"browniebabe of the month": Matcha Cream Cheese Brownies

I remember the first thing I ever baked as a child was a chocolate cake following a recipe out of my mother's food economics journal. It was simply the best-tasting cake because it was a chocolate cake and I baked it on my own. In fact, it was THE chocolate cake and I held the recipe for this cake on a pedestal so high you cannot begin to imagine my despair when I revisited it only to find the resulting cake almost unpalatable! To date, I am still grappling with the possible realities of the situation: has my skills as a baker slipped over the years or is this prized chocolate cake recipe not as flawless as I remembered it to be? I refuse to believe in either!

Consequently, I rarely make or share the recipes I loved so much as a child because I feel this need to preserve and guard these precious remaining food memories of my childhood. Sadly, this includes my favourite brownie recipe but I have improvised and created a brownie especially for "browniebabe of the month", the first blog event ever hosted by Myriam of once upon a tart.

These brownies are best eaten the day after to allow the cream cheese to firm up and the chocolate to set to a fudgey finish. This will also allow you to slice the brownie into neat and tidy squares. The combination of sweet and salty with smokey, grassy notes is just teasingly delicious...

matcha cream cheese brownies

100g dark chocolate (min. 70%)

100g dark chocolate (min. 55%)

3 tbs cocoa powder

120g unsalted butter

3 large eggs

200g brown sugar

75g flour

250g cream cheese

100g sugar

1 egg

1 tbs flour

1 1/2 tsp matcha

(makes a 18x18cm pan, 12 generous squares)

preheat oven to 170C and line the base of a pan with baking paper.

melt dark chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water.

whisk cocoa powder into melted chocolate and set aside mixture to cool.

beat sugar and eggs in a bowl until thick and light.

combine melted chocolate and egg mixture and gently fold in flour.

beat cream cheese in a separate bowl until smooth and fluffy.

gradually beat in the sugar until dissolved.

add egg and mix to combine, scraping the sides of the bowl.

stir in the flour and matcha

pour the chocolate batter and cream cheese mixture alternatively into the prepared pan.

bake for 35-40 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out with a few sticky crumbs.

cool before attempting to slice.