Nutella Cream Cheese Brownies

I took the long weekend off from blogging, but didn't from cooking! I made the classic pasta salad with lots of fresh veggies. I'm so glad the summer is here and all the local produce will be available. Speaking of that, we planted a garden again this year and are participating in a CSA. Our garden is a little smaller than last year, but I tried a few new things - lettuce and carrots, and our staples - cucumbers, variety of peppers and tomatoes. Our first CSA pickup is Friday night and I'm excited to get some new veggies to experiment with. You'll just have to come back and see what we get!

So back to the brownies. Brownies are the one thing that I have a hard time baking. I either bake them too long and they're hard as a rock, or don't bake them enough and they're gooey inside. But not these brownies! They were perfect and the nutella adds so much to them.

Cream Cheese Topping

4 oz Cream Cheese, softened
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp Nutella

Brownie Batter
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray. You don't want those brownies sticking in the corners!

First make the cream cheese topping. Using a hand mixer, cream together the butter,sugar and flour. Add in the cream cheese and mix until smooth. Scrape bowl and add the egg and beat until the topping is nice and creamy. Scrap bowl and add Nutella, beat about one minute or until the nutella is mixed into the cream cheese mixture completely. Set aside.

For the brownie batter, sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder into a medium sized bowl.
In a small bow, l cream the sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time, beat well then add vanilla. Fold the wet mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients.

Spread 3/4 of the brownie batter into the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish. The batter will be very thick! On top of the brownie batter spread 3/4 of the cream cheese topping.

Randomly dollop the remaining brownie batter and cream cheese topping over the layer of brownie batter. Swirl with a tooth pick or the tip of a knife.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. If you like your brownies a bit gooey then bake them for 40 minutes. For a dense cake like center bake for 50 minutes.

Source: Flour on my Face