Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Cream Cheese Marbled Brownies

Life is more or less back to routine, after a host of holidays, like Chinese New Year, Christmas, etc. Gosh, and it's nearly the end of March. So, with routine-ness, comes Tuesday night family dinners, my ready catchment of guinea pigs for new dessert experiments, as my sister and her family come over for dinner. Her children eat like birds, (and I don't mean the big birds like eagles, who eat whole rabbits....those are MY children), so getting them to try my baking is like a feat worthy of popping a bottle of Dom Perignon.

Anyway, Tuesdays are also gym days, more or less etched in stone. So, for dessert, either I make something that requires chilling overnight, in which case I'd have made it on Monday, OR, a quickie, like last week's Mint Choc Squares. Since that turned out so well, I thought I'd take another page out of the Golden Chocolate Book, and try these babies.

Pic taken from Golden Chocolate Book, by Page One

The above picture is actually from the book, obviously. Looks too perfect to be something I'd done.

Anyway, the reason why I chose this recipe is
1. It had all my favourite ingredients, cream cheese, chocolate, and orange
2. It looked quick enough to make

Here's the recipe:

Cream Cheese Filling
250gm cream cheese
1/4 cup castor sugar
zest of one orange
juice from the same orange
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 egg

1. Basically, either blitz the cheese and sugar until creamy, and add in the remaining stuff until it forms a nice smooth batter like consistency OR
2. Use a mixer to do the above.
3. Set aside

Chocolate Mixture
250gm chocolate (I mix 100gm bittersweet + 150 gm normal premium cooking)
60 gm butter
3/4 cup sugar (or less)
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs + 2 tablespoons cold water
2 teaspoons vanilla essence (or extract, if you have the budget)

1. Melt the chocolate with the butter.
2. After it's cooled a bit, add in the remaining stuff and stir. Yes, it's that simple.
3. Pour batter into a 8" square pan, (lined, of course).
4. Add in the cream cheese mixture in dollops, and use either a skewer or fork or palette knife to give it the swirly marbly effect.
5. Bake in 180C oven for 35-40 minutes. (although book said 25-30 minutes, at 25 minutes the entire thing was still wobbly)

Serve with pouring cream, or vanilla ice cream. Warm.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Verdict: The brownies were absolutely scrumptious. The texture of the chocolate part was dense and chocolatey, almost gooey, and the cream cheese with the lovely orange tang complemented the chocolate very well. The pouring cream neutralises any cloying sweetness that might or might not attack your palate, depending on your sugar tolerance. If you're drinking teh tarik a the mamak everyday, you probably won't find it sweet enough.

Sister who hesitantly took half a square did end up with seconds. We all agreed it would have gone jolly well with a cup of coffee, but since we didn't have decaf on hand, none of us were willing to risk a sleepless night for the sake of our palates.

Below is the picture of what the previous post mint squares are supposed to look like, in the book. That's where I got the stacking idea, but obviously, mine was tilting like the water tower in Teluk Intan (or if there are any foreign readers, for their benefit, the Leaning Tower of Pisa)


Pic taken from Golden Chocolate Book, by Page One

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dunno, FBB... methinks your Tilting Water Tower of Teluk Intan in the previous post is a more magnificent Wonder of Baking leh... More natural and less studio-shopped, yes?

By the way, I'm pretty sure I'm putting on pounds just staring at your brownies... (Not that I mind, I can sure do with an extra kilo or ten...)

Anonymous said...

So ngam! I was just looking at another Cream Cheese Brownie recipe and contemplating whether to make that or a normal cheesecake! Yours seem more interesting with the addition of orange. I'll do yours instead! :)

In case you're interested, I finally did that 5 thingy tag you gave me so many many moons ago!! :D

Anonymous said...

Had the book but was unconvinced to do the baking. Soon after you posted the shots of those pretty lucsious brownies, I am so desperate into baking em now. Yum!

HairyBerry said...

for a moment, i thought you are making a dessert with Dom Perignon..hehe

brownies to me are usually hard and dry but yours look lusciously moist..perhaps the cheese in all its greasy glory does make a difference...

fatboybakes said...

nic, i'm glad mine looks lusciously moist, ...i dunno what other kind you've been having. haha.

michelle, that book has great recipes!!! i hope to try one new one every week for the next few weeks.

kat, many moons ago is an understatement. if i were pregnant when i sent you that tag, the kid would be teething by now.

kenny mah, thanks, you're too kind. oh, if you can put on weight like that (by watching), i also must watch some les mills dvds so i can lose weight lar hor....

Argus Lou said...

Ha ha, I loved your Leaning Tower of Mint Squares. Now I want to make my own tower too -- OK, one fine day -- and use that pretty ribbon idea, if I may. (I can just cut a strip from a paper napkin, right?)

fatboybakes said...

argus, of course you may. yar, i thought the way it was done in the book was quite nice...who'd have thought it requires a civil engineering degree (which i have, but useless) to make a straight tower of choc mint squares.

Anonymous said...

hello my friend gave me ur link yesterday and im going to make this yummy looking brownie now but im wondering, is the baking powder missing fr the recipe? im quite noob at baking =p so pls dont mind me it's just that im seeing baking powder as one of the ingredient in most of the other brownie recipe..

fatboybakes said...

hi ivy, yup, no baking powder. even in my other brownie recipe, the orange mocha brownie, no baking powder. afterall, you dont expect your brownies to rise like cakes. thanks for dropping by. hope your attempt works out. its a rather yummy end product.

Anonymous said...

FBB, I thought this recipe looked so easy... but I totally screwed something up. How much "juice of same orange" actually goes into the cream cheese batter? Just a little bit? Or do I perhaps have humongous mutant oranges in switzerland? (I used all the juice) I baked it for over an hour before it set and the resulting "brownie" looked more like a baked swirly cheesecake with some chocolate... only softer (in texture) and much harder to eat.

fatboybakes said...

hi bell, our oranges are sunkist size, and ya, i must have put all the juice in, to have gotten a batter like consistency. (same as cheese cake, more or less. wonder what went wrong. did the chocolate bit set?

Anonymous said...

FBB, my cream cheese and chocolate brownie-cake is edible... the chocolate part did set, and it's moist but has no brownie-like qualities whatsoever. Still tasty... but I'll hold back a little on the orange next time and see if I have something that more closely resembles a brownie. ^_^ thanks for the feedback though!

Anonymous said...

Hi hello, I was directed to your blog from awhiffoflemongrass. I tried this particular recipe because your brownies just look so darn scrumptious. But mine failed quite badly. For some reason, the cream cheese didn't manage to sink into the brownie mixture, and ending up floating on the top. Was my brownie mixture too heavy and my cream cheese mixture too watery? The brownies ended up being plain brownies with no hint of cheese. Thanks for the advice!

fatboybakes said...

hi debbie, i am not sure why your attempt didnt work. yeah, maybe your cheese mixture might have been too watery, but even so, how could there be no hint of cheese? try cutting down on the orange juice the next time. and you got to marble it into the brownie mixture, boldly.