It’s Sweet Melissa Sundays time again! This week, it’s Black Bottom Brownies. For those of you (like me!) who don’t know what they are, they’re a layer of brownie topped with a layer of cheesecake. It’s the kind of recipe where just reading the ingredients list makes you put on about 100lbs… So yes, the kind of recipe I’m totally drawn to! Shed loads of chocolate? Check! Ridiculous quantities of sugar? Check! An entire chicken coop’s worth of eggs? Check! A few (dozen) sticks of butter? Check! Well, sign me up and I’ll go for a jog tomorrow.
Oh, and these also have a
pound of cream cheese in. Wow. Just wow. But the problem with recipes such as this is that they REALLY have to deliver to justify the five day’s worth of calories being consumed in one bite. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m (obviously) not a health freak – I don’t count calories and if it were up to me, cake would be a food group. But I do think that sweet treats should be exactly that – a treat. And when they obviously contain quite so much fat, not to mention expensive ingredients, I really
really want them to be so darn tasty that I simply forget all about the impact on my waist line and dive in. Metaphorically, of course – terribly sticky otherwise.
And these? They were... fine. Yep, only fine. They had the dense, chewy, chocolatey brownie base and the creamy cheesecake layer on top, but I really didn’t find that adding a cheesecake layer to the top of a brownie improved them at all. Maybe I’m just a brownie purist, but these just didn’t quite achieve that WOW factor that I was hoping for. That, and the topping was a touch too eggy for me, rather than creamy. That’s probably necessary to keep the density right (so the cheesecake floats rather than mixes into the brownie layer) but just not quite my bag.
So. Did my testers and I like eating these? Yes. They’re wonderfully moist and tasty (minus the slightly eggy bit). But would I make them again? Hmmm, probably not. Just can’t quite bring myself to put a dozen eggs (yep TWELVE eggs went into these) into one batch of baked goods.
Thank you so much to Cynthia from
‘Bakingtherapist’s Blog’ for hosting and you can find the recipe over
here. And do check out the other
bakers' blogs to see what they thought!
Rosy xx
I'm glad you liked them, kinda, sort of :o) I agree that the amount of eggs was too much which is why I scaled it down a bit. I only made half a recipe and used only 2 eggs in the cheesecake batter which I flavored with raspberries (why make plain vanilla batter when you don't have to?).
ReplyDeleteI have yet to taste them - being on a diet and all, but they seem like they're okay. I do agree with the eggs part..it seemed like overkill! They look super nice though!
ReplyDeleteI think your review is spot on - I liked them and I suspect whoever I end up giving most of mine too will enjoy them as well, but they're probably not something I'd make again. I did scale back to 1/4 recipe to avoid using all those ingredients. Yours look great!
ReplyDeleteYour review takes the words right out of my mouth. We liked these (better after a day or more in the fridge) but weren't blown away by them, as much as we thought we would. Yours look perfect.
ReplyDeleteYes, let's make cake a food group! I feel the same way about decadent treats and am always happy when there is actually something unhealthy I don't love.
ReplyDeleteYour brownies look fantastic, glad they were a hit!
I'm glad that other people feel the same as me, if something has fridge selves worth of butter and eggs in it needs to blow me away. These do look great though, I'm sure they would be tolerating in our flat!
ReplyDeleteI didn't expect to love them, but I did. I off-set using so many fattening ingredients by cutting the servings exceptionally small, using them as dessert when my in-laws came over, giving some to the 8-year-olds I teach at church, and then serving them as dessert again when friends came over for dinner! That's a lot of mileage out of one pan of brownies!!
ReplyDeleteAhhhhhhh I know I couldn't believe it - a DOZEN eggs! Yikes! They look great!!! I agree - they were good, but if I'm doing ot use an entire carton of eggs, a pound of cream cheese, etc etc - it better be AMAZINGGGG
ReplyDelete