Sometimes you happen upon a recipe that looks so utterly delicious, you have no other choice than to roll up your sleeves, head over to your kitchen and get to work. In my case there’s also a little camera action thrown in, making it slightly more difficult at times. Pity me. That’s how it was when I happened upon this Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies recipe. Saw them in a magazine (Delicious), coveted them, whipped them up and ate way too much of them.

Goodness gracious! If ever a brownie tasted like a little bite of heaven; it’s this one. Pure chocolaty bliss. I expect professions of love after sharing this recipe, you hear me!

 

Ingredients:

1 cup sieved flour
2 cups sugar
7 oz butter
7 oz dark chocolate
5 oz raspberries
14 oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 eggs

 

Directions:

Only a few ingredients, really. Start by cutting up 7 oz of butter, and let it soften on your kitchen counter.

 

What also has to come to room temperature is 14 oz of cream cheese.

 

I’ve broken 7 oz dark chocolate in little pieces. We’ll be melting the chocolate in a little while. Don’t worry; I’ll say when!

 

We’ll also be using 2 cups of simple, granulated sugar. Keep both cups separated, though. You can measure things as you go—I prefer to keep the ingredients nearby, so I measure in advance.

 

1 cup all-purpose flour. Run it through a sieve. Always sieve your flour when baking.

 

The recipe calls for 5 eggs. Use room temperature eggs when you’re baking! It’ll prevent lots of possible problems.

 

You can definitely use fresh raspberries, but frozen berries work just fine. Perhaps even better. I prefer working with frozen berries; they’re less delicate and we’ll be pushing and shoving them around quite a bit.

 

Butter a 8″x 12″ square baking tray (20 x 30cm). Line it with baking paper. Mine was almost square! :)

 

Break out your hand-mixer. Or use your kitchenaid. Whisk the softened butter with 1 cup of sugar until slightly fluffy.

 

Now for a little egg action. Add 3 eggs; one at a time. Do not add the next egg until the previous one has completely blended in.

 

When! This is your cue to melt the chocolate. Melt the chocolate anyway you like (au bain marie or microwave), and let it cool off a bit so we won’t end up with scrambled eggs. You want to lick the fork, don’t you?

 

Pour the chocolate in with the butter, sugar and egg mix.

 

Stir it in. Add the sieved flour and carefully fold it in. There’s your brownie mix.

 

Put the cream cheese in a big bowl, add the 2 leftover eggs, 1 cup of sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Whisk until it’s a smooth, creamy mixture.

 

Spread 2/3 of the chocolate mix on the bottom of your baking tray.

 

Pour the cream cheese on top and spread it out evenly. Now ‘drop’ little pieces of chocolate mix on top of the cream cheese. Lightly work it in with a fork—like you’re marbling a cake.

 

I’m not a star at this. See!

 

But that’s okay. I’m adding some gorgeous raspberries. They’ll distract you from my horrible baking skills and complete lack of creativity. Just push the raspberries into the cream cheese. It does work best if they’re still slightly frozen.

 

Bake at 350F (175C) for 40 to 45 minutes. Until the cake feels set when gently touched in the center. Let the brownies cool off completely; preferably overnight, before cutting them in squares.

These are crazy good! That means a lot, coming from someone with practically no sweet tooth. There’s a perfect balance between the density of the chocolate brownie layer, the creamy and fluffy cheesecake against the freshness and delicate sweetness of the raspberries. You really have to give them a try sometime!

 

Kay’s Recipe Card

Click here for printable size.