miss igs: Oreo brownies with a cheesecake swirl

So let me begin by telling you about my lovely friend Victoria, she has a rather sweet tooth and recently admitted to having a secret stash of cakes by the side of her bed for emergencies. She even ate a record number of my disastrous Lamingtons the other week. Tuesday was Victoria's birthday so I knew I had to make something special for her. I decided that you really can't go wrong combining Oreos & brownies, a lip smackingly good combination and also good for transportation. -As you can see, I can be quite practical sometimes. I was a little heavy handed with the cream cheese topping, the recipe I used called for a little too much for my liking so I have cut down the quantities for this recipe.

Recipe adapted from Annies-Eats

I used a 21x21cm tin but you could of course use something similar in size. Or, if you only have big tins, just double the recipe.

Makes 16 pieces

You will need-

4oz/113g unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cocoa powder, preferably dark & unsweetened
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 pack Oreo cookies cut into fairly big chunks- minus 1 cookie which has been taste tested.
3oz/85g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup icing sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Add the butter & sugar to a small pan and heat over a medium temperature till it comes up to a boil whilst whisking regularly. Leave it to boil for a minute and then take it off the heat and leave it to cool for a little while.

Whilst its cooling line your baking tin with greaseproof paper and preheat your oven to 170C/160C for fan assisted.

In a bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder & salt. When the butter mixture has cooled, whisk in the eggs and keep mixing till its all fully combined- Its important not to add them to a hot mixture otherwise you'll end up with scrambled eggs. Once the eggs are mixed in add the milk and whisk again.

Pour the butter and egg mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until its just combined, be sure not to over mix at this stage. Then just fold in the Oreo pieces before pouring the mixture into your baking tin.

Finally add the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract and either with a wooden spoon or a mixer beat together till smooth. Dollop onto the brownie mixture and then using a knife swirl it through the brownies. This is where I went a little wrong and used too much which didn't quite result in a swirl.

Bake in the oven for 22-24 minutes and then cool completely before cutting into chunks. You could refrigerate the brownie after it has cooled to help with the slicing if you wanted neat pieces. Keep in an airtight box