Cheesecake Brownie Bites

Just a regular rainy day browsing through Pinterest (my new addiction) and I see this recipe pop up that uses cocoa and cream cheese - and I have a block of it in my fridge that I have to use up (two days from expiry - eek!).  It looks really simple and I just love that it can be done in only two bowls.  It's a rainy day, right?  I obviously need a pick-me-up!  YAY!

Tools needed:

• Stand mixer or electric mixer with large bowl
• Medium sized bowl
• Sifter or fine mesh strainer
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Spatula
• Mini muffin pan
• Piping bag (optional)
• Mini ice cream scoop (optional)

Ingredients:
Brownie Batter

• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups baking cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp instant espresso powder mixed with 2 tsp of water
• 2 tsps vanilla extract (not the artificial stuff please)
• 1 1/4 cup white sugar (can be substituted with cane sugar as well)
• 1 cup cane sugar (can be substituted with regular white sugar)
• 1 cup unsalted butter (I used salted and just 1/4 tsp of salt instead of the 1 tsp listed above)
• 1 1/2 cups flour

Cheesecake Filling

• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened (I used reduced fat and it still tasted great)
• 3 tbsp sugar (cane or white)
• 1 large egg yolk

Directions:
1.  Preheat over to 350 F.  Grease mini muffin tin with butter or spray olive oil.

2.  In the stand mixer or large bowl with an electric mixer, whisk together the eggs, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, instant espresso powder in water and vanilla extract until well combined.  Approximate 5-6 minutes of mixing, stopping once to scrape down the sides with a spatula to make sure all of it is combined well.


3.  In a medium sized bowl, mix together cream cheese, sugar and egg yolk until well combined.  You can either put the mixture in a piping/plastic bag to pipe into the muffin tins (easier and probably looks better) but I simply spooned my mixture in and it turned out well.

4.  Spoon 1 overflowing tsp of brownie batter into the bottoms of the mini muffin cups with either a spoon or the mini ice cream scoop.  Then pipe or spoon in a tsp of the cheesecake filling on top of the brownie batter and then top with another tsp of the brownie batter.  You can swirl the contents now with a chopstick/back of the tsp or any other thin stirring object to create that swirled brownie look or leave as is for a filled brownie.


5.  Bake for 12-13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


6.  Remove pan from the over and allow the brownies to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing to a cooling rack to continue cooling.  If you have trouble removing the brownies from the cups, just use a knife to trace around the edges of the brownie to loosen them out of the pan.


7.  Eat and enjoy!

(Recipe adapted from Just a Taste)