Oreo Cheesecake Brownies

So a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of two days off for Shavuot (remind me never to leave my job!). What does Shavuot have to do with this brownie recipe you ask? Well, it all started when I was bragging to my cousin Marcy (the family Super Jew) about my days off for some holiday celebrating the Torah. She told me I was supposed to eat cheesecake. All of a sudden Shavuot became my kind of holiday! I bought lots of cream cheese and prepared to make my very first cheesecake. But, I didn’t have a springform pan and I really had to go dress shopping, so cheesecake just wasn’t in the cards. Instead, I got creative. And, with a little help from Jessica, Oreo cheesecake brownies were born.

The recipe comes from the Joy of Cooking. But I had tons of cream cheese to get rid of. And Oreos I really didn’t want in my house. So, we doubled up on the cheesecake portion and added cookies into the mix. The results were well received.

Happy belated Shavuot (I give you all permission to celebrate holidays that involve cheesecake, I surely celebrate holidays that involve Cadbury Eggs)


Brownie Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 ½ tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tlbs light corn syrup

Cheesecake Ingredients:

• 24 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 Tbls unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• Crumbled Oreos

Directions:Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x13 pan and line with foil.

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In a large sauce pan melt chocolate (we used 3 oz of bittersweet and 3 oz of semisweet) and butter. Remove from heat and let cool until barely warm. Then stir in sugar and vanilla. Beat in one egg at a time. Add corn syrup. Stir in flour mixture until well blended.

Spread the mixture into baking pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Fold in crumbled Oreos (reserve some for top). Spread cream cheese mixture over the chocolate layer. Top with remaining Oreos.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 and bake until cheesecake layer is just tinged with brown and beginning to crack on top. About 45-60 minutes (this is my best guess as we adjusted time greatly due to doubling recipe and changing size of pan). Cool completely in pan. Refrigerate until well chilled before cutting. Serve room temperature.