Better Cream Cheese Brownies
Everyone loves a rich brownie. Tangy cheesecake is a slam dunk. It’s too bad that when
they’re combined, you wind up with a cheesy center and watered-down chocolate.
I wondered if another variety of chocolate would be a better choice. I made three
pans of brownies, comparing batches
made with cocoa powder and bittersweet
chocolate with my working recipe. The
two made with bittersweet chocolate
definitely weren’t bitter but they also
lacked the assertive chocolate punch that
my brownies needed for contrast with
the cream cheese swirl. Cocoa powder
produced a flat chocolate flavor and
also went too far texturally, making the
brownies way too dry. I thought briefly
about reexamining the combination of
bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate
from my initial test, but buying two bars
of chocolate only to use 2 ounces from
each seemed beyond the pale. My best
approach turned out to be simple: I stuck
with the 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate for depth of flavor and increased the
sugar from 1 cup to 1¼ cups to tame the
bitterness. A teaspoon of vanilla extract
helped round out the flavors.
hough I love the idea of cream
cheese brownies, every one
I’ve encountered has had serious flaws. In some, the cream
cheese swirl is chalky and flavorless,
overwhelmed by the chocolate brownie.
In others, the cream cheese is properly
creamy and moist but the brownie portion is wet and dense. And often the swirl
is so uneven, one bite is all cream cheese
and the next is all chocolate. No wonder
I’ve always just stuck with a standardissue brownie.
Still, the potential nagged at me: In
one dessert, I could have moist, chocolaty richness balanced by a tangy, creamy
cheesecake-like swirl. For a cream cheese
brownie that lived up to that ideal, the key
would be to develop a brownie batter and
a cream cheese swirl that worked with, not
against, each other.
Moisture Management
For my ideal moist, chocolaty brownie
component, I started with a test kitchen
recipe that relies on a combination of
Giving the Swirl a Whirl
2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate and Unsweetened chocolate gives the brownie portion bold chocolate flavor,
With the brownie portion where I wanted
4 ounces of bittersweet for deep and com- while sour cream bolsters the tang in the cream cheese swirl.
it, I moved on to the cream cheese swirl.
plex chocolate flavor, plus just ¾ cup of
Its texture was spot-on—perfectly creamy
This was a definite step in the right direction, but and not at all chalky—but the flavor was wan and it
flour and 1 cup of sugar—enough to tame any bitterness without making the dessert candy-like. As for the brownies were still baking up too wet, and the got lost in the rich chocolate. Cutting the sugar in
the cream cheese portion, recipes I’d found called for chocolate flavor was a bit muted. Dropping the cream the swirl mixture in half, down from ¼ cup to just 2
anywhere from 8 to 16 ounces of cream cheese, so cheese down to 8 ounces helped with the moisture tablespoons, allowed the swirl’s dairy profile to come
I split the difference, mixing 12 ounces of softened issue and also moved the chocolate flavor more to the out a bit more, but it needed more tang. Adding
cream cheese with ¼ cup of granulated sugar and an front—but not enough. When I upped the unsweet- lemon juice made it more tart than tangy, so I tried
egg (for both moisture and structure). I spread the ened chocolate from 3 to 4 ounces, the brownies were substituting increasing amounts of sour cream for a
brownie batter in the pan, dropped spoonfuls of the more chocolaty, but they also turned overly bitter.
portion of the cream cheese. I could tell I was on
cream cheese mixture on top, and then swirled them
together with a knife and baked it off.
Why the Swirling Technique Matters
Once cooled and cut, my brownies revealed a
problem common to so many of the bad versions
I’d tried: They were too wet. The cream cheese
swirl was leaching liquid into the brownie portion.
I needed to start with a cakier style of brownie so
that once the brownies absorbed moisture from the
cream cheese swirl, they would land just where I
wanted them. So I switched to another test kitchen
recipe, one that delivers cakier brownies by using
proportionally more flour and less chocolate (just
cream cheese collapse
Swirled champion
3 ounces of unsweetened), as well as a little baking
Most cream cheese brownies suffer from a wet center
Our version is well-balanced and fudgy
powder for lift.
weighed down by too much cream cheese.
through and through.
cook’s
Cream Cheese Brownies Layout.indd 24
photography: CArl Tremblay
T
j by sarah mullins k
illustrated
24
4/21/14 10:01 AM
Dollop Brownie batter,
not cream cheese
Ta s t i n g Artisanal Cream Cheese
By rethinking the standard swirling process, we
get a ­perfectly marbled brownie that bakes evenly
from edge to center.
1. SPREAD CREAM CHEESE mixture
OVER BROWNIE BASE Evenly spreading the cream cheese mixture prevents it from weighing down the brownie base.
photography: CArl Tremblay
2. warm reserved brownie ­batter,
and then Dollop and swirl Top with spoonfuls of reserved brownie batter—
microwaved for a few seconds to make it more
fluid and easier to work with—before swirling
with a knife.
the right track, and eventually I settled on ½ cup of
sour cream with 4 ounces of cream cheese. This gave
the swirl enough refreshing tanginess to stand out
against the chocolate (any more and it tasted sour).
Of course, adding sour cream had reintroduced an
old enemy: moisture. So I took out the egg and
added 1 tablespoon of flour to return the body that
the mixture had just lost. (The flour also helped
absorb a tad more moisture.)
Finally, I was getting really close to my ideal—the
two batters had the right texture and flavor—but
the cream cheese swirl wasn’t evenly distributed. It
was more concentrated toward the center, which
meant that almost every brownie had either too
little or too much of the cream cheese. And beyond
the aesthetics, this was causing structural problems.
The brownies were sinking in the center because of
the heavier, moister cream cheese batter, while the
edges where the brownie batter dominated were
puffed and overly dry. The cause, I realized, was my
swirling approach—spreading the brownie batter in
the pan, dolloping the cream cheese mixture on top,
and then swirling them together. Only wisps of the
swirl were getting to the very edges.
For my next test, I spread most but not all of the
brownie batter evenly in the pan, and then topped
it with the cream cheese mixture, this time spreading it into an even layer all the way to the edges
of the pan. Then I dolloped the small amount of
remaining brownie batter (microwaved briefly to
loosen it up) on top and swirled it together with a
knife. These brownies not only had a more evenly
distributed layer of the cream cheese filling but also
baked more evenly. My final tweak was to lower the
oven temperature from 350 to 325 degrees, allowing the brownies to bake more slowly and gently to
guarantee that the edges wouldn’t dry out by the
time the center had cooked through.
Finally I had a moist, chocolaty brownie with
a rich, tangy cheesecake swirl—and now, old-­
fashioned brownies seemed a bit boring.
Cream Cheese Brownies
Makes sixteen 2-inch brownies
To accurately test the doneness of the brownies, be
sure to stick the toothpick into the brownie portion,
not the cream cheese. Leftover brownies should be
stored in the refrigerator. Let leftovers stand at room
temperature for 1 hour before serving.
Cream Cheese Filling
4
½
2
1
ounces cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
cup sour cream
tablespoons sugar
tablespoon all-purpose flour
Brownie Batter
⅔ cup (3⅓ ounces) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1¼ cups (8¾ ounces) sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. For the CREAM CHEESE Filling:
Microwave cream cheese until soft, 20 to 30 seconds. Add sour cream, sugar, and flour and whisk
to combine. Set aside.
2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat
oven to 325 degrees. Make foil sling for 8-inch
square baking pan by folding 2 long sheets of aluminum foil so each is 8 inches wide. Lay sheets of foil in
pan perpendicular to each other, with extra foil hanging over edges of pan. Push foil into corners and up
sides of pan, smoothing foil flush to pan. Grease foil.
3. For the Brownie Batter: Whisk
flour, baking powder, and salt together in bowl and
set aside. Microwave chocolate and butter in bowl at
50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted,
1 to 2 minutes.
july
Cream Cheese Brownies Layout.indd 25
&
august
25
To find out if a small-batch approach could take
this supermarket staple to the next level, we
mail-ordered three tubs of handmade cream
cheese, from Vermont, Michigan, and Virginia.
When tasted plain, all three won over tasters,
who singled out strong notes of herbs, fresh
milk, radishes, and butter. When it came to
smearing the cream cheese on bagels, two of
the small-batch samples were favored over the
familiar tacky, dense texture of our supermarket
favorite from Kraft Philadelphia Brand for their
lighter consistency. In baked applications, the lack
of stabilizers was problematic when the cream
cheese was the primary ingredient. Excess moisture sank to the bottom of cheesecake, while
cream cheese frosting looked curdled. However,
as a secondary ingredient in our Cream Cheese
Brownies, all three artisanal cream cheeses
excelled, even beating out our favorite supermarket brand. For complete tasting results, go to
CooksIllustrated.com/aug14. –Kate Shannon
Cream of Cream Cheese Crop
Zingerman’s Creamery
Fresh Cream Cheese
Price: $15 for 1-lb tub
Comments: This cheese
won top marks for
being supercreamy and
smooth, with “impressive
depth of flavor.”
4. Whisk sugar, eggs, and vanilla together in
medium bowl. Add melted chocolate mixture (do
not clean bowl) and whisk until incorporated. Add
flour mixture and fold to combine.
5. Transfer ½ cup batter to bowl used to melt
chocolate. Spread remaining batter in prepared pan.
Spread cream cheese filling evenly over batter.
6. Microwave bowl of reserved batter until warm
and pourable, 10 to 20 seconds. Using spoon, dollop softened batter over cream cheese filling, 6 to
8 dollops. Using knife, swirl batter through cream
cheese filling, making marbled pattern, 10 to 12
strokes, leaving ½-inch border around edges.
7. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes
out with few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Let cool
in pan on wire rack for 1 hour.
8. Using foil overhang, lift brownies out of pan.
Return brownies to wire rack and let cool completely,
about 1 hour. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.
Look: Sarah Bakes Brownies
Video available free for 4 months
at CooksIllustrated.com/aug14
2014
5/6/14 9:26 AM