This easy recipe, combining the flavours of a chocolate brownie and a cheesecake, appeared in my Facebook feed.
A little tweaking, including halving the amount of icing sugar in the cream cheese layer, resulted in a delicious dessert I will definitely make again.
The recipe makes 12 small servings but can be cut into 8 or 10 larger portions. You can see in the photo that I’ve cut 9 of the 12 slices and yes I know, I should have used a knife dipped in boiling water, but I was in a hurry! Everyone at my French conversation lunch said it was delicious.
Brownie Layer:
2 eggs
80g plain flour, sifted
60g sugar
40g cocoa, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup milk
Cheesecake Layer:
300g cream cheese at room temperature
200 ml cold cream
100g icing sugar, sifted
Ganache layer:
200 ml cream
200g dark chocolate
Grease an 8 inch (20cm) springform pan and line the bottom with a circle of baking paper. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place ingredients for brownie in food processor, adding the dry ingredients through a sieve. Mix well, stopping halfway to scrape down the sides. Or mix in a bowl with electric beaters. Scrape into the baking pan and smooth the top with a knife. Bake for 15 minutes or until just firm to touch. Cool.
With electric beaters, mix the cream cheese, cream and icing sugar until thickened. Leaving the chocolate layer in the tin, spread evenly with the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate for an hour or two. For the ganache, heat cream in a saucepan over moderate heat until hot but not boiling. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, broken into squares. Mix until smooth then allow to cool a bit before pouring over the cream cheese layer and spreading evenly.
Refrigerate overnight or for several hours. Run a knife around the edge then remove the sides and the bottom of the springform pan. Cut the cake into 12 pieces to serve. It’s probably gilding the lily, but I think this goes well with a dollop of thick pouring cream as I love the contrast between the sweetened cake and the unsweetened cream.
Serves 12
Note: if preferred halve the ganache recipe which will give a thinner chocolate layer on top.
