Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Whoops. It has been awhile since I last posted, hasn't it? :o Been a busy little bee. ^_^ With... games and stuff. >.> I feel a bit rusty in posting now, so forgive me if this one is short...

Anyways, I've been in Brunei for close to a month now and it's almost time to go back. Boooooooo. I came back just in time for Raya (literally - came back 1st day Raya) so with the Raya madness and feasts, have not been able to make much stuff. The little sister likes to bake though, hehe, so she insisted we make a few. Here was one she tried before and we made again. Enjoy. Here we go!




What you need:
250g low-fat soft cheese (whoops, we used full-fat cream cheese)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
250g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g butter
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
100g self-raising flour, sifted

Chocolate Ganache Icing
3/4 cup whipping cream
227g dark chocolate, chopped into fine pieces


What you do:

1. Lightly grease a 8-inch square shallow cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Preheat an oven to 180 C.
2. Beat the cheese, vanilla essence and 50g of the caster sugar together until smooth, then set aside.
3. Beat the eggs and the remaining caster sugar together until light and fluffy. Place the butter and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the butter melts and the mixture combines (We used a microwave... shhh!! XD), then stir it into the egg mixture. Fold in the flour.
4. Pour a third of the brownie mixture into the tin and smooth the top. Carefully spread the soft cheese mixture over it (we piped it on, easey peasey), then cover with the remaining brownie mixture. Bake in preheated oven got 40-45 minutes and cool in the tin.
5. Meanwhile, to make ganache topping, boil whipping cream. Add chopped chocolate and stir with a rubber spatula until smooth. Refrigerate until spreading consistency, about 1 hour. Continue to refrigerate if mixture is too thin. If too firm, allow to sit on the counter for a few minutes. Using a palette knife, spread the icing over the brownies. Leave to set, then cut into squares to serve.

The original recipe actually used chocolate buttercream instead of chocolate ganache, but we figured that would have been too sweet, so we subbed it out. :D It worked out rather well.

This brownie is kinda sweet, not that chocolatey without the ganache. But the cream cheese works rather well,  think. The only problem was.... this was super super messy to cut and serve. >.< Mostly because of the ganache. Might be easier if we freeze it first next time, maybe... I've always liked frozen tapak kuda and Kit Kats, so why not frozen brownies? :D It'll be like... brownie ice cream-ish.

But yes... that's it for now, I'm afraid. I have a couple more overdue recipes coming up, a milo pie and perhaps even ice cream. ;D We shall see. In the meantime, enjoy and as always, be careful of what you eat and don't over indulge. :P

Quote of the day: And above all... Think Chocolate!