Recipe Thursday!(Cream Cheese Brownies) Please Support Cookies for Kids Cancer!

This is a recipe that comes from somewhere very near and dear to my heart. My pseudo room-mate works for OXO which is a fantastic housewares company that any cook should be familiar with! Recently the OXO family suffered a tragic loss, two of their employee's lost a child to cancer. From this terrible tragedy rose a fantastic charity. Cookies for Kids Cancer was created by Liam's parents in order to raise money to find a cure for this terrible disease.  I have been involved in a couple of their bake sales and it warms my heart to see so many people come together for such a fantastic cause! They recently came out with a cook book, the proceeds from which go directly to the charity. So this recipe is a sneak peek inside this wonderful book, which will not only put lots of wonderful desserts on your table, but there could not be a better cause to support! So please go buy the cook book here!!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

Ingredients:

(For Cream Cheese Layer)

8 oz cream cheese, at room temp.

2 large egg yolks, at room temp

1/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

(For Brownies)

1 stick and 2 tbsp unsalted butter

10 oz semi chocolate chips

4 large eggs at room temp

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 cup choclate chips(optional)

1 cup pecans(optional

Directions:

-Preheat Oven to 325- Lightly butter 9x13 pan and line with parchment paper, allow enough over hang to lift brownies once done!

-To make cream cheese layer: Place cream cheese in bowl of mixer fitted with a paddle and beat until smooth- add egg yolk, flour, sugar, and vanilla- beating well after each addition, set aside!

-To make brownie Layer: place butter and chocolate in small sauce pan over low heat or double boiler. stir until melted and combined- set aside to cool to room temp

-Place eggs and sugar in bowl and mix with paddle attachment until lemon coloured and thick- add the cooled chocolate and vanilla, beat until well combined- 

-Place flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl and whisk together

-Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture and combine thoroughly. At this time add extra chocolate chips if desired

- Place half of chocolate mixture in the prepared pan- then dollop cream cheese mixture over it- it does not need to cover chocolate layer entirely. Top with remaining chocolate mixture. Take a table knife and gently drag east to west and north to south. This will create a checker board pattern, do not allow mixture to combine too much! Now you may sprinkle with nuts if desired. 

-Bake until the sides are done but not the top/middle, if you wait until you can pull a clean fork from the middle they will be dry! Should take about 25-30 minutes!

This recipe seems involved but it is really pretty easy, and the outcome is divine! It took closer to 40 minutes in my oven, but my tiny NYC oven tends to cook slowly! I waited until the edges looked done, and they came out perfect! The flavour was fantastic! Sweet, creamy, and a hint of salt, absolutely fantastic! So please support this wonderful cause! I am sure all the recipes in the book are as great as this one, and that makes it worth every penny!