Caramel Cheesecake Brownies

More caramel and cheesecake.  My friend was hosting a tea party for her birthday.  I love going to her house for tea parties because she has the nicest spreads, from the tea pots and saucers, to the white damask linens and tiered dessert stands.  And an abundance of cute food!  I wanted to contribute, and although I would normally bake a cake for a friend’s birthday, I thought that it would be too much for this party.   So I decided on brownies since they could be cut into small squares – perfect for a tea party.  This is the first time that I would make brownies (ever!) and I knew which recipe to try.  For a while now, I have been eyeing the Baked brownie (you know the one from Baked in NYC?) because it has been declared the best brownie of all time by numerous food bloggers.  But of course I wanted to change it up a bit, and so I thought I would incorporate cheesecake and caramel (it seems as though I have a thing for caramel and cheesecake lately) to make caramel cheesecake brownies!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Caramel Cheesecake Brownies

Makes a 9x9 inch square pan.

Caramel Cheesecake

Ingredients

4.5 oz caramel (19 squares of pre-made caramel)

8 oz cream cheese (1 block)

2 Tablespoon sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.    Melt caramel and a tablespoon of the cream cheese over simmering water.

2.    Beat the remaining cream cheese in another bowl over simmering water.

3.    Add the melted caramel to the cream cheese and beat until blended.

4.    Add sugar and beat.

5.    Add egg and vanilla and beat.

6.    Cool in refrigerator while you make the brownie batter.

*Note: I think it would’ve worked better if I had made a caramel sauce from scratch (like from this post) and added that to the cream cheese.  That way, there would have been no need to heat the cream cheese over simmering water.  But I was lazy, so I used the premade caramel squares.

Melting caramel.

Brownies from Baked

From here and here. I halved the recipe.

Ingredients

½ cup + 2 Tablespoon all purpose flour

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

5.5 oz dark chocolate, chopped

½ cup salted butter

½ teaspoon instant espresso powder

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

2 ½ eggs, room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking pan with parchment.

2.    In a bowl, mix flour and cocoa.

3.    In a large bowl, melt chocolate, butter, and espresso powder over simmering water.

4.    Turn off heat and mix in sugar.

5.    Add eggs and whisk.

6.    Add vanilla and mix

7.    Sprinkle four mixture and fold with spatula until just mixed.

Chocolate, butter, and espresso powder melting.

To bake:

8.    Pour ¾ of brownie mixture into the pan.

9.    Pour cheesecake mixture on top.

10. Pour the remaining brownie mixture on top and make swirls with a toothpick.

11. Bake for 45 min or until middle is firm when you shake the pan.

12. Cool completely in pan before cutting.

Bottom brownie layer.

Cheesecake layer.

Brownie batter on top and swirling.

After baking.

Verdict: These turned out great! They were a tad sweet, but brownies usually are.  I loved the chewiness and dark chocolatiness!