Bready or Not: Cheesecake Brownies
Cheesecake Brownies. Beautiful to behold. Delicious to eat.
I’m not a cheesecake person. But the pairing of chocolate and cheesecake? That makes it work.
This recipe is all about that balance of different kinds of sweetness. The addition of semisweet chocolate chips complements both and adds a different texture, too.
I have to say, I love the swirl effect on the top of these brownies. There’s something especially pleasing about food that looks as amazing as it tastes.
If you want a similar, stronger (and more expensive) pairing, my Swirled Goat Cheese Brownies will also interest you.
Modified from All Recipes Magazines, November 2017.
Bready or Not: Cheesecake Brownies
Ingredients
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 3/4 cup white sugar divided
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips divided
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with heavy foil and apply butter or nonstick spray.
- Beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 egg until fairly smooth; some small chunks are fine. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.
- In a microwave safe bowl, heat the butter and remaining 1 cup chocolate chips in brief bursts until fully melted and smooth; watch it carefully and stir well between each burst. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, followed by the 2 eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Pour half the chocolate batter into the ready pan and spread into an even layer. Gently spread the cream cheese batter on top. Drop dollops of the rest of the chocolate batter on top. Use a butter knife or narrow spatula to swirl the layers together for a marbled effect.
- Bake until the top is crinkled and edges are pulling away from the sides of the pan, about 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool at room temperature for an hour, then stash in the fridge for another few hours to completely cool.
- Use the foil to lift the contents onto a cutting board to slice into bars. Store in a sealed container in fridge, waxed paper between stacked layers to prevent stocking, for up to three days, or freeze for later enjoyment.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Swirled Goat Cheese Brownies
Swirled Goat Cheese Brownies. These things are sweet, savory, rich, and absolutely perfect for holiday fixin’s.
These are brownies that taste fancy, because they are. Goat cheese ain’t cheap, people, though I acquired mine for a good price at Costco.
Costco’s chevre comes in two logs of 10 1/2 ounces. I bought it for use in a recipe that’ll be coming up in a few weeks (goat cheese rounds for a salad, YUM) but then had to figure out what to do with the other log.
The answer, of course: DESSERT! I ended up melding several recipes to suit my Costco-sized cheese, and ta-da! This recipe is the result.
I’ve made brownies like this using cream cheese before. This version takes that up several notches. Chevre is a strong, somewhat gamey cheese. The end result is a brownie that is rich and sweet with a distinct savory note.
Treat yourself with these amazing brownies this holiday season–and be sure to check out last week’s Holiday Cherry Brownies, too!
Bready or Not Original: Swirled Goat Cheese Brownies
Ingredients
Goat Cheese Swirl
- 10 1/2 ounces goat cheese room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons confectioners' sugar
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs room temperature
Brownie Base
- 2/3 cup Dutch process cocoa powder sifted
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Line an 8×8 or 9x9-inch square pan with aluminum foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
- Mix goat cheese swirl ingredients. Set aside.
- Make the brownie base by whisking together the cocoa, sugars, salt, flour, and chips in a big mixing bowl. Add the eggs, oil, and water and vanilla extract until everything is just combined.
- Spoon half the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Dollop the cheese mixture atop it, then add the remaining brownie batter into the open spots. Use a knife to swirl the two layers together while still keeping them a bit distinct.
- Bake the brownies for 35 to 45 minutes, depending on the pan size. Use the toothpick test to check for doneness. The center should be set with the consistency still moist and fudgy. Cool to room temperature, then place in fridge to chill an hour or two prior to cutting.
- Use foil to lift brownies onto cutting board for easy slicing. Store in a sealed container in fridge, with parchment or waxed paper between the layers.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Holiday Cherry Brownies
Those big jewel-like candied cherries aren’t just meant for fruitcake. Bake them into some Holiday Cherry Brownies!
As with my recent Fruitcake Cookies, this recipe is handy if you want to make a festive treat in December–or put those clearance tubs of fruitcake fixins to good use in the new year.
Plus, these are darn good brownies with a thin, crisp top and a chewy interior. The cherries add lovely flavor and juiciness, which is even better alongside the crunch of walnuts.
Oh yeah, and these brownies are PRETTY. That counts for something.
I modified the original recipe to melt the chocolate and butter the quick and lazy way with the help of my microwave, because my stove is old and cheap and that method would probably triple my prep time. But you can certainly use the stove, too. Whatever works best for you.
Mind you, I am a purist about butter on the stovetop for things like browned butter (SO GOOD) but here alongside the chocolate, I don’t think there would be a discernible difference.
Modified from Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies & Bars magazine.
Bready or Not: Holiday Cherry Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 ounces candied cherries halved, red and/or green, about 1 1/2 cups
- 1 cup walnuts chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 13x9 pan with foil and apply nonstick spray.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and sugar in careful, 30 seconds bursts. Once everything is smooth, set aside to cool a bit. (This step could also be done at a low temperature on the stove.)
- In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Follow that up with the eggs and vanilla until everything is smooth. Fold in the cherries and walnuts.
- Pour batter into the pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the center passes the toothpick test.
- Completely cool. Use foil to lift brownies on cutting board to slice up. Store in a sealed container.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Guest: K. Bird Lincoln with Spicy Mocha Chocolate Mochi Cake
I’m excited to welcome author K. Bird Lincoln with a special Bready or Not guest post! I’ve read over 130 urban fantasies and it’s hard to wow me these days, but the first book in her Portland Hafu series was a delight. She’s here today to celebrate the release of her second book, Black Pearl Dreaming, with a multicultural chocolate cake.
Plus, you can enter a Rafflecopter giveaway for her first book, Dream Eater! Read the recipe, and you might win yourself a great book to pair with this special chocolate cake.
The Portland Hafu Urban Fantasy series features a Japanese American young woman named Koi. She finds out her father isn’t entirely human and has to battle evil professors and dragons. The second in the series, Black Pearl Dreaming, has Koi traveling to Japan to seek answers for her father’s mental decline.
Chocolate is a huge part of Koi’s world. Like really important. So important that when love interest, Kitsune trickster Ken, wants to apologize for getting her in trouble in Tokyo, he gives her Oregon Chocolatier Dagoba’s Xocolatl Chocolate bar, invoking rosy childhood memories of the only chocolate Koi’s father ever deigned to consume.
So Xocolatl, possibly “bitter water” from the Mayan language, is the flavor I thought I’d play with for this recipe. Drawing on Koi’s happa haole heritage (she’s Japanese on her father’s side and Caucasian-Hawaiian on her mother’s) I thought it fitting to turn Hawaiian Butter Mochi into an homage to my favorite Oregon Chocolatier.
Butter mochi isn’t the same thing at all as Japanese mochi celebrated at New Year’s and used in making daifuku. Butter mochi is a Hawaiian cake incorporating Mochi flour (sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour not to be confused with ye olde plain rice flour) milk, and butter to make a squishy, bouncy, chewy rich cake like deliciousness.
Don’t be scared off by the mochi flour. All the rest of the ingredients in this are pretty easy to get, and I even found Mochiko Flour (Koda Farms Brand) at my local Hy-Vee grocery store here in the Southeastern Prairie of Minnesota in the Asian Foods section. And of course, you can order Mochiko on Amazon.
This is Hawaiian soul food with a spicy chocolate twist, y’all. One bite, and you’ll be hooked, I promise.
Bready or Not Guest Recipe: BLACK PEARL DREAMING Spicy Mocha Chocolate Mochi Cake from K. Bird Lincoln
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 16 oz Mochiko Flour sweet or glutinous rice flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 12 oz coconut milk
- 1 1/2 cup milk if you don’t mind the sugar, use 1 cup condensed milk
- Cayenne pepper to taste I used 1/4 tsp
- Cinnamon to taste I used 1 Tb
Instructions
- Grease or insert parchment paper into a 9×13 pan.
- Melt the butter and chocolate together. Mix in sugar and vanilla. In a different bowl, mix Mochiko flour, cacao powder, baking powder, cinnamon, and cayenne. Beat in 1/2 of the Mochiko flour mixture, eggs, and coconut milk. Add in another 1/2 of the Mochiko flour mixture, 11/2 cup milk and beat until all flour and milk is added and mixed in until smooth.
- Pour into pan and cook at 350 deg F for 45-55 minutes.
- Let cool completely. Cut with a plastic knife or wet your knife between cuts.
Koi visits Japan looking for answers and instead is forced to make an impossible choice.
With the help of powerful new friends, Koi defeated her dragon enemy in Portland. Now, no longer able to deny her dream-eating powers or the real reason for her father’s mental decline, she flies to Tokyo with her new Kitsune love, Ken, and the trickster Kwaskwi, seeking answers. But secrets from Ken’s past and Kind politics threaten to unravel their newfound trust and someone in Tokyo is desperate to kidnap a Baku. Koi must untangle a long history of pain and deceit in order to save her father, an imprisoned dragon, and herself.
“I absolutely got sucked in by the way several mythologies were mixed with modern-day and WWII history to form a cool, surprising, and action packed plot. ”
— Pat Esden, author of The Dark Heart and Northern Circle Coven series.
“In Black Pearl Dreaming, Koi is a delightfully watchable heroine in way over her head. She struggles to figure out whom to trust, where she can get good coffee, and what exactly she should do about this enormous sleeping dragon, in this fast paced paranormal intrigue set
in a vividly detailed contemporary Japan.”
— Tina Connolly, author of Ironskin and Seriously Wicked series.
World Weaver Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
iTunes/Apple iBooks
Kobo
K. Bird Lincoln is an ESL professional and writer living on the windswept Minnesota Prairie with family and a huge addiction to frou-frou coffee. Also dark chocolate– without which, the world is a howling void. Originally from Cleveland, she has spent more years living on the edges of the Pacific Ocean than in the Midwest. Her speculative short stories are published in various online & paper publications such as Strange Horizons. Her medieval Japanese fantasy series, Tiger Lily, is available from Amazon. World Weaver Press released Dream Eater, the first novel in an exciting, multi-cultural Urban Fantasy trilogy set in Portland and Japan, in 2017 and will release the sequel, Black Pearl Dreaming, October 2018. She also writes tasty speculative fiction reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Check her out on Facebook, join her newsletter for chances to win chocolate and ebooks, or stalk her online at kblincoln.com
Read MoreBready or Not: Pop Tart-Layered Brownies
These brownies are what happened after I bought a box of Cookies & Crème Pop Tarts for my son. He didn’t like them.
Well, darn. I can’t eat them myself. I didn’t want them wallowing in my pantry forever.
Therefore, I decided to use up the remaining packets by baking them into brownies. The layered technique works out well with Oreos, after all!
Turns out, Pop Tarts are fantastic baked into brownies. They are thinner than Oreos, and meld more with the surrounding dough. The mild Oreo-like taste still shines through.
Plus, the resulting brownie isn’t quite as dense. Just in case you aren’t in the mood for brick-like brownies.
The original recipe is from King Arthur Flour. I rewrote it and added in the Pop Tarts and chocolate chips (because, why not?!).
I’ve only done the recipe with Cookies & Crème Pop Tarts, but I think this technique would be great with all kinds of Pop Tarts–try strawberry (frosted or not), or Peanut Butter, or Smores.
Plus, then you can tell people you had Pop Tarts for breakfast, and no one has to know it was encased in a brownie.
Bready or Not: Pop Tart-Layered Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder sifted
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder optional but awesome
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate
- 3 packets Cookies & Creme Pop Tarts or other variety, 6 total pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper or foil, and grease with butter or apply nonstick spray.
- Stir together, in order, all of the ingredients up to the Pop Tarts. Dollop about half the dough in the prepared pan, and try to spread out as evenly as possible; the dough will be thick. Layer the Pop Tarts over the dough, breaking pieces as necessary to fit. Dollop the rest of the dough on top, and again, smooth out as much as possible.
- Bake brownies for 25 to 30 minutes, until the middle passes the toothpick test. Cool completely before lifting the brownies onto a cutting board to slice up.
- Store in a sealed container at room temperature, or freeze to make them last longer.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Gluten-Free Almond Flour Brownies
I often get requests for more gluten-free sweets. Here you go. These brownies are so good, people won’t even know they lack gluten.
They also happen to be grain-free. Just don’t give them to people who have almond allergies!
These brownies are fast to assemble. The end result tastes like standard brownies. I didn’t find them super moist, but they were nice and chewy.
They kept pretty well in a sealed container for several days, too. The cut edges dried out a bit, but they were still delicious.
Here’s a tip for you: almond flour, because of its high fat content, can spoil. Keep it in the freezer! It won’t freeze solid but it will get clumpy. Hence my note in the ingredients list to sift the almond flour.
Modified from King Arthur Flour.
Bready or Not: Gluten-Free Almond Flour Brownies
Ingredients
- 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 3/4 cups white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder sifted
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with foil and apply butter or nonstick spray.
- In the microwave, melt the butter in a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the sugar, salt, vanilla, cocoa, and eggs. Add in the almond flour and baking powder. Pour batter into the ready pan.
- Bake for 33 to 38 minutes, until the top is set and the middle just passes the toothpick test. Let cool, then cut into blocks. Store at room temperature in a sealed container or freeze for later enjoyment.
- OM NOM NOM!
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