These are a delicious version of a very popular brownie.
| 8 | fluid oz. | Cream CheeseSoftened to room temperature |
| 1½ | cups | White Sugar1 1/4 cup in the brownie batter and 1/4 cup in the cream cheese mixture |
| 3 | Egg/s2 in the brownie batter and 1 in the cream cheese mixture | |
| ¾ | cup | Water |
| ½ | cup | Unsalted Butter |
| 2 | fluid oz. | Baking ChocolateUnsweetened; adding an ounce makes a darker brownie |
| 2 | cups | Flour, All Purpose, Unbleached |
| ⅓ | cup | Sour Cream |
| 1 | tsp | Baking SodaScant |
| ½ | tsp | Salt |
| 12 | fluid oz. | Chocolate morselsThe degree of sweetness you like; I prefer bittersweet. |
| 3 | tsp | Vanilla2 teaspoons for the brownie batter and 1 teaspoon for the cream cheese mixture |
| 1 | Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan. |
| 2 | Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (conventional) or 350 degrees (convection). |
| 3 | In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 1/4 cup of the sugar, salt, and baking soda. |
| 4 | Put the water, butter, and baking chocolate into a medium size saucepan or, as I do, a large stainless steel mixing bowl, and heat until the butter and chocolate are melted. Take off the stove. If in a saucepan, pour the heated mixture into a large mixing bowl. |
| 5 | For the cream cheese mixture that gives the marbled effect:In medium mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese until it's softened completely. Add one-quarter cup of the sugar and mix it until well-incorporated. The mixture should be quite soft. Add one egg and mix well. Add the one teaspoon of vanilla and mix until well-combined. |
| 6 | Add the mixed dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture in the larger mixing bowl and combine with a large spoon. The mixture should be well-mixed but not necessarily smooth. It's alright if there are some little lumps interspersed in the batter. Add the two eggs, one at a time, stirring until well-incorporated. Then stir in the vanilla and sour cream just until combined into the batter. |
| 7 | Pour the chocolate batter into the baking pan. With a large spoon put dollops of the cream cheese mixture over the chocolate batter. Using a knife, cut through the two mixtures to give the marbled effect. Try and get some of the marbled effect to the edges of the pan. |
| 8 | Disperse on top the chocolate morsels, as many as you like. I find that a 12 ounce bag of morsels is just about right. |
| 9 | Bake for just 22 minutes. Ovens do vary. In our oven, I've found that 24 minutes is just a bit too long, if you like brownies on the moist side. This is, for me, the hardest part of baking, knowing when it's baked just enough. We do have a convection oven, which tends to bake a little bit faster. The higher temperature given for a conventional oven should compensate time-wise. |
| 10 | Hope they're as delicious as they should be! |