Fudgy Oreo Cheesecake Brownies

When I first started sharing recipes here I didn’t know that it would begin “to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature”. Didn’t know you were going to get a little Hamlet with your brownies, did you? But it is so, so true. Because I’m not a “professional content creator” (meant more in the manner of air quotes than it being an additional, actual quote from Shakespeare) it becomes very easy for me to spot the patterns in my day to day cooking and, wow…..hmmmm sometimes, man. Just. You learn so much about yourself. Content creators are looking to make the most photogenic things that use novel ingredients or techniques. I’m just trying to get dinner on the table and have some nice things around the house to eat when someone needs a tea break. My kitchen runs on repeat more often than not and the longer I document what that looks like, the more I see my nature.

To wit: these brownies are great, I like them very much (and the Oreos give them a birthday party at the roller rink feel) but, realistically, they are a bar version of the cupcakes my mom always used to make. As I pulled these brownies out of the oven the connection smacked me in the face with the rich chocolatey smell that used to bring me immediately to the kitchen from my bedroom no matter what I’d been doing there. Bang. I was ten years old, abandoning Anne of Green Gables on my bed for my favorite cupcakes. To be honest, it was such an intense feeling I was caught off guard. It was like when Erin McDowell cried when she made fried chicken because it reminded her of her grandma’s fried chicken. Didn’t think you were going to get some intergenerational food nostalgia with your brownies, either, did you?

For real, though. The mirror of these brownies makes me a very middle aged woman who subconsciously recreates the same things I liked when I was ten. Which is about the most human thing a person could do, actually. Food is a time machine. It takes us back to places and people we love. That is such a beautiful thing. My guess is that most home kitchens are the same. We make the things we love because they were originally made by people who loved us. Sometimes they look like a cupcake, sometimes they look like a bar with Oreo cookies. In either case, they’re nourishing on a whole other level and that’s the best kind of food.

Baking Celebrating

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16 from a 9X9 pan

30 minutes to mix and 50 minutes to bake plus a couple hours to cool minimum but better if cooled in the fridge overnight

Ingredients

For Cheesecake Filling

50g granulated sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

200g cream cheese, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg, room temp

For the Brownie Batter

125g unsalted butter, room temp

150g dark chocolate chips

125g light brown sugar

100g granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temp

2 tsp vanilla essence

150g all purpose flour

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

150g sleeve of Oreo cookies

50g dark chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 160C and prepare a 20cm or 23cm square baking tin with baking paper. If you use the smaller pan they will be thicker than the ones in the picture where I used a 23cm tin.

Put the GRANULATED SUGAR and CORNSTARCH into a medium sized bowl and stir to combine. Add the soft CREAM CHEESE and mix well. I prefer to use a hand mixer for this bit because you will get a nice, light texture it is harder to get with a spoon alone.

When you have a smooth mix, add the VANILLA ESSENCE and the EGG. Mix again until combined and uniform. Put this bowl aside while you make the brownie batter.

You need to melt the UNSALTED BUTTER and CHOCOLATE CHIPS together either in the microwave (covered and in short bursts) or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. While that is melting, pour the LIGHT BROWN SUGAR and GRANULATED SUGAR into a medium sized bowl and stir together. When done, add the melted chocolate to the sugars and mix until evenly incorporated.

Add your EGGS one at a time and mix thoroughly after each one. I know it seems like you’re slowing everything down but it really does make a difference because the eggs need time to combine with the butter which can be a delicate process. If you whack all the eggs in at one time your butter gets overwhelmed and the mixture can curdle.

When you have an even, glossy batter, add in the VANILLA ESSENCE and give it a stir through. Sprinkle the FLOUR, COCOA POWDER and SALT over the batter and fold in until nicely combined.

Take half of your OREO COOKIES and break them up into largish pieces. Stir them gently through the brownie batter. You’re going to use the second half as topping for the cheesecake layer with some more chocolate chips.

Pour 3/4 of the brownie batter into the bottom of the prepared tin. Carefully pour the cheesecake batter on top of that. Take a spoon and dollop the remaining 1/4 of the brownie batter over the cheesecake batter and gently swirl together with the spoon so you have a marbled effect on the top. Crumble the rest of the OREO COOKIES and sprinkle them all over. Finish with some CHOCOLATE CHIPS.

Bake on the middle rack of your preheated oven for about 50 minutes. You want the cheesecake to be set all the way to the middle and starting to turn golden along the edges of the pan. Cheesecake always takes longer to bake than you think so be patient and if it needs more time, keep going until you get that glow.

Remove from the oven to a cooling rack until the pan is cool enough on the bottom to put in the fridge overnight. Again, that might seem like slowing down the process for no reason but giving the bars a chance to cool thoroughly all the way through gives you the satisfyingly dense, fudgy texture that we’re looking for.

This recipe is inspired by Julie Marie Eats.

Tags:Easy Good for a group