Cheesecake Brownie Bites

 
When I began my baking journey, I would sometimes refer to Food Blogging for Dummies, written by Kelly Senyei. Being a Blogger herself, she also hosts a lovely blog, Just a Taste which I occasionally dip into for recipe inspiration and ideas. Here's one recipe that took my fancy and also went down a treat  :-)

(Being a US recipe, I used my iPhone app to convert the cup size measurements to English metric system on the day).

For the brownie batter:
4 eggs
1¼ cups (150 g) cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs instant espresso powder, mixed with 2 teaspoons water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2¼ cups (500 g – seems a lot) caster sugar
1 cup (220 g) unsalted butter, melted
1½ cups (190 g) plain flour

For the cheesecake filling:
1 (230 g) cream cheese, softened (I used Philadelphia)
3 Tbs caster sugar
1 egg yolk


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, baking cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso mixed with water, and vanilla until well combined.

Stir in the sugar and melted butter until well combined, then stir in the flour. (A firm rubber spatula works best.) Set brownie batter aside.

In a separate bowl, prepare the cheesecake filling by stirring together the cream cheese, sugar and egg yolk until well combined. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag or plastic bag.

Grease a non-stick mini-muffin pan with cooking spray or butter and then spoon a tablespoon of brownie batter into the greased cups. Pipe a generous amount of cheesecake filling atop the brownie batter, and then top off each cup with an additional teaspoon of brownie batter.

Bake for about 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let the brownie bites cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then transfer them to a cooling rack to continue cooling, or enjoy warm.

Taken from Just a Taste