Thursday, December 13, 2012

Recipe: Cream Cheese Marbled Chocolate Brownies (Martha Stewart)

My family loves chocolate brownies very much. Brownies, however as we all know, is high in sugar content so we only have this as an occasional treat. Two very good brownie recipes that I usually use are Jamie Oliver's and Delia Smith's, which are plain chocolate ones with walnuts.

Martha Stewart's website has over 180 results for brownies alone, one that caught my eye was her recipe for cream cheese brownies. I love the pretty marble effects on the brownies. The brownies were moist, slightly crisp on top and the cream cheese adds a nice richness to it. However, chocolate is still the more prevalent flavour compared to the cream cheese. I gave some of these away as a gift to my relatives - one of them called me up the same night and asked when I was going to make her more. ;)

Cream cheese marbled chocolate brownies

The original recipe calls for a 9-inch square pan, but I used a 8-inch one since that's the one I have. Cooking time was 53 minutes for mine. Usually with the other two recipes, I bake the brownie for about 30 minutes, but this one had slightly more volume, hence I allowed it to bake to 45 minutes before I tested with a skewer to see if it was cooked.

As with many Martha Stewart recipes, the sugar content is quite high, I decided to reduce it from 1 1/2 cups (as asked for in original recipe) to 1 1/4 cups.


Looking pretty from all angles

This is a nice change from our usual brownies, a little more work though since there is the cream cheese mixture/layer involved. But it is definitely more pleasing to the eye and makes a lovely gift.



Marbled Cream Cheese Chocolate Brownies
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 50-60 minutes
Makes 16 (one 8x8 inch)

Ingredients
10 tbsp (141g) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz (220g) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 oz (110g) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
4 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C (no fan). Brush a 8-inch square baking pan with butter. Line bottom and two sides with a strip of baking paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside.

2. In a small bowl, sift 1 cup flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; mix well and set aside.

3. Place 8 tablespoons butter and chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth and melted, this will take about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove bowl from pan, then add 1 cup sugar and mix to combine. Add 3 eggs, and mix to combine. Add flour and cocoa mixture; mix just until moistened (as in all the flour is mixed into the chocolate-butter mixture, remember not to overmix).

4. Prepare the cream-cheese mixture. Using an electric mixer, whisk cream cheese with 2 tablespoons room-temperature butter until smooth. Whisk in 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour. 

5. Alternately spoon chocolate batter and cream-cheese mixture into prepared baking pan. Finally, using the tip of a paring knife, swirl to marble.



Swirl with the tip of a knife


6. Place in preheated oven and bake until a skewer/toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, this will take about 50 to 60 minutes (mine was ready in 53 minutes). The top (cream cheese) will be golden in colour.  

7. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper). On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares. You can serve the brownies with some vanilla ice-cream if you please, or it is good eaten on its own.




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I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Martha Stewart" bloghop which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Jocelyn of Riceball Eats. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Martha Stewart websites or cookbooks and blog hop with us for the whole month of December 2012.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in December 2012 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Jocelyn of Riceball Eats and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

You can get the HTML code here: get the InLinkz code (Click on the link, copy and paste the HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste in the code)

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 18 December 2012.

31 comments:

  1. oo... these are so addictive! I made batches before and most of them ended up in my tummy... lol....

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    1. Hehe your son didn't "fight" you for a piece or two? Usually I get max two pieces in my house! ;P

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  2. Your brownies look great! And with cream cheese, looks so yummy! It has been awhile since I last made any brownies and have been thinking about it lately! Haha! Yummy with a glass of cold milk!

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    1. True! Love brownies with cold milk ;) I just bought some more chocolate today..... feel like baking brownies again soon.

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  3. I declare this brownie as too pretty to eat!

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  4. Love the swirls... very pretty! I would love this brownie as its different from the normal ones.

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    1. Thanks Mich! It tastes pretty rich, we love it!

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  5. Hi Yen,

    Love the swirls of your brownies. They really look very pretty. Giving these as gifts? The lucky person must be very happy receiving these!

    Zoe

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    1. Brownies are one of those things which are easy to make, hard to get wrong, and almost everyone loves eating them!

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  6. ooo, i didn't know that martha has a sweet tooth. but ya, looking at your handiwork, i'm sure she would still give a very strong thumbs up to your brownies! :D

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    1. Thanks Sean! Whenever I browse her cake recipes I sometimes cringe esp when I see how much sugar there is in her frosting. But I'm sure it's very delicious.. just not for everyday consumption.

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  7. Interesting to put cream cheese with the brownies...but sounds like a winner! Impressed you sneaked them away as gifts with two hungry littleones in the household!

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    1. The key is not to let them see/know how much/big the original brownie looks like. Haha! Hide it or else they'll eat them all!

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  8. OOOOOOhhhhhh am drooling here. Looks so fudgy. Yummmm

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    1. Thanks Vimitha! Rich and fudgy, just the way we like them :)

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  9. Cream cheese and chocolate combo is just awesome :D These brownies certainly look delicious !

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  10. We love chocolate brownies, just had some good one today. :D

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  11. Perfect brownies...love the marbled effect

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  12. Very pretty swirls I like the little flowers too, perfect!

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  13. Not only these brownies sounds good with addition of cream cheese but looks great too with beautiful marbled effect! And look at how moist & rich these yummy treats, makes me drool! LOL Me & chocolate, it's love at the first TASTE! :p hahahahaha

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  14. I love cream cheese brownies! Yours look perfect and the swirl is very pretty as well. Yum!

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  15. Ur Brownies is so additive and if add on with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, it is heavenly!

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  16. Wow! Very pretty and looks delicious too! I love chocolates and cheese combinations very much...these are sinful!

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  17. I can see why you chose this out of the 180 recipes! :O They look delicious!

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  18. I love using Jamie's recipe as well!!! I tend to add peanut butter into my brownies but I could imagine that cream cheese would be fantastic too :D

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  19. I am very much happy if someone give me such a pretty gift like this Baby Sumo :) yum yum ^^

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  20. i know martha stewart has a long list of recipes in her blog but never realised that she has 180 brownies recipes ! wow, i must take a look later! YOur brownies are very nice, i once tried cream cheese in brownies too and i like that, i'm sure this recipe is just as nice, or maybe even better!

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  21. This is like the brownie top on cheesecake recipe that I usually made, anyway this look more beautiful with the marble effect.

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