Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

Rich, Chocolatey, Fudgy...with a Cheesecake Swirl!

Yesterday was a fun day baking with my granddaughter, Sarah. Two of her favorite desserts are brownies and cheesecake, so we decided to combine the two and were thrilled with the outcome! 

Now, I've made German Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies for years, but they do have a distinctive taste from the sweet chocolate and almond flavor...which I never complained about because I love almond! And it's hard to find someone who doesn't like sweet chocolate, right? 

Anyway, I saw many recipes for these brownies, but I already had our favorite brownie recipe, so decided to go with it. There's always safety in what you already know is the best! Haha! 

(Full disclosure) I put Sarah in charge of the cream cheese filling. She does a great job helping me, but kind of lost control of the hand mixer and ended up with an extra chore...cleaning cream cheese mixture off of a lot of the kitchen. LOL! We lost about on third of it, but kept going...after we finally stopped laughing! The good news is that the brownies were still delicious and you could taste the yummy cream cheese in every bite! 

Cream Cheese Filling: 

Ingredients: 

8 oz. cream cheese 

4 Tbsp. butter 

1/2 cup sugar 

2 eggs 

2 Tbsp. flour 

1 tsp. vanilla 

Cream 4 Tbsp. butter with cream cheese in small bowl. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, cream until fluffy. Blend in 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp. flour and 1 tsp. vanilla; set aside. 

Brownie Batter: 

Ingredients:

1 cup butter 

2 cups granulated sugar 

4 eggs 

2 tsp. vanilla extract 

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

1 cup flour 

1/2 tsp. salt 

1/2 tsp. baking powder 

Preheat oven to 350'F. Grease a 9x13 pan. Melt butter. Remove from heat and add ingredients in the order listed, stirring carefully by hand, just until all ingredients are blended. Do not over-stir or brownies will get tough. 

Spread 1/2 chocolate batter in greased 9x13" pan. Top with cream cheese mixture, and carefully spread over chocolate. Spoon the rest of the chocolate batter all over top. Zigzag a knife through batter for marble effect. (You can sprinkle the top with Chocolate Chip Morsels if you'd like.)

Bake at 350'F for 30-35 minutes. 

A Tip from Grammy: 

1.) If you want those wonderful clean edges, use a plastic knife to cut them (best brownie trick ever). 

2.)You can keep these cream cheese brownies on the counter for a couple of days, then in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week. They are delicious chilled or at room temperature.

Be encouraged! 

"Faith is not believing that God can, it's knowing that He will!"