Cream Cheese Marble Brownies

It’s good to have a chocolate recipe on hand for emergencies and rainy days. The past few days have been awfully rainy and cold here on the coast of New England, and these fit the bill nicely. Sometimes – not often, but sometimes – it’s nice to have a rich dessert-type snack.

The brownie swirl is rich and dense and complements the fluffy sweetness of the cream cheese swirls. People seem to like them anyway…

Cream Cheese Marble Brownies - makes 16 brownies

1/2 C butter, softened
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 C milk
3 eggs
1 C flour
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 C confectionery sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl using a electric beater or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the cocoa, eggs and milk one by one, until well combined. Gradually add the flour.

Using an electric beater or stand mixer, cream the cream cheese until soft. Add the egg and beat on medium until combined and lemon yellow. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar one quarter cup at a time, on low at first (to avoid a sugar sandstorm), and then increase the speed as the sugar is absorbed, scraping the bowl occasionally.

Pour half of the brownie batter into an lightly greased 8 x 8 inch brownie tin (you could use a glass or ceramic brownie dish, but I like to use a tin, because it’s more responsive to heat and it cools down faster when removed from the oven. But hey, it’s your kitchen).

Spoon the cream cheese mixture into the pan in three evenly spaced columns. Spoon the rest of the brownie batter around the cream cheese columns to fill in the spaces. Shake the pan slightly to make even out the surface.

Take a sharp knife and run lines across the surface in one direction. Do the same in a different direction, being careful not to mix the two components too much. We want swirlage people. Not mixage.

Bake 50 -60 minutes until the edges are pulling away from the pan slightly and a toothpick comes out almost clean from the center. Place on a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least 1 hour before cutting.

Ingredient origins: butter – Maine; Sugar – Florida; Equal Exchange cocoa powder – Dominican Republic (by way of the Netherlands); Milk – Massachusetts; Eggs – New Hampshire; Flour – Vermont; Organic cream cheese – Unknown; Confectionery sugar – Unknown

Chocolate Chip Raisin Walnut Cookies

These are somewhat lower in fat (sour cream replaces some of the butter), higher in protein (walnuts) and higher in fiber (raisins) than your average chocolate chip cookie.

The recipe also calls for slightly less sugar than most, but the addition of raisins makes up for the sweetness. Corn syrup and sour cream lend a delicate fluff to the texture which, in combination with the walnut’s crunch make for an addictive cookie.

Chocolate Chip Raisin Walnut Cookies – makes 3 dozen

1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 C brown sugar
2 T corn syrup
1/2 C butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 C sour cream
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 C flour
3/4 C walnuts
3/4 C raisins
1 C chocolate chips

Mix wet ingredients and brown sugar in a small bowl. In a medium bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips, walnuts and raisins.

Refrigerate dough for about15 minutes to chill. This will make it easier to scoop and also make it less likely for the cookies to spread out on the cookie sheet as they bake. While the dough chills, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Scoop by tablespoon onto a slightly greased cookie sheet – these have less fat than most cookies, so they’re not as self-greasing. (Frugal tip: I like to save the wrappers from sticks of butter for the purpose of lightly greasing pans.) Place dough mounds about an inch and a half apart on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and allow them to cool on a cooling rack.

Serve with an ice cold glass of milk on a “pretty, pretty dish”, as my mother says. Recognize the plate Mom?

Ingredient origins: Egg – New Hampshire, Vanilla – Madagascar, Brown Sugar – Florida, Corn Syrup – UK, Butter – Maine, Sour Cream – Texas, Baking soda – Who knows?, Walnuts – California, Raisins – California, Chocolate chips – California.

Coconut Curry Brownies (that happen to be Lactose Free)

This idea came to mind the other day when I was trying to think of what to do with some leftover Thai curry paste. We’d had our fill of savory-spicy applications, so I thought using it in something sweet might be interesting. Chocolate takes on spice very well and coconut goes nicely with curry and chocolate, so I decided to develop a brownie recipe using all three.

I also decided to cocofy it, thereby unendairying it. I just made up those words, but what I mean is that in this recipe, typical dairy based baking ingredients are replaced with coconut milk and coconut oil. I chose to do this in order to achieve the rich coconut flavor that complements chocolate so well. The fact that it’s lactose free is a happy and delicious accident.

These turned out to be dense and moist, with a decadent coconut flavor and a mild finish of curry spice. If you’re not into spice in your brownies, you may omit the curry paste. I suppose.

Lactose-Free Coconut Curry Brownies – yields 2-3 dozen, depending on the size of the brownies and the brownie pan.

1 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 C coconut oil
1 can (14 ounces) coconut milk, full fat recommended
1 t Thai red curry paste
2 eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C flour
1 C unsweetened, shredded coconut

In a large bowl, combine the coconut oil, cocoa and coconut milk, wetting the cocoa powder (this will prevent a cocoa powder sandstorm when you use the electric beater in the next step).

With an electric beater set to medium beat until smooth. Add the sugar, eggs, curry paste and flour, beating on medium until combined. Stir in shredded coconut.

Pour into a greased, 10 x 13 inch rectangular brownie pan or 9 x 9 inch square brownie pan for higher brownies Bake at 350 degrees for 18-25 minutes for the rectangular pan, or 25-30 minutes for the square pan, until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack for at least one hour before cutting into squares.

Ingredient Origins (this time they’re not so local, but at least they’re still keeping with the minimally processed, less than five ingredients, requirement): Equal Exchange cocoa powder – Dominican Republic, by way of the Netherlands, Organic coconut oil – Colombia, Coconut Milk – Thailand, Cage-free organic eggs – New Hampshire, Sugar – unknown, Flour – Vermont, Shredded coconut – Oregon.