I first heard of this Rachel Allen concoction through my colleague, Hannah.She brought a batch into work and as soon as I saw them, I swear I fell in love. The brownie mixture is poured into a baking dish as usual, just with the added cheesecake layer on top. You bake these two layers together, swirling the cheesecake in with the brownie for a pretty marbled effect just before you pop the dish in the oven. You can use any brownie recipe for this, but I chose to go with the extra gooey delights I showcased in this post.
Ingredients (Makes around 25)
For The Brownies
240g dark chocolate
240g baking spread
320g caster sugar
4 eggs
145g plain flour
A pinch of salt
A couple of drops of vanilla extract
100/150g milk or white chocolate (for chunks within the brownies)
For The Cheesecake
115g caster sugar
3 egg yolks
300g cream cheese
A drop of vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade and line a large baking dish. Break the chocolate into small squares and melt with the baking spread in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Once all melted and combined together, set aside and leave to cool slightly.
- In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla and mix well.
- Add the cooled chocolate to this mixture, mix, then sift in the flour. Make sure there are no lumps of flour and that everything is combined well.
- Break up the milk or white chocolate (whichever you prefer- I used a bit of both for the chocolate chunks) and scatter throughout the mixture. Give it a rough stir before pouring into a lined baking dish.
- In another bowl, beat the cream cheese so it’s soft before separating 3 eggs and adding the yolks to the cheese. Chuck in the sugar and beat together until it’s all combined. It will seem a bit runny in texture but this will become more firm in the oven.
- Pour the cheesecake mixture evenly over the brownie mixture, making sure the brownie is covered. Using a fork, gently swirl the prongs through both mixtures, allowing them to slightly run into each other for a marbled effect.
- Bake in the oven for between 30 and 40 minutes. After 30 minutes, pop a knife (or whatever you have available) into the middle of the mixture; if it comes out clean, take the brownies out, if it’s still runny, stick them back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes. If the cheesecake mixture looks like it’s going a bit too brown, place a sheet of tin foil over the dish to stop the top from burning.
- Once cooked, place on a cooling rack. Cut the brownies into squares (I make the squares quite small as these brownies can get sickly!) and serve cold or heated up with a scoop of ice-cream for an impressive dessert.
