Junque Food: V-day present to DaMan - Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

 I first tried this recipe last year or the year before. It was a rousing success. I mean how can you go wrong with Brownies, cheesecake, and raspberries?

I haven’t made them awhile, so I thought I’d whip up a batch for my husband for Valentine’s Day. He’s such a great guy, he’ll let me have a piece. He’d better anyway…if he knows what's good for him...

I originally got this recipe from: http://bakingbites.com/2009/02/raspberry-cheesecake-brownies/

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2-oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt

 8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup raspberry preserves/jam

Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir with a fork until very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Whisking steadily, pour chocolate mixture into sugar mixture. Stir until smooth. Sift flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and prepare cheesecake mixture.

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Drop in dollops onto prepared brownie batter. Drop dollops of raspberry preserves into the cheesecake batter. Gently swirl batters with a butter knife, giving the brownies a swirly look.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

Cool in the pan completely before slicing and serving, either at room temperature or chilled.

Brownies can be refrigerated, covered, for several days.

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Now, when I've made this in the past, I've used a good quality raspberry jam. However, I don't have any. I do have some home made jam from a relative, but it's over-jelled, and takes a chisel and a hammer to get it out of the jar. It was a minor dilemma, but I could always go to the store and purchase some jam, right?  Then I remembered....

EUREKA! I have a large baggie in my freezer of raspberries picked from our own bushes last summer. A moment was taken to Google, "Quick raspberry jam recipes," and I found this recipe which I tried, despite my trepidation of making jam in a microwave (it worked guys!) and ended up with almost 2 pint of jam. Score!

I will have to do this again with some blueberries I also have in the freezer, and do it as a blog post...it was simple, and waaaaay less messy than when canning jars and jars.

I should say, this was quick jam. it's not canned, and needs to be refrigerated or frozen. I'm letting the jars come to room temp, then putting in the fridge. I doubt they will last long enough for me to freeze.


Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!