Mixed Berry Cheesecake Brownies

Hi ETD-ers! Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but Gaffa and I have been busy preparing for Gaffa to join the Australian Navy. He started the New Entry Officer Training Course on his birthday- what a great birthday present! ;P And is due to finish at the end of November. Just in time for our wedding! :) Yay!

Just before Gaffa left he requested that I bake him his favourite cheesecake - one with berries and a brownie base. I first discovered this cheesecake from a recipe I found randomly in a magazine at a doctor's waiting room. Since then I've used a couple of other recipes for the same cheesecake because it's easier to do a quick Google search than to find a piece of paper that I've stuffed somewhere...

This time I used the first thing that popped up in my search, a recipe from Taste for raspberry cheesecake brownies. The recipe uses dark chocolate whereas in previous recipes I remember using cocoa powder. This may be the reason why Gaffa raved about the brownie base being so damn good on this particular cheescake!

I didn't have a lamington pan as suggested in the recipe, so I used a springform cake tin. After 45 minutes in the oven it was still wobbly and nowhere near being cooked. I ended up cooking it for almost 2 hours before it resembled some form of solidity. So I would highly recommend using a lamington pan or be patient and wait 2 hours for it to be cooked...

Ingredients:
200g good quality dark chocolate
200g unsalted butter, softened
400g caster sugar
5 eggs
110g plain flour, sifted
400g cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g fresh raspberries

I used gluten free flour because of Gaffa's intolerance. And instead of fresh raspberries I used a mixture of frozen raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. Gaffa loves berries!!

Step 1: preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius. Grease and line 20x30cm lamington pan.

Step 2: place the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Step 3: cream the butter and 250g of the caster sugar until pale, then add 3 of the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the melted chocolate, then fold in the flour. Spread 3/4 of the mixture into the lined pan.

Step 4: in a separate bowl cream the cheese, remaining sugar and eggs and the vanilla extract until smooth, then spread over the chocolate base.

Step 5: dollop the remaining chocolate mixture over the cream cheese layer and use a fork to swirl the chocolate. Poke the raspberries (and other berries) into the top and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Step 6: set aside to cool,  then cut into squares and serve.

There you go my dear readers. Try it! It's deliciously morish and wilk satisfy any sweet tooth!