Swirly Cream Cheese Brownies

I tried to make Smitten Kitchen's cheesecake-marbled brownies, but really messed it up, so I kind of ended up making my own recipe. 

One of the most important steps to this recipe is to pose with a very sharp, very large knife. So, don't you forget it!

Another important step is to drop one of your eggs on the floor. This just really helps with everything, because even if your brownies don't turn out well, the people who taste them will have sympathy for you from the start. Particularly if you photograph your dropped and broken egg and blog about it.

After dropping one of the eggs on the floor, I was so distraught that I decided it wasn't important to follow Smitten Kitchen's lovely recipe anymore, so I just cracked all of the eggs into the brownie batter and hoped for the best.

Then, I checked the recipe and realized one of the eggs was for the cream cheese part of these swirly cream cheese brownies. Another fun fact is that, because I dropped one of the eggs on the floor, I didn't have any eggs left.

I turned to my trusty pal, the Internet, for egg yolk substitutes because I only needed an egg yolk, not a whole egg. This is how I found out you can sometimes substitute mayonnaise for egg yolks (1 tbsp for 1 yolk). You may think this sounds a little weird, but they turned out really well.

The fun part of this recipe is when you spoon the cream cheese (and, okay, mayonnaise...) mixture onto the brownie batter and then swirl it around with the tip of a butter knife. You should try this recipe. The swirly part looked pretty good, even when swirled by a first-time cream cheese swirler. 

See? Look how happy they are, enjoying Spencer's WORLD FAMOUS swirly cream cheese brownies.

Okay, here's the recipe that I made up sort of (by accident): 

1) I preheated the oven to 350 degrees (F).

2) I melted together 3 oz. of unsweetened chocolate, chopped, and a stick of salted butter (just because I always use salted butter in baking and then add less or no salt later).

3) I removed the pan from heat and whisked in (with a fork) 1 cup of sugar, 3 eggs, and a splash of vanilla. Then I stirred in 2/3 c. of flour and poured the batter into a greased square pan (8"x8").

4) In a medium-sized bowl, I mixed together 8 oz. of cream cheese, 1/3 c. sugar, 1 Tbsp. of mayonnaise, and a splash of vanilla.

5) I dolloped this cream cheese mixture over the brownie batter and swirled it around with the tip of a butter knife. 

6) I baked them for around 35 minutes.

7) Then I shared them with my family!

8) You should too!

xo,

SF

What I'm listening to right now: Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars