl Talk today (I've got some moves, y'all, you have no idea) and I'm pretty sure I've linked to All Day before, which is the whole album, downloadable for free - this thing is like the fucking essence of pop music - and I ran into two cool things on the internet:
---> this ... I don't even know what to call it, but it shows you which songs are being sampled at which points in the album. It's really cool.
---> Girl Walk/All Day, a feature-length music video set to the entire album. Honestly this just has some fantastic dancing in it.
Disgustingly Great Cheesecake Brownie
Brownie:
140g unsalted butter
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 heaped t flaky sea salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 t vanilla essence
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
"Cheesecake" topping:
1 pottle (250g) spreadable cream cheese, allowed to come to room temperature
1 egg
5 T sugar (I used vanilla sugar and it was pretty delicious; you could easily add a few drops vanilla essence instead)
1. Preheat oven to 160 C on fan bake - on traditional bake maybe 180? I haven't done a comparison, I believe that's the standard change for fan-forced vs bake. Also, prepare your standard brownie pan - I use a square silicon one but the rectangular metal ones are classics for a reason, right?
2. In a medium bowl in the microwave melt together the butter, cocoa, salt and sugar, stirring, until it is a warm grainy mess. You can also do this over a double boiler if you don't have a microwave but a microwave is a million times tidier and faster if you have one. It should be warm to the touch but not uncomfortably hot.
3. Hand-beat in the vanilla essence, and then the eggs, thoroughly, one by one. At this point the mixture should be very shiny - you may find the egg sort of separates a little from the mix at first, just keep beating until it all comes together.
4. Add the flour and mix until well combined, and then stir firmly a further 40 strokes. (I know, this is bizarrely precise, but mine is not to reason why, mine is just to make and eat awesome brownie.) Pour into the appropriately greased and lined brownie tin.
5. In a separate bowl, beat together the cream cheese, egg, and sugar.
6. Dollop or spread the cream cheese mix over the brownie mix, then run a dull knife several times through the mixture so that they are still basically separate but a bit mixed up - you should get a nice kind of marbled effect.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until it's set and a little bit firm in the middle. I did 30 and the edges were perfect, the middle maybe slightly overly fudgy for my tastes - but I know that's how many people prefer their brownie, so.
8. Let cool for as long as you can stand. Not very long if you're me but it really is better cooled.
It's just really good, okay?!
Some non-food related cool things:
- Today I read the first 6 chapters of the new Lois McMaster Bujold book, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, which are available for free! from Baen Ebooks. Also you can buy the eARC, which I am trying to resist until November when it's priced more reasonably. But I probably will cave next week so I have something to read on the plane to Australia.
- I was having an awesome solo dance party to Girl Talk today (I've got some moves, y'all, you have no idea) and I'm pretty sure I've linked to All Day before, which is the whole album, downloadable for free - this thing is like the fucking essence of pop music - and I ran into two cool things on the internet:
---> this ... I don't even know what to call it, but it shows you which songs are being sampled at which points in the album. It's really cool.
---> Girl Walk/All Day, a feature-length music video set to the entire album. Honestly this just has some fantastic dancing in it.
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Date: 2012-06-24 10:48 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-06-24 11:13 am (UTC)