Name: Cheesecake Swirl Chocolate Brownies with Toasted Walnuts
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 200g unsalted butter, in cubes; 200g dark chocolate, 74% cocoa solids, broken into pieces; 100g soft brown sugar; 100g caster sugar; 3 large eggs; ¼ teaspoon fine salt; 100g plain/all-purpose flour, sieved; 25g cocoa, sieved; ½ teaspoon instant coffee powder, sieved; 100g walnuts (or use pecan nuts); 200g cream cheese; 50g icing sugar; 1 large egg; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; large pinch of fine salt; walnut halves to decorate

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Gooey, soft and fudgy intense chocolate brownies, loaded with crunchy, toasted, chopped walnuts and swirled with a luscious cheesecake topping. The cream cheese in the cheesecake topping adds a slight tang and a wonderful contrast to the rich brownie. When you are not sure whether you want a piece of cake or dessert, look no further! These, utterly addictive brownies, bring you the best of both worlds. Delicious served with a cup of tea or perfect for dessert, either as they are or with a dollop of ice cream.

They pack up easily so I made a batch to take for a wonderful girls’ night out in my friend Tracey’s garden; the world is finally opening up and we can socialise outdoors – hurrah! We had a wonderful evening – takeaway curry, too much rosé wine and lots of laughter.

How to make Cheesecake Swirl Chocolate Brownies with Toasted Walnuts

This recipe is based on my Daffodil Brownies – Core Recipe. The changes I have made include: :

adding some chopped toasted walnuts. Pecans are also delicious, or omit them completely if you prefer to cook without nuts.
topping with a quick cheesecake mix of cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla. This is swirled into the top layer of brownie.

Collect all your ingredients together and line the baking tin:

In order to guarantee soft and fudgy brownies, it is important to use the correct size tin – in this case it is a 20cm/8inch square tin. If your tin is larger the depth of your cake batter will be less and the cake will cook more quickly. Equally if the tin is smaller, your cake batter will be deeper and cook more slowly.

Sit the tin on greaseproof paper making sure the paper is large enough to line the tin, come up the sides and have a little overhang.
Cut out the corners of the paper so it will fit easily into the tin
Fold the paper from corner to corner so the size of the centre of the paper matches the base of the tin. Slot inside the tin.

Cadbury’s Cream Egg Brownie’ Ingredients:

For the brownie mix:

unsalted butter, in cubes
dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
soft brown sugar
caster sugar
large eggs
fine salt
plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
cocoa, sieved
instant coffee powder, sieved
toasted walnuts (or pecan nuts)

For the cheesecake topping:

200g cream cheese
50g icing sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
large pinch of fine salt
walnut halves to decorate

Make those brownies:

Start with the brownie batter: turn the oven on to heat up. Weigh out the walnuts and place on a baking tray. When the oven is hot, cook the nuts for 5 mins. Remove from the oven and set 16 complete walnut halves aside for the topping. Chop the remainder.
Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie or and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 minutes.
Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.
Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa and coffee
Sift directly over the cake batter.
Fold until nearly mixed in and then fold in the chopped walnuts. Be careful not to over-mix at this stage.
Transfer to your baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
Make 10 -12 indentations onto the top of the brownie batter with a spoon.
Make the cheesecake topping: place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until soft and smooth.
Add the sugar, egg and salt and beat on a slow speed until mixed in. Do not over mix – if you over mix the mixture will be very runny and you want it to be as thick as possible. (Scroll to the very bottom of this post to see what it will look like, if this happens!)
Dollop the cheesecake mix into the indentations in the brownie batter.
Use a knife or chopstick to swirl the cheesecake mix into the brownie batter. Don’t be too gentle – give it a good swirl.
Top with the walnut halves set aside for decoration.
Cook in the centre of the oven for 25 – 30 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. It will carry on cooking when you take it out of the oven so bear this in mind. (I cook mine for 27 minutes in London and 28 minutes in Switzerland.)

Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.

Cheesecake Swirl Chocolate Brownies with Toasted Walnuts

Course afternoon tea, Cake, Dessert, Morning Coffee, treat

Cuisine American

Keyword brownies, cheesecake, Chocolate, Walnuts

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Servings 16

Author Susan

Ingredients

For the brownie batter:

200g unsalted butter, in cubes
200g dark chocolate, 74% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
100g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
3 large eggs
¼ teaspoon fine salt
100g plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
25g cocoa, sieved
½ teaspoon instant coffee powder, sieved
100g walnuts (or use pecan nuts)

For the cheesecake topping:

200g cream cheese
50g icing sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
large pinch of fine salt
walnut halves to decorate

Instructions

Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Preheat oven to fan oven 170°C/190°C/375°F/Gas 5
Start with the brownie batter: Weigh out the walnuts and place on a baking tray. When the oven is hot, cook the nuts for 5 mins. Remove from the oven and set 16 complete walnut halves aside for the topping. Chop the remainder.
Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie or and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 minutes.
Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.
Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa and coffee and sift directly over the cake batter.
Fold until nearly mixed in and then fold in the chopped walnuts. Be careful not to over-mix at this stage.
Transfer to your baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
Make 10 -12 indentations onto the top of the brownie batter with a spoon.
Make the cheesecake topping: place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until soft and smooth.
Add the sugar, egg and salt and beat on a slow speed until mixed in. Do not over mix – if you over-mix, the mixture will be very runny and you want it to be as thick as possible.
Dollop the cheesecake mix into the indentations in the brownie batter.
Use a knife or chopstick to swirl the cheesecake mix into the brownie batter. Don’t be too gentle – give it a good swirl.
Top with the walnut halves set aside for decoration.
Cook in the centre of the oven for 25 – 30 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. It will carry on cooking when you take it out of the oven so bear this in mind. (I cook mine for 27 minutes in London and 28 minutes in Switzerland.)
Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes and then, using the overhanging parchment, transfer the brownies to a cooling rack – do not remove the parchment, they will be too fragile
Leave to cool completely before cutting into squares
N.B. To speed up the cooling process and/or create particularly neat edges when cutting, transfer to a fridge to cool and slice when very cool. However, they are best served at room temperature

Recipe Notes

Equipment

Large microwave safe jug or heatproof bowl
Electric whisk and mixing bowl
Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
Sieve
Chopping board and knife
20cm/8inch square baking tin lined with baking parchment

Be very careful melting the chocolate. Chocolate can be very difficult to work with. You can overheat it very easily and the mixture will go grainy. When this happens, there is no way to resolve it I’m afraid!

Microwave: I give the chocolate and butter a minute in the microwave, take it out and stir it well, then let it sit for a few minutes to see if it continues melting sufficiently to melt all the chocolate. If not, I then continue with the microwave but in 10 – 15 second bursts.

Bain Marie: if you do not have a microwave, put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Heat until the chocolate and butter are very nearly melted then take it off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Be very careful not to burn yourself as the bowl will be hot and steam will escape from the saucepan. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the residual heat to melt the remainder of the mixture. Again, be careful not to over-heat.

If you over-beat the cheesecake mix:

If you over-beat the cheesecake mix, it will be very runny. I tried to cut a corner by adding all the cheesecake ingredients into a bowl and mixing them together – don’t do this! Beat the cheese first and then add the remaining ingredients. However, if you have over beaten the mix and it is very runny, don’t throw it away – it will still taste fabulous, just look a bit different, as you can see below!

The cheesecake mix will run all over the top of the brownies
This makes it difficult to swirl and you will find it will congregate at the edges – if you like edge pieces, this is a bonus as you will get a thicker cheesy layer!
It still tastes delicious though!