Birthday Treats of Yumminess

In my department at work we have a rule: if you want treats on your birthday you bring them in. That way no one can be butt hurt if it’s overlooked or forgotten.

With my birthday fast approaching I decided to make my specialty: brownie-bottomed cheesecake in cupcake portions. This time I added a twist and topped them with seedless raspberry jam. I posted the following pic about it:

Since a couple people are after the recipe I decided it would be quicker and easier to share via a blog post than messaging and such. The recipe lives here http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/philly-brownie-cheesecake-88973.aspx and I will also list it out below along with the tweaks I have made to make in cupcake portions instead of in one big pan.

Brownie-bottomed Cheesecake

What You Need

1 pkg.  (19 to 21 oz.) brownie mix (13x9-inch pan size)

4 pkg.  (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup  sugar

1 tsp.  vanilla

1/2 cup Sour Cream

3  eggs

2 oz.   Semi-Sweet Chocolate

How to Make It

HEAT oven to 325°F.

PREPARE brownie batter as directed on package; pour into 13x9-inch pan sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 25 min. or until top is shiny and center is almost set. Instead of doing this I use a cookie scooper like this one (picture below) and plop one scoop of brownie batter into a standard muffin tin lined with those little paper cupcake liners and bake for 10 minutes and then let them rest for another 10 minutes. Last time I made this it made 35 cupcakes (yesterday).

While the brownie bottoms pre-bake a little (and in my case rest for a bit), beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended.

POUR cream cheese mixture carefully over brownie layer in pan. (Filling will come almost to top of pan.) In my version, I again use the now cleaned cookie scooper and plop one to two scoops of cheesecake batter into each cup (tends to be a scoop and a half); batter should come pretty close to the top of the cup – mine tend to be rounded like little mounds of cheesecake battery awesomeness. They smooth out as they bake and rarely overflow while baking.

BAKE 40 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen sides; cool dessert completely. Refrigerate 4 hours. Okay, this is where a big divergence happens in the process, especially if you top them with jam/jelly. Still in a 325 degree oven, I only bake them for 35 minutes. This makes them come out PERFECT. Once out of the oven I let them cool on the counter for about 15-30 minutes before I carefully pull them out of the muffin tin one at a time (I DO NOT DUMP THE MUFFIN TIN OVER!! You will wreck half of them at least if you do) and place them on a platter. Then I top each with a teaspoon of the jam/jelly/fruit of my choice. Or nothing at all, these are great as is.

MELT chocolate as directed on package; drizzle over cheesecake. Refrigerate 15 min. or until chocolate is firm.  I have never done this step. If you want to, go for it. That’s why I left it here for you.

Now enjoy! I like making them in the cupcake portions for so many reasons:

-          -Easier to share at work without the mess

-          -Great for portion control

-          -See the nutritional facts:

-         

             

-          16 servings using the big pan method    

       nutritional info per serving

Calories  500

Total fat  33 g

Saturated fat  15 g

Cholesterol  140 mg

Sodium  330 mg

Carbohydrate  46 g

Dietary fiber  0 g

Sugars  36 g

Protein  7 g

Change this to roughly 32 servings and you halve those scary numbers to the following:

Calories  less than 250

Total fat  16 g

Saturated fat  7 g

Cholesterol  70 mg

Sodium  165 mg

Carbohydrate  23 g

Dietary fiber  0 g

Sugars  18 g

Protein  3.5 g

Still not super healthy, I know, but for Pete’s sake it’s brownie and cheesecake in one. Just go with it. Skip the frappe that day and you can have two.

Happy baking.