Secret Recipe Club - Snickers Coffee Cheesecake Brownies

Childhood smells of perfume and brownies.
~ David Leavitt

After a two-month break from the Secret Recipe Club, I'm back with a delicious bake attributed to Frugal Antics of the Harried Homemaker, the blog of which I was assigned. Kristen, the blog owner is a fantastic mother of 5 and an even more amazing cook, as evidenced by the wide-ranging recipes on her blog. She comes from a long line of women who ran restaurants, catered, taught other people how to cook, and Kristen is no different. What I find as equally fascinating as her recipes are her Saturday Stories series, depicting multigenerational tales of her family, her childhood as well as her own Rainbow Family, as she calls it. I really can't imagine there'd be many people who haven't already come across Kristen and her blog, but in case you've been living under a rock lately, I highly recommend that you leg it over there for some fabulous food gems!

Don't you just love it when blogs have a Recipe tab or index that allows you to easily find recipes that resonate with you? Well, Kristen's blog has a pretty extensive recipe index and it didn't take me long to settle on what I wanted to make. Predictably, I headed first to the Dessert section before looking through all the rest of the other categories. Then I returned to 'Desserts' again to decide on what had caught my eye in the first place - Snickers Cheesecake Brownies. If this was how love at first sight worked, then yes, I wasn't able to shake this dessert out of my head.....the idea and image of it had that strong a grip :-). 

Oh, just so you know, my other favorite eye-candies off this blog were:

Mint Brownie Cheesecake Bars

Peanut Butter Cookie Bars with Nutella Glaze
Caramel Bars

 If I wasn't just limited to one, I'd probably marry all of them (or at least, the guy equivalent of them)!

Anytime a recipe contains these three words together - Snickers + Cheesecake + Brownies - you know you've got a winner! I'm a huge fan of Snickers bars and although I try really hard to steer myself away from the Snickers counter (or chocolate, in general) whenever I'm out shopping, I do sneak it into my diet about once a month. Hey, everything in moderation does not a man kill. How I wish I have the same strategy in place when it comes to butter! 

The cake is made up of a decadent brownie layer, topped with a layer of chocolate cheesecake, topped again with slices of Snickers. I followed the original recipe to a near 'T' but still wanted a bit of 'me' in there so I added coffee to the cheesecake layer, replaced the white sugar with brown for a hint of molasses, and upped the amount of Snickers because... well, because I can, that's why!

I confess that I very nearly added Nutella and fresh ginger in there somewhere too, but managed to stop myself. Good thing I did because these cheesecake-brownie slices tasted heavenly as they were (and those other additions will have to wait for the next time I bake these!).

I chuckled when I saw this Snickers commercial because I could so imagine my kid and I dressing up in this costume for a bit of fun someday:

The Secret Recipe Club is a little like a fellowship, with each participant learning some delicious lessons from another food blogger's experience of making something in their kitchen. To see what the other SRC fellows brought to the table today, please click on any of the thumbnails displayed below.

Many thanks to Tina of Mom's Crazy Cooking for being our group's efficient and ever-cheerful host!

Snickers Coffee Cheesecake Brownies
(adapted from Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker)

Ingredients:
Brownie layer
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Coffee Cheesecake and Snickers layer
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
1 (250g/8oz) brick cream cheese
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 full-sized Snickers bars, sliced into pieces

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175F/350C and grease a 9 x 9-inch baking pan.

2. Combine the melted butter with the sugar and cocoa. Add the eggs and stir well. Add the flour, salt and vanilla. Pour the brownie batter into the greased pan.

3. Beat cheesecake layer ingredients together in a mixing bowl until very smooth. Spoon over the brownie batter and carefully spread to the edges of the pan.

4. Arrange the Snickers bar pieces all over the batter. Bake for 35 minutes (if you are using a glass pan, lower the heat to 160F/325C). Remove from oven and cool, then place in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

Desserts, Chocolate, Coffee