cream cheese brownies

Another weekend, another request for homemade dessert... A finally got his hands on my copy of "The New Best Recipe" (from Cook's Illustrated), and started reading the dessert section. As an engineer, he was impressed with the thorough, scientific approach, which was all he needed to be convinced that their brownie recipes must be the best in the world. I had all the ingredients on hand, so we were digging in to hot gooey layered brownies about an hour later.

For the brownie base: 2/3 c AP flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, 4 oz bitter or semisweet chocolate, 8T unsalted butter, 1 c sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 3 large eggs. For the cream cheese filling: 8 oz cream cheese (room temp), 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 egg yolk.



In a medium bowl, melt chocolate and butter (start with 1 minute on high, stir, and keep heating in 30 second increments till melted). Stir the mixture till it's smooth, then whisk in sugar and vanilla.



Let this cool for a couple of minutes, then whisk in eggs one at a time till smooth.



Stir in the flour, salt and baking powder, then set aside.



In a separate bowl, make the cream cheese filling. Whisk all ingredients together till blended.



To assemble the brownies, layer half of the chocolate base into bottom of 8x8 pan (greased). Drop spoonfuls of the cream cheese filling into the base, reserving half of it. Repeat by spreading remaining brownie base, then dropping spoonfuls of the remaining cream cheese filling.



Use a knife and drag blade through mix to swirl filling and base together. Bake at 325 for 50-60 minutes, then allow to cool.