Madhu Knits and Cooks

Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

I've been looking for a recipe for cream cheese brownies for some time, but never have really invested my time to really find a good one.  Thankfully, my colleague Ian told me recently that his mom has a fantastic recipe for cream cheese brownies, so I just made my first batch for Christmas Eve at the office (yes, unfortunately the office was open on Christmas Eve).   Cheryl's (Ian's mom) recipe is below the picture of Ian with the brownies.

The only recommendation I have is to NOT use fat-free cream cheese (that's all I had in my fridge, so that's what I used -- but I think it can be much better with low-fat or original cream cheese).  I would also recommend you use electric mixers with the cream cheese blend so you get rid of all of the chunks.  You may also want to refridgerate the brownies after making them to make them more fudgy.

Ingredients:

One 8-oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature

1 and 1/3 cup sugar (keep the 1 cup and 1/3 cup seperate)

3 eggs

2 1-oz. squares of unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Blend cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 egg until well mixed, and then set aside.

3.  Melt chocolate and butter together.

4.  Beat 2 remaining eggs until fluffy, then pour chocolate mixture and add 1 cup sugar to the mixture and mix well.

5.  Combine dry ingredients and stir them in to chocolate mixture.

6.  Pour 1/2 chocolate mixture into a greased 8 x 8 inch pan.

7.  Add cream cheese mixture.

8.  Add remaining chocolate mixture in scoops, and then pull a knife or spatula through it to create marbled look (I did not create the marbled look with my brownies, but learned this technique from other recipes online).

9.  Bake 45 - 50 minutes.

Thanks Cheryl and Ian!

Phenomenal Chilled Artichoke Dip (and it's low fat!)

I first had this wonderful artichoke dip at Becky and Rob's home -- Becky is Andy's boss.   It's a chilled dip that has a lot of different flavors working together to make it completely irrestible.  Becky serves the dip in a bread bowl, and I did the same when I made it twice in one weekend -- using a fresh-baked french bread bowl from the local Dominicks.  I didn't cut into the bread too deep to make the bowl though because there is only about 1.5 cups of dip that this recipe makes.  The only modification to this recipe that I made is to add many more chopped green onions and use canned artichokies instead of frozen artichokes (couldn't find frozen artichokes at the store).  I highly recommend you try this dip -- it's fantastic!  And you won't feel guilty making it twice in one weekend before it's not bad for you at all.

The recipe was from the New American Heart Association Cookbook, and can be found online here.