Ingredients:

110 unsalted butter

125g dark chocolate (70 % cocoa solids) *

1 ¼ cup caster sugar

1 Tbsp cocoa powder
½ cup plain flour

1 tsp instant coffee powder (Optional)

¼ tsp baking powder **(optional – check notes)

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 large eggs

¼ tsp salt

200g full fat cream cheese at room temperature

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 medium egg at room temperature

Preparations:

1.Preheat the oven to 180 ºC 10 minutes before baking. Line an 8 inch square pan with baking paper all the way above the pan, so that you can lift off the brownie easily.

2. In a bowl, sift in salt, cocoa powder and flour. Reserve.
3. In another large heat proof pan, combine chocolate, coffee and diced butter. Heat them in a microwave, stirring them in between until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth and velvety. Make sure you keep checking the mixture in between, every ½ a minute or so, so that the chocolate is not burnt. You may also melt the mixture by placing it over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the water beneath doesn’t touch the bowl with chocolate.
4. Whisk in sugar and vanilla and allow the mixture to cool down slightly before adding eggs.
5. Add in eggs one by one, incorporating each fully before adding the next one.
6. Add in the flour mixture and fold until no dry mixture is seen. Pour it in the prepared pan.

For the cream cheese mixture:

1.In a bowl, beat cream until smooth using a wire whisk.

2. Add in sugar, egg and vanilla and gently mix until incorporated. Do not beat well here as the mixture can get very runny. You just want a smooth chunky mix. Put dollops of this cream cheese mixture all over the chocolate mix and using a blunt knife, swirl the mixture to get a marbled effect.
3. Bake it in the centre of the oven for about 40 minutes or until the centre is set and when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out with few moist crumbs. Let the brownie cool in the pan. Chill it for 2 hours and then cut into 16 squares.

Notes:

1.Adding cocoa and coffee is optional, omit if you want to make the brownie less intense.

• If you are using chocolate with 50 % cocoa solids, just use 1 cup of sugar as 70 % chocolates are bitter than 50% percent ones.

** This cake is very moist, fudgy, gooey and really rich. If you want it slightly cakey, add ¼ teaspoon of baking powder into the mixture and increase the flour to 2/3 cups keeping all other ingredients with the same ratio.