When coffee dreams, it dreams of chocolate.
When I was told the Bourneville had come out with a darker, matured version of their chocolate, with 50% cocoa, there was little resistance from my end to use it for some naughty dark treats! The new (and improved) Bourneville is intense in flavour and heartfelt – every bite hits a new note; sweet and soft – it gently unravels in your mouth.
Not that the chocolate itself wasn’t enough to provide that perfect pick me up – but I really wanted to pair it with elements like coffee and cream cheese to complement the flavour of the chocolate, add some depth with the caffeine and some luscious richness with the cream cheese layer. But yes, a brownie itself would have also been good. But why do good when you can do GREAT!
Think about it – dark dark chocolate, baked into a gooey fudgy brownie base using dark intense cocoa powder, layered with a wobbly vanilla scented cream cheese layer, baked to perfection with a rather large handful of dark chocolate chips. Chocolate heaven! And honestly, it wasn’t even that complicated or tedious.
Layer One: Fudgy Brownie
Layer Two: Cream Cheese goodness
Layer Three: Chocolate Chips
So basically, Layer Two involves mixing together a few things with the help of an electric mixer – super easy! While Layer Three involves measuring out 2/3 cups of chocolate chips. So all you’re REALLY making from scratch is Layer One. But the end product makes it look as though you’ve slaved all day behind the stove, cautiously watching the oven, and delicately creating real life beauty. On a cost-benefit type analysis, the benefit definitely outweighs the cost!
On an entirely unrelated side note, this is probably the last post from this kitchen! Joie de Vivre will now come to you from its 2.0 kitchen, which I am definitely excited about! [Which is also the reason my posts have been uncommonly sporadic – hopefully not anymore!]
- 85gm Bourneville chocolate
- 5 tbs salted butter
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tbs cornflour
- 1 tbs espresso powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbs all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbs cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)
- 227gm cream cheese
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbs cornflour
- 1 tbs all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips or dark mini-chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 175*c and line a 8" square baking pan with enough foil on the sides to it becomes easy to lift up the brownie after its baked. Spray the insides of the foil covered pan with cooking spray.
- Microwave the butter and chocolate till just melted and molten looking. Stir the mixture into a ganache, gently. Add in the sugar and stir to combine.
- Whisk together the milk, cornflour, espresso powder and vanilla until really nice and frothy. Mix with the ganache mixture until combined.
- Sift in the dry ingredients and combine till almost smooth, a few lumps are always ok! Pour into the prepared pan.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the cream cheese and sugar and beat till creamy and combined. Add in the balance ingredients and once combined, pour over the uncooked brownie batter.
- Sprinkle over the chocolate chips as evenly or evenly as you desire.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- To be able to slice the cream cheese brownies neatly, always chill them. That way, its not only neat straight lines that come out, but its also super easy!
