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Photograph of Cheesecake Swirl Chocolate Brownies with Toasted Walnuts

Cheesecake Swirl Chocolate Brownies with Toasted Walnuts

Gooey, soft and fudgy intense chocolate brownies, loaded with crunchy, toasted, chopped walnuts and swirled with a luscious cheesecake topping. The cream cheese in the cheesecake topping adds a slight tang and a wonderful contrast to the rich brownie.

Course afternoon tea, Cake, Dessert, Morning Coffee, treat
Cuisine American
Keyword brownies, cheesecake, Chocolate, Walnuts
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings 16
Author Susan

Ingredients

For the brownie batter:

  • 200g unsalted butter, in cubes
  • 200g dark chocolate, 74% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
  • 100g soft brown sugar
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • ¼ teaspoon fine salt
  • 100g plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
  • 25g cocoa, sieved
  • ½ teaspoon instant coffee powder, sieved
  • 100g walnuts (or use pecan nuts)

For the cheesecake topping:

  • 200g cream cheese
  • 50g icing sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • large pinch of fine salt
  • walnut halves to decorate

Instructions

  1. Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.

  2. Preheat oven to fan oven 170°C /190°C/375°F/Gas 5

  3. Start with the brownie batter: Weigh out the walnuts and place on a baking tray. When the oven is hot, cook the nuts for 5 mins. Remove from the oven and set 16 complete walnut halves aside for the topping. Chop the remainder.

  4. Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie or and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)

  5. Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 minutes.

  6. Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.

  7. Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa and coffee and sift directly over the cake batter.

  8. Fold until nearly mixed in and then fold in the chopped walnuts. Be careful not to over-mix at this stage.

  9. Transfer to your baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.

  10. Make 10 -12 indentations onto the top of the brownie batter with a spoon.

  11. Make the cheesecake topping: place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until soft and smooth.

  12. Add the sugar, egg and salt and beat on a slow speed until mixed in. Do not over mix – if you over-mix, the mixture will be very runny and you want it to be as thick as possible.

  13. Dollop the cheesecake mix into the indentations in the brownie batter.

  14. Use a knife or chopstick to swirl the cheesecake mix into the brownie batter. Don’t be too gentle – give it a good swirl.

  15. Top with the walnut halves set aside for decoration.

  16. Cook in the centre of the oven for 25 – 30 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. It will carry on cooking when you take it out of the oven so bear this in mind. (I cook mine for 27 minutes in London and 28 minutes in Switzerland.)

  17. Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes and then, using the overhanging parchment, transfer the brownies to a cooling rack – do not remove the parchment, they will be too fragile

  18. Leave to cool completely before cutting into squares 

  19. N.B. To speed up the cooling process and/or create particularly neat edges when cutting, transfer to a fridge to cool and slice when very cool. However, they are best served at room temperature

Recipe Notes

Equipment

  • Large microwave safe jug or heatproof bowl
  • Electric whisk and mixing bowl
  • Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
  • Sieve
  • Chopping board and knife
  • 20cm/8inch square baking tin lined with baking parchment

Be very careful melting the chocolate. Chocolate can be very difficult to work with. You can overheat it very easily and the mixture will go grainy. When this happens, there is no way to resolve it I’m afraid!

Microwave: I give the chocolate and butter a minute in the microwave, take it out and stir it well, then let it sit for a few minutes to see if it continues melting sufficiently to melt all the chocolate. If not, I then continue with the microwave but in 10 – 15 second bursts.

Bain Marie: if you do not have a microwave, put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Heat until the chocolate and butter are very nearly melted then take it off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Be very careful not to burn yourself as the bowl will be hot and steam will escape from the saucepan. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the residual heat to melt the remainder of the mixture. Again, be careful not to over-heat.