A few days ago it was a coworker’s birthday, and I told her that I would love to bring her a special birthday treat. At her request, I made cream cheese swirl brownies for the whole crew at Trader Joe’s, and never has anything I baked for them disappeared so quickly! 
I’m excited to share the recipe with you and I think you should go make them. Now. No really. Go.
Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies
Brownie Batter
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 ounces semisweet chocolate (I used a good-quality 65%)
6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder *
3 Tablespoons light-flavored oil, such as canola*
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Cream Cheese Swirl
12 ounces whipped cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees and butter a 13×9 baking pan.
Melt butter, chocolate, cocoa powder, and oil in a large saucepan, whisking until combined. Whisk in sugar, vanilla, and eggs, incorporating thoroughly. Stir in flour, being careful not to over mix. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Prepare the cream cheese swirl by thoroughly mixing the cream cheese, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla. Spoon mixture over the brownie batter and swirl the the tip of a rounded knife. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
Bake about 40 minutes until edges begin to pull away from the pan and the center looks set. Check the middle with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Cool before slicing.
*Note: Instead of using cocoa powder and oil, you can substitute 3 ounces of unsweetened, chopped chocolate. I did not have any on hand.
Semisweet Chocolate, Oil, and Cocoa Powder
The melted chocolate
The batter after adding sugar, eggs, and vanilla
Whisking in the flour!
Into the pan you go!
Drop the cream cheese mixture on top
Get lost in a swirled trance...
Sprinkle with chocolate chips if you please!
With all the excitement and rush to get to work, I forgot to take a snapshot of the finished product until it was too late…
The brownies precisely 6 minutes after arriving to work.
Enjoy!
-Lou
