Cream Cheese Brownies (Nigella Lawson)

Now! See this... These are heavenly creamy cream cheese brownies.



Now! See this... The cream cheese fillings disappear and they are plain chocolaty brownies!



Now! See this... They are heavenly creamy cream cheese brownies again! LOL!

Did you bake two kind of brownies? NO, I didn't and YES that they are the same brownies!!!

Are they "magic brownies"?... LOL! Not the kind that your wicked brains think. Nay that these brownies are not made with special "magical" ingredient or disappearing power but rather the David Copperfield illusionist kind. They look like plain chocolate brownies at one end and taste surprisingly heavenly with the hidden inner layer of saltiness, sourness and creaminess inside. Although this brownies is sneakily good, it is honestly straightforward to bake.

I'm baking these brownies for our bake-along with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen wings.  Unlike the brownies that I baked at here and here, there are no sexy shots of oozing chocolate in these flat and compact brownies. Instead, these brownies are sexy in its own way, a little like George Clooney... The distinct creamy white filling embedded within these dark chocolaty treats give the brownies a clean sleek look and also a clean-cut sexy taste.

Yum!

... and easy!

The white filling are just cold slices of cream cheese.

Assembling the black and white layers

... after baking

Cream cheese? Where??? Here!!!

The mixture of this black and white is extremely nice...

Here's the recipe mostly adapted from the book, How to be a domestic goddess by Nigella Lawson (with my slight modification and notes in blue)

Makes 8-10
125g dark chocolate (I used the Callebaut ones with 70% cocoa)
125g unsalted butter
2 large eggs
200g caster sugar
(reduced to 100g for 3/4 recipe)
1 tsp vanilla extract
75g plain flour
pinch of salt
200g cold Philadelphia or similar
(reduced to 75g for 3/4 recipe)
23cm square tin, 4cm deep, greased and lined

Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced) /gas mark 4.

Melt the chocolate and butter over medium-to-low heat in a heavy-based saucepan or in a heat-proof bowl using a microwave. While waiting for both chocolate and butter to melt, idly beat the eggs in a bowl with the sugar and vanilla.
 
Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt. When the chocolate mixture has almost completely melted, take the pan off the heat. The bits of un-melted chocolate or butter will continue to deliquesce if left. Leave for a bit longer to cool slightly before beating in the eggs and sugar. Finally, add the flour and beat until smooth.

Pour half the mixture into the tin, slice the cream cheese as thinly as you can and top the brownie mixture in the tin with these thin slices. Pour over the remaining half of brownie-gunge, using a rubber spatula or whatever to make sure each bit of cheese is covered. Then put in the oven and bake for about 20 mins: the top should be slightly paled and dry, but a cake-tester poked within should reveal a still-sticky center.

Cool for about 10 mins before cutting into little squares, and eat warm or cold, though the cooler they are the easier they'll be to lift out. Reckon on a first, botched slice: cook's treat - Yippee!

Note: Using 3/4 of the recipe, I have baked the brownies in 20cm square pan at 160°C fan forced for 20 mins

Happy Baking

Here are our friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their cream cheese brownies baking. 

Please submit your details if you wish to link your post with this bake-along. This linking tool is open from 6 Mar to 13 Mar 2014.

For our next bake-along, we are baking marbled butter cake which is to be posted on 20 Mar 2014. Please bake-along with us! All you need to do is to bake this recipe and blog hop with us for the next 10 days.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code

Before using this linky tool, please make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post. (2) Please mention Bake-Along in your post and link back to any of our hosts' Bake-Along post, (Joyce, Lena or Zoe). (3) Appreciate if you can display the Bake-Along badge in your post when linking up with us. Cheers!

---
This post is also linked to Cook like a Star, ALL Stars Anniversary organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Mich from Piece of Cake. 

Wanna cook or bake like Donna Hay, Barefoot Contessa, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef, Martha Stewart, Delia Smith, Curtis Stone, Nigella Lawson, Ree Drummond and Bill Granger? To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from their websites or cookbooks and link with us at this Zoe's, this Joyce's or this Mich's post for the whole of March and April 2014.

Chocolate and Almond Biscotti (Donna Hay)

I have noticed that the weather at Melbourne has been cooling down lately. Although today is going to be a warm autumn day, tonight will not be as warm as more than 20°C.

Due to the weather change, I have been drinking tea lately...

I'm never a tea or coffee drink but lately during moments of stress, I like to stop doing everything, keep calm, sit back, relax and have a cup of tea... My favourite are usually the fruity and caffeine free ones like these from Twinings.

I like a quiet afternoon, a cup of tea with a slice or two guilt-free cakes or biscuits... something like biscotti.

Wait up now, Zoe! Let's stop dreaming and bake something. Besides a cup of tea, baking can be very therapeutic for me too.

Being a health freak, anything with no butter and oil added or less sugar sounds to me. Yes that I know that these twice-baked Donna Hay's chocolate biscotti contains about 3/4 cup of sugar but the sweetness in these rich cocoa and almond treats is well-hidden and pretty subtle. In fact, you probably need a lot senses to detect any fat and the hint of sweetness of these treats.

Otherwise, the best way to enjoy these... A quiet afternoon, a cup of tea with a couple of chocolate biscotti... Anybody?

Cuppa... Anybody?

Making these biscotti is super-easy. Just mix ...

... and bake!

Slice...

... and bake again! Enjoy!

Here's the recipe from the book, Simple Essential: Chocolate by Donna Hay
(with my modification and notes in blue)

Make 40
270g plain flour, sifted
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
30g cocoa powder, sifted
(I used Valrhona Dutch processed ones)
165g caster sugar
3/4 cup blanched almonds
3 eggs
(I used large 80g eggs)
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160°C (or 150°C fan forced) . Place the flour, baking powder, cocoa, sugar and almonds in a bowl and mix together. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well to form a dough. Note: Depending on the size of the eggs used, dough can be sticky but I didn't add any flour to fine-tune the consistency of my dough

Divide the dough in two. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead each piece until smooth. Shape into logs and flatten slightly. Place the logs on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 35 mins. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. 

Cut logs into slices 5mm thick and place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 25 mins or until biscotti are crisp. Note: Like I mentioned in my previous biscotti baking, I like my biscotti to be rather less teeth-crunching and bake mine for 10 to12 mins.

Note: Using 1 1/2 of the recipe, I have used 280g of blanched almond to bake 3 biscotti logs at 150°C fan forced for 35 mins, sliced the logs into 50 biscotti and baked them again 150°C fan forced for 10 to 12 mins.

Happy Baking

---
This post is linked to Cook like a Star, ALL Stars Anniversary organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Mich from Piece of Cake. 

Wanna cook or bake like Donna Hay, Barefoot Contessa, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef, Martha Stewart, Delia Smith, Curtis Stone, Nigella Lawson, Ree Drummond and Bill Granger? To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from their websites or cookbooks and link with us at this Zoe's, this Joyce's or this Mich's post for the whole of March and April 2014.

To use this linky tool, please make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post. (2) Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to us at Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Mich from Piece of Cake. Cheers!

For more details, please see this.

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their 5-stars cooking.