outrageous cream cheese brownies

I don't have much to say about this recipe except that people will rave over them if you make them! They are absolutely delicious, and once you look at the ingredients (i.e. amount of butter!), you will see why. If you do not want to make the brownie part from scratch, I'm sure that boxed brownie mix would be fine. These are a great alternative to regular old brownies that people always enjoy but get a little bored with.
No picture, because I haven't made them recently, but please try them-you will not be disappointed!

Recipe taken from Maria Francis, St. Paul’s at Home Cookbook


I N G R E D I E N T S :

Chocolate Mixture:
1 ½c. flour
1 ½t. baking powder
½t. salt
2sticks butter
2(12 oz) pkg. semisweet chocolate chips
5 eggs
1 ¼c. sugar
1 ½c. brown sugar
1T. vanilla

Cream Cheese Mixture:

16ounces cream cheese
1stick butter
2t. vanilla
1c. sugar
4eggs

D I R E C T I O N S :
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. Melt butter, add chocolate chips, and stir until melted and smooth. In a large bowl beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla only until mixed. Beat in the melted chocolate mixture and then the dry ingredients, scraping the bowl and beating just to incorporate. (OR, skip above steps and prepare store-bought brownie mix according to the directions).

Remove and set aside 2 ¼ cups of the batter. Spread the remaining batter in a foil-lined, greased 9×13-inch pan.

Beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla, sugar, and eggs, beating until smooth. Pour the cheese mixture over the chocolate mixture, spreading to the edges of the pan.

Stir the remaining chocolate mixture to soften. Spoon in globs over the cheese mixture-it will be hard to spread. The chocolate layer does not have to cover all the cheese mixture. With a table knife, cut through the top chocolate layer into the cheese layer in a zigzag pattern to marbleize slightly. Bake at 350 degrees about 1 hour and 20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out almost clean (when I baked them, it took slightly longer). When cool, lift from pan with foil and cut into 32 brownies.

I recommend this method of lining the pan with foil for all bar cookies. It’s so much easier and neater to lift them out of the pan and cut them on a cutting board. Try these brownies, too-I guarantee they will impress the most serious brownie connoisseur. Leftovers freeze well.