Cream Cheese Brownies

About the recipe

The Homespun Cafe bakes these extremely moist brownies in large quantities with the cream cheese layer on top. After cutting down the recipe for one pan and trying a couple of batches, our tester said the layers seem to stay together and the brownies cut better when the cream cheese layer is on the bottom.

Serves: 18

Hands On Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Layer

1/3 cup granulated sugar

5 1/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup self-rising flour

1 teaspoon almond extract

Chocolate Layer

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2/3 cup self-rising flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13- by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the cream cheese layer: In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar, butter and egg. Stir in the cream cheese, flour and almond extract. Spread evenly in the prepared pan.

To make the chocolate layer: In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.. Cool slightly. Pour 5 1/2 tablespoons of the melted butter into a mixing bowl and leave the remaining 2 1/2 tablespoons in the saucepan. Add the chocolate morsels to the saucepan and return to low heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate melts.

Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar and eggs to the bowl with the melted butter. Mix well. Stir in the flour and vanilla. Pour in the melted chocolate mixture and mix well. Spread evenly on top of the cream cheese layer. Draw a knife through the pan to swirl batters.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack before cutting into bars and serving.