Creamcheese Layered Brownies

I’ve been craving brownies for a couple of weeks, particularly cream cheese brownies. Since I leave for my business trip on Monday, which means I’ll be out of the kitchen for 3 weeks, I figured I ought to get busy this weekend and make my brownies! I’m so glad I did because these were absolutely delicious!! They were incredibly moist and chocolately. I’m taking a couple with me on the plane. I love the distinct layer of cream cheese goodness, you of course could blend the two better by dipping your knife further into the mixture when creating the top swirl (i just ran the knife along the top surface).

And lucky for me, Myriam of Once Upon a Tart had to extend the deadline for this round of Browniebabe so this also serves as my entry for this month’s Browniebabe event. I’m looking forward to seeing all the other great brownie recipes!

Cream Cheese Layered Brownies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Cream Cheese Swirl
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.

Make Swirl: Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and 1 Tbsp butter in medium bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until well blended. Beat in egg, 1 Tbsp flour and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Set mixture aside.

Make Brownies: In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder.

Spread 2/3 of chocolate batter in prepared pan. Pour cream cheese mixture evenly over chocolate batter. Spoon remaining chocolate batter over top of cream cheese mixture. Using tip of knife, gently swirl through batter, forming marble design. Bake brownies until tester inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 minutes. Cool brownies in pan on rack. Cut into squares.

Source: Adapted from Allrecipes.com