I'm Baaaack! With Coconut Cream Cheese Brownies!

My short hiatus turned into a year and a half long absence. In that time I started a graduate program in School Counseling which has taken up all of my extra time and writing energy. I also spent the last year and a half learning how to follow, improvise and create recipes. Much more of my free time has been spent cooking oppose to eating out as it did in the past and the better cook I became, the more I realized the joy and calm being in the kitchen brings to me. My goal in the last year of my program is to continue writing this blog as a creative outlet, cook to both feed my passion and stomach and check out new restaurants even though I don't have a dime of income coming my way ;) As this blog has been from the start and continues to be, a journal of sorts for me to document both my eating and cooking ventures.

This past week I played with a brownie recipe I adapted from The Baker Chic, to make both gluten free and much easier.

Coconut Cream Cheese Brownies 

*The Baker Chic

Ingredients:

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup Sugar

1 Egg Yolk

3/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup Shredded Coconut (optional but VERY recommended)

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1 package brownie mix (Gluten free or regular--Trader Joe's just came out with a new GF Brownie Mix that I used)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease an 8×8 baking pan

Instructions:

In a medium sized bowl combine the softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup of sugar, egg yolk, vanilla and coconut. Mix together using an electric mixer until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside and make the brownie batter as directed on the box.

 Pour half of the brownie batter into a prepared baking pan. Add the coconut filling in even spoonfuls and gently spread across the batter, and top with the rest of the brownie batter. 

*I had to use my hand to spread the batters across evenly. The GF mixture was much thicker then a typical brownie batter. 

Bake for the directed time on the brownie mix. Let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. 

I refrigerated the brownies after they cooled. The texture was incredible--gooey brownies, thick and crunchy filling with chunks of chocolate chips. If you've ever had Black Bottom Cupcakes, these taste very similar! The Trader Joe GF mix called for only 30 minutes of bake time and I would up that to about 35-40 next time around as they were a little too gooey (if that is even possible ). As if these weren't delicious enough by themselves, I put them atop vanilla frozen yogurt to make an even sweeter treat!