What's Cooking Wednesday - Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

Ashely Eagan, the heroine of SAVING SCOTT is trying to open her new bakery. One of the major plot threads is a brownie bakeoff. Since Ashley spends a lot of time cooking in the book, I included a number of recipes of things she baked. And I recruited a lot of help with these recipes. The recipe for the grand prize winner of Ashley's bakeoff was provided by fellow author, blogger, and chocolate diva, Janet Rudolph, who gave me permission to share it here.

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

Janet Rudolph www.dyingforchocolate.com

Brownies
1/2 cup sweet butter, room temperature
4 ounces high quality dark chocolate (60-75% cacao, fair-trade), coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
Pinch of Salt
1/2 cup dark high quality dark chocolate (65-75% cacao, fair-trade), chopped into smallish chunks (or chocolate chips)

Cream Cheese Layer
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla extract
1 large egg


Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
1. Line 9 x 9 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil across the bottom and up two opposite sides of pan.
2. In top of double boiler, or saucepan over a saucepan of simmering water, melt butter with chocolate.
3. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each with a spoon.
5. Stir in flour and salt and beat until batter is smooth and glossy (about a minute).
6. Remove 1/2 cup of brownie batter and set aside.
7. Fold Chocolate Chunks into remainder of brownie batter.
8. Pour batter evenly into bottom of prepared pan.
9. Using mixer, whip cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla, and egg and process just until smooth.
10. Spread cream cheese mixture over brownie layer.
11. Spoon small clumps of reserved brownie batter on top of the cream cheese filling.
12. With knife, swirl two batters without mixing them (don’t overswirl).
13. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until brownies start to pull away from sides of pan and edges just begin to brown.
14. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.
15. Refrigerate brownies until firm enough to cut into squares (two hours).
16. Remove brownies from pan by lifting ends of aluminum foil and transfer to cutting board. Cut into squares.

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