Cheesecake Brownies

With the colder winter nights coming to an end, our church pastors decided to organise a bonfire party before the weather got warm.

The barbecued meat, sausages and bread were provided by the church. So all we needed to do was to bring either a salad or dessert to share with the rest of the crowd. As I do not know what type of salads the locals would like to eat, I decided to make a dessert for the bonfire party.

I initially wanted to make some Rocky Road but the ingredients were too expensive. So I decided to bake some brownies instead. While chocolate brownies are a classic hit amongst many, I wanted to make something different because I was afraid that somebody else would also be bringing chocolate brownies to the party.

I spent a few days searching online for brownie recipes and stumbled upon this interesting Cheesecake Brownie recipe featured in www.taste.com.au. The recipe required sour cream but I did not know what to do with the sour cream leftovers if I bought a bottle of sour cream, so I decided to use thickened cream with a bit of lemon juice for the brownie.

The Cheesecake Brownies turned out really delicious but it was very rich and filling. So everyone only ate a piece each. When I make this brownie again, I will cut them up in smaller pieces so that it’s not so filling.

Cheesecake Brownies

Cheesecake Brownies 

Ingredients:

Melted butter, to grease
150g butter, chopped
300g dark cooking chocolate, coarsely broken
3 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 ½ cups plain flour
¼ cup thickened cream, at room temperature
1 packet (250g) cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tbsp lemon juice

Method: 

Lightly grease a square or round cake pan with melted butter. Line the base and the sides of the cake pan with greaseproof paper.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Mix the butter and the chocolate in a small pot over low heat. Stir until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Remove it from heat and set aside for about 5 minutes.

Whisk two eggs in a small bowl. Combine the whisked eggs with 2/3 cup of the sugar. Put the eggs and sugar mixture into the chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. Add in the flour, cream (mixed with lemon juice) and stir until well combined.

Beat the cream cheese and remaining sugar with an electric beater in a separate bowl until smooth. Add the remaining egg to the mixture and beat until well combined.

Carefully spoon the chocolate and cream cheese mixtures alternately onto the cake pan. Use a knife to make swirls and create a marble effect.

Bake for 30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake. Cool the cake in the pan for 1 hour before cutting into small squares.

Hope you enjoy trying this Cheesecake Brownies recipe. Happy baking!

Cheers,

Caroline Poh

Brown Sugar Smokies

When I was asked to contribute a dish for our church potluck/pot bless event, I was clueless as to what dish I should cook for the party. It is very hard to prepare a dish for a party full of people from different cultures and nationalities. The dish has to be universally acceptable so that everybody can enjoy it. It cannot be spicy, contain any seafood or peanuts (in case anybody is allergic to those ingredients) and I must not serve any raw seafood/meat/eggs because it is not accepted in many cultures.

Keeping all this in mind, I decided to do an internet search on popular party snacks or finger food. While browsing the internet, I remembered that I have a finger food recipe from Allrecipes.com that I had stacked away in my recipe folder for many years. I never got to cook that dish because it was a party snack and I did not have any suitable occasion to cook it until then. I looked through the recipe and discovered that it had two familiar ingredients that everybody will eat – sausages and bacon!

After some modifications, I came up with my own version of Brown Sugar Smokies. As they do not sell smokie sausages at the place where I live, I substituted them with cocktail sausages and it turned out perfectly well.

The results – a deliciously addictive sweet and salty party snack that appealed to adults and children. Yes, it was a hit at the party and there was nothing left after the party!

Try it…you won’t regret it.

Brown Sugar Smokies

Brown Sugar Smokies

Ingredients: 

Bacon (enough to wrap the sausages)
Cocktail sausages
Brown sugar

Method:

Cut bacon into thirds. Coat both sides of the bacon with brown sugar.

Wrap the bacon around the sausages. Use a toothpick to attach the bacon to the sausages. Coat the bacon and sausages again with brown sugar.

Leave them to marinade for at least an hour. For better results, marinade them overnight.

Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees C or 350 degrees F.

Place the sausages and bacon on a wired tray. Place the wired tray onto a baking tray to collect the oil drippings when baking. This keeps the sausages and bacon from getting soggy.

Place the tray in the oven. Turn over the sausages and bacon to the other side after they have been in the oven for about 15 minutes or when the sugar starts to caramelise and the bacon turns crisp.

The sausages and bacon are ready once both sides are brown and crisp. Do not overcook them.