Raspberry Goat Cheese Brownies

Hello, I am joining Survival of the Scrumptious for a special guest post! I love Ellen and Thalia's blog and I'm excited to be part of it. I know there's been a lot of chocolate recipes on the blog, including brownie trifle, and plenty of cheesecake recipes, but today's recipe brings both of these together into cheesecake brownies - with a funky twist :)

While I love chocolate, I often find plain brownies to be a little boring, either not enough chocolate flavor, or too sweet. But the tang of the cheesecake in these brownies makes a really nice contrast with the chocolate base and the moisture from the cheesecake layer makes everything rich and fudgy. Also, today's recipe has two special ingredients; raspberries and GOAT CHEESE! I know goat cheese is usually just in salads or fancy mac and cheese, but here it makes it's dessert debut! It's mixed into the cheesecake, so it just adds a bit of a unique flavor without being too overpowering. Try it - you'll like it! Overall the cheesecake and berries make these brownies really indulgent (definitely not boring!), and I love the pretty pink color from the berries too.

I found this recipe on The Kitchn; the original recipe calls for more goat cheese and less cream cheese, but I swapped the proportions since I didn't want it to be too goaty. I used a hand mixer for the cheesecake part of this recipe, and I would recommend having some sort of electric-mixer since the cream cheese can be pretty sticky to mix up. You'll also need a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Ingredients:

Raspberries

1 package frozen raspberries

1 splash (2 tbsp) of alcohol, optional - I used triple sec, since it's fruity and sweet and I had it on hand, but you can use whatever you like

Brownies

8 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, bars or chips

12 tbsp (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter

1/2 cup milk

2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Cheesecake Layer

4 oz goat cheese, softened at room temperature for an hour

8 oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature for an hour

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened at room temperature for an hour

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp almond extract, if you have it, otherwise just use vanilla

What to do:

1) First, preheat your oven to 350. Then, put your frozen raspberries in a microwave-safe bowl that big enough to stir around in, and defrost in the microwave. Stir them up, add a splash of alcohol, and mush it up a little. Put the berries aside to sit in their juices.

2) Get out a big pot - it's also going to be your brownie batter mixing bowl, so use a big one. If your chocolate is in bar form, cut it up into big chunks (like hershey kiss size) Then put all your chocolate and 12 tbsp butter (also cut the butter into a couple pieces) into the big pot, and put it over a low burner. From here out, the motto is going to be "just keep stirring". About every minute, stir the chocolate around and scrape down the sides so the chocolate doesn't burn.

You can see mid-melt (left) and

after, when it's all smooth (right).

You can also use this time to help your cheesecake ingredients soften up by putting them on the warm stovetop - just don't leave them there too long or they'll melt!

3) Take the chocolate mixture off the heat. And now we're just going to stir in a lot of ingredients! I used a wire whisk at this point to really integrate the ingredients, and used the rubber spatula to scrape down the sides every now and then. First up, add in the milk. It'll look a little chunky, just keep stirring, it'll smooth out.

4) Next, add the 2 cups sugar and vanilla - whisk to combine, scrape to get the sides. Add the eggs one at a time - repeat the stir and scrape after each one. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt - you can just use the rubber spatula here to gently mix in the flour - stop when you can no longer see the dry flour. Gently mix in about half of the raspberries and their juices. You have batter!

5) Grease your 9 x 13 baking dish - you can use PAM spray, or just take a glob of butter in a paper towel and schmear it around. Tip for sprayers - put the pan either in the sink or on the open door of your dishwasher so that the extra mist doesn't get your kitchen oily.

6) Pour the batter into the pan, spread it out. Now you may lick the utensils and chocolate pot!

7) Now, onto the cheesecake layer! Get out the electric mixer and a big bowl. Put your softened cream cheese into the bowl, and break it up with mixer. Then add in the goat cheese, and stir again. And the butter, and stir again.Once the dairy is all combined, add the sugar and mix some more.

8) Now, add the egg and extract, and mix again. It'll become smooth and fluffy.

9) Get the remaining raspberries and juices, and stir them into the cheesecake mixture - you'll get such a pretty color pink!

10) Plop the cheesecake layer on top of the brownie layer, swirl it in, and then smooth the top over.

11) Bake for 30 minutes at 350. It's difficult to know when the brownies are done, so just try to see if the cheeecake layer looks dry, with some small cracks, and some light browning.

12) The hardest part, for sure, but let the brownies cool before you cut into them! Then serve with ice cream!