Whatever floats your boat.. Cheesecake Brownie Edition

If you haven't tried them yet.. What are you waiting for? Ok, ok.. I know almost everyone has their own Go-To recipe for brownies.. But if yours comes a box this recipe will make you a believer that from scratch is not only better, but it can be easy too.. I mean, this recipe is so simple, it's one bowl, pop it in the oven and you're good to go.. and this recipe can be doubled with no trouble at all! I've made this for bake sales ever since I came across it.. and so far the only thing that I mixed in that I didn't like was toffee bits, they gave a chewiness that I didn't really care for.

Today I was craving chocolate.. I was hoping to make a panna cotta, but the ramekins I have are quite small for the recipe I want to use.. I think I might just go and get some plastic cups and use those as 'molds'.. that's for another day though.. Tonight it was my much loved Whatever floats your boat brownies with some extra chocolate chips mixed in.. and a cheesecake twist.

The basic whatever floats your boat recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT

• 1-2 cup chocolate chips (semisweet, white, butterscotch, peanut butter) or raisins or chopped maraschino cherry or chopped nuts or M&M' or Reese's pieces or miniature marshmallow

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease an 8 inch square pan or line with foil.
3. In a medium bowl combine melted butter and cocoa and stir until cocoa is dissolved.
4. Add sugar and mix well.
5. Add eggs one at a time and stir until well combined.
6. Stir in vanilla, flour and salt until you no longer see any flour (do not overmix).
7. Fold in "WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT"!
8. Spread in pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes.

DO NOT OVER-BAKE -- your brownies will come out dry. Adjust time/temp accordingly for your oven. If you do the knife/toothpick test, it should come out with moist crumbs, not clean.

The cheesecake twist is this:

Cheesecake topping for Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, soft
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. Combine three ingredients using a hand-mixer until soft and creamy.
2. Gently spoon over brownie or cake batter.
3. Swirl topping with a knife, cutting through the batter underneath.

They're in the oven as I write this and the smell is just almost too much to bear.. I can't wait to bite into one! (and nah nah to my fussy low fat, no fat sugar free eating co workers who don't get any)