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
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