Oreo Cheesecake Brownies

  

How do you eat your Oreos?  Dunk?  Twist?  Bite?  Lick?  Regular Stuf?  Double Stuf?  Peanut Butter?  I will only eat Double Stuf and I have to eat two at a time.  I twist them apart to get the filling on one side, eat the empty side, and then put the two filling sides together to make one delicious, ginormous, quadruple Oreo.  And if the filling doesn't come off neatly on one side, I have a major meltdown.  Just kidding.  Mostly.

Anyway.  Here is another good way to eat Oreos.  And brownies.  And cheesecake.  These are super easy to make.  And super easy to eat a ton of - so be careful. 

Oreo Cheesecake Brownies

Adapted from: Sugar Plum

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (scant)
2 large eggs
2 cups coarsely chopped Oreo cookies (I used about 1 1/2 sleeves)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper; coat parchment with cooking spray or butter.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Whisk in sugar and bring to a boil, whisking frequently; boil 1 minute. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

In a small mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and vanilla extract, until well combined, about 1 minute.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder and salt; whisk until combined.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, until combined. Whisk in melted butter-sugar mixture until well combined. Stir in flour mixture until just combined, followed by 1 1/2 cups Oreo cookies.

Spread half of brownie batter into baking dish, followed by cream cheese layer; dot the top with remaining brownie batter, and spread evenly, as best as you can. Run a knife through batter to make "swirls".  Sprinkle the rest of the Oreos evenly on the top.

Bake at 305 degrees F, for 25-28 minutes, until the brownies and cheesecake are set (no jiggling!).  Cool completely on a wire rack and then set in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to make slicing easier.  These are very rich so I recommend cutting them into small pieces.  I got 24 out of my batch.

Enjoy!

Carnival's Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

 

Kris and I went on a Carnival cruise for our honeymoon and it was amazing.  The people, the casino, the beach -- all of those things were great.  But the best part was the food.  More specifically, this dessert.  Anyone that has ever been on a Carnival cruise knows about it.  I think I ordered it 5 out of 6 nights, and Kris had two one night.  It's that good. 

This recipe came really close to duplicating the one we had on the cruise.  The recipe is just the right size for two ramekins and only took about 15 minutes total to make.  I mixed the batter before dinner and popped them in the oven right when we finished eating.  Perfect, easy dessert.

Carnival-Style Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

 Source: Kate's Recipe Box, adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter or unsalted margarine
2 ounces semisweet chocolate cut into bite-size chunks
1 egg
2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon flour

Instructions

1. In a double-boiler, melt together the butter and the chocolate until smooth and then remove from heat.

2. In a separate bowl, beat together egg, sugar and salt until sugar is dissolved.

3. Beat the egg mixture and melted chocolate together until smooth.

4. Beat in the flour until just combined.

5. Divide batter between two greased ramekins and bake at 450F degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the top puffs but the center is not set. For a less-melting cake, bake a few minutes longer.

6. Top with vanilla ice cream!