These brownies were long overdue by the time I made them this morning. I had originally intended to make them last Thursday but fate conspired against me. Instead of enjoying some delicious brownies, I found myself in bed with a nasty stomach bug. My tummy was still a bit too delicate last weekend to contemplate eating something as rich as these. And so it is only now that I am getting around to sharing this recipe with you.

I was craving brownies because I have done a fair bit of cake baking recently and I wanted some variety. However, I always like to try new things on this blog so I settled on a variation of my favourite brownie. I decided to make cream cheese brownies and then opted to make them even a bit more special by making them coffee cream cheese brownies. The cheesecake mixture has a few teaspoons of instant coffee dissolved into it.

I had one of these when it was still warm from the oven. O my goodness! I don’t think I have ever tasted a smoother, fudgier brownie — and I have tasted a lot of brownies over the years. The coffee flavour was nicely present and noticeable, without being over powering. It added a nice “grown-up” touch to what is generally a wickedly unsophisticated concoction of butter and chocolate. The texture is what is the best thing about these brownies though – I can’t get over how delicious the creamy cheesecake is with the fudgieness of the brownies. I can only recommend that you try out this recipe and judge for yourself!

Happy baking!

Coffee Cream Cheese Brownies

Brownie Ingredients

• 200g 70% dark chocolate, broken up into small pieces
• 125 unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs
• 200g white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 100g plain/all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Coffee Cream Cheese Mixture Ingredients

• 250g full fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 65g white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 1-2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1-2 tbsp hot water (to taste)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 175C/350F. Butter an 8″ square baking tin and line it with baking parchment (the butter helps it stick to the bottom of the pan). Set aside.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a microwave safe bowl, heating in 20 second intervals and stirring well after each time until completely melted. Set asdie.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla with a wire whisk until the mixture can easily coat the back of a spoon. Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and slowly fold together. The mixture should become very thick and glossy.
4. Sift the flour and salt into the chocolate mixture and mix until just combined. Set aside.
5. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat the cream cheese until softened. Add the sugar, egg, vanilla and dissolved coffee and mix until just combined.
6. Evenly spread around 3/4 of the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the brownie base. Then spoon dollops of the remaining brownie batter over the coffee mixture and gently swirl through with a knife. I found this a bit trickly to get the effect I wanted and in the future I may forget the marbling and just have a layer of brownie and a layer of cheesecake on top.
7. Bake in preheated oven 25-30 minutes until the cheesecake layer has set and a toothpick inserted into the brownie comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Let cool completely before cutting up in the squares. Keep refrigerated.