Nigella's Cream Cheese Brownies

This recipe is amazing and needs to be shared. It originally comes from Nigella's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' and I was first introduced to the recipe in Russia. Me and my boyfriend were staying with my Mum's cousin and one night this appeared. It was made with a Russian variant of cream cheese though and we had real trouble guessing what it was! It was simply fantastic though so I thought I'd give it a go. I've changed the recipe slightly... adding more chocolate to a Nigella recipe seems bonkers but hey ho. And I've also decided to make it gluten free, though you can just use normal flour if you wish. My friend Claire and I also tried these as cupcakes and although super yummy it was really difficult to get then out of the cupcake cases. So I would recommend using this as a tray bake.

You can leave out the cheese for an epic brownie recipe but I would really recommend trying it. It's a sort of chocolate cheesecake taste and you can put in as little (or as much!) as you like but give it a go!

Ingredients:

150g of Dark and Milk Chocolate (to taste)
125g Unsalted Butter
2 Eggs
200g of Golden Caster Sugar
75g of Gluten free Self-Raising Flour
250g of Chocolate chips or chunks (Cadbury's Giant Buttons work well!)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Pinch of salt

200g of Cold Cream Cheese

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°c or Gas Mark 4.
2. Melt the butter and the chocolate in a saucepan on a low heat and keep stirring to make sure it doesn't burn.
3. While that melts beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence together.
4. When the chocolate and butter has completely melted pour into the eggs and sugar.
5. Mix well before adding the flour.
6. Finally add the chocolate chips. (You could even save some to sprinkle on top.
7. Pour half the mixture in to a fully lined tray. Then slice the cream cheese thinly to cover the layer of brownie. Then add the rest of the mixture and be sure to make sure the cream cheese is covered.
8. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes and then leave to cool a bit before serving!

For the cupcake version put half the mixture in the cupcake cases then a dollop of cream cheese then cover with the mixture.

- Emma xxx