Sourdough Surprises May: Coffee Cheesecake Brownies

I didn't make pasta with Sourdough Surprises last month because I was in a funk and also, I am not the biggest user of pasta. When the announcement for this month was posted, I may or may not have done a little dance. Make brownies? Oh twist my arm, won't you? I actually had a brownie recipe bookmarked that I wanted to make the next time that I felt like making brownies but as I sat down to plan one night, that brownie just seemed plain boring. Suddenly, I had three new possibilities and had no idea which to choose - salted caramel brownies, cheesecake brownies or Oreo truffle brownies. I know myself well enough to know that I would have spent a whole week trying to decide and then probably choose a fourth so I emailed my friends and asked them to vote.

Cheesecake brownies won.

 As I type this, I am experiencing a chocolate high. They were so unbelievably good. I once described Starbucks' Java Chip ice cream as orgasmic and these are almost at that level. This simply means that I need to make ice cream this week and crumble some brownies into it. 

 You can't taste the sourdough. There may be a hint of it but I used dark chocolate so it's really hard to tell. I wanted these to look more like Joy of Baking's with a distinctive cheesecake layer but my pan is 20% larger than the 8" x 8" she used and  I didn't feel like adjusting the recipe. Despite that, I am so so happy with the way they turned out and am grudgingly sharing these brownies. Seriously. Why did someone else have to be in the kitchen while I baked? I could have squirreled these away and ate my brownies all myself. 

The recipe is below and be sure to scroll down for the linky for others who baked yummy brownies this month!

Sourdough Coffee Cheesecake Brownies

Sourdough Coffee Cheesecake Brownies 

Adapted from Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownies and Joy of Baking's Cream Cheese Brownies 

Ingredients

Brownie Layer

1/2 cup butter or margarine

10 tablespoons dark cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/2 cup fed 100% sourdough starter

1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cheesecake Layer

8 oz cream cheese

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 egg

Preheat oven to 325 F. Prepare an 8" x 8" pan by lining it with parchment or foil overhanging so that you can lift the brownies easily out of the pan. I used a perfect brownie pan and didn't need to do that. 

Add butter (or margarine), sugar and cocoa to a heat proof bowl and place over simmering pot of water. Alternatively, you could add them all to a large pot and turn down the heat - that's what I did. Stir as butter melts. After butter is melted and mixture is combined, leave to cool.

Beat cream cheese until fluffy then add sugar and mix thoroughly. Next add coffee, vanilla and egg and mixed until combined. 

Once chocolate mixture is cool enough to not curdle eggs, stir in one egg at a time until thoroughly combined then stir in vanilla. Add starter, flour and salt and fold carefully until just combined. Do not over-mix. Joy of Baking suggests 40 strokes. My batter was combined in less than that. 

Pour brownie batter into the prepared 8" x 8" pan. Reserve scant half cup of the batter. Carefully pour the cheesecake batter over the top of the brownie layer. Smooth over with a spatula. If it's not perfect, don't stress it. Dollop the reserved brownie batter over the cheesecake layer and use a skewer or knife to swirl the brownie dollops through the cheesecake layer. 

Bake for 25 to 30 mins.  Cool for an hour then place in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Slice. Eat. Enjoy!