Money can’t buy you happiness brownies

I have to say I am not the biggest brownie fan, but I was watching a baking show called “Nadiya Bakes” on Netflix this past weekend with my husband. He is a brownie fan and saw a recipe of hers called “Money can’t buy you happiness brownies”. I had not seen any brownies like these either, so they intrigued me.

They have a chewy chocolately base, a nutty caramel middle and a cheesecake topping. So three layers of absolute goodness. Watching Nadiya make them on the show, it didn’t appear too challenging, but they do have several steps and require an overnight in the fridge, so they are not something you can whip up in a hurry like some other brownies.

So my baking challenge for this week, was to make them for my husband. Below is a list of what was needed.

Ingredients

For the brownie base

250g unsalted butter
250g dark chocolate
4 medium eggs
280g dark brown sugar
1 tsp instant coffee mixed with 2 tsp hot water
120g plain sifted flour
30g cocoa powder sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp plain flour
150g dark chocolate chips

Nutty center

450g dulce de leche
200g chopped mixed nuts or hazelnuts
1/2 tsp salt

Cheesecake topping

300g full fat cream cheese
100g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
1 tsp almond extract
zest of one orange or 1 tsp of orange extract
1 tbsp plain flour
cocoa powder for dusting to finish

Instructions

The recipe called for Dulce de Leche which I could not find, so I made my own. It’s pretty easy you can use either the boiling or baking method, I chose the latter. Since you need 450g put 500g of condensed milk in a glass pie dish which you cover tightly with aluminum foil. You then place this in a baking pan of hot water which is at least 1 inch deep. Place this in the oven at 425F and bake for one hour and forty five minutes. You may need to add a little water during the baking process.. It will be a nice dark brown when you take it out of the oven. You may need to whisk it a little to get rid of any lumps. It’s basically ready to use out of the oven.

To start making the brownie base, preheat your oven to 355F and line a 9 x 13 inch deep baking pan with parchment paper so the paper is about 1 inch above the top of the tin.

Line baking pan so the paper is 1 inch above the tin

Slice the butter and place is a saucepan with the chocolate broken into pieces. Heat over a low heat stirring occasionally until melted and a liquid form. Set aside to cool.

While the chocolate is cooling, put the eggs, sugar and coffee into a large bowl and whisk with an electric hand held whisker for about five minutes until the mixture is fluffy and thick.

Pour the cooled melted chocolate all together into the mixture and whisk again with the electric whisk for about one minutes until fully combined and there is no streaks. Then add the sifted flour, cocoa and salt which I mixed in with a spatula so as not to over mix the batter. At the end the batter should have a nice glossy look to it.

Now mix the dark chocolate chips in a bowl with a teaspoon of flour. You do this like when adding fruit to batter so they do not sink to the bottom when baked. Mix them in before pouring the mixture into the prepared baking tin. The brownie base is baked in the oven for 25 minutes.

While the base is baking you can make your nutty filling. The recipe says you can use a mixed nut or hazelnuts. I decided to use hazelnuts, I think you could use whatever nuts you like without it impacting the end result. I chopped the nuts and then roasted in a nonstick pan for about 10 minutes on low heat until the nuts were golden brown.

When the nuts are roasted mix them with the dulce de leche in a large bowl adding the salt until fully combined and then set aside.

Once the brownies are baked, I let it cool for 1 hour. Then spread the nutty mixture over the cooled brownie base and then put it in the freezer for 30 minutes. While it’s in the freezer I preheated the oven to 335F.

To make the cheesecake topping cut the cream cheese up and put in a bowl along with the sugar, eggs, almond extract, orange zest and flour. I did not have an orange to make zest so I used 1 tsp of orange extract instead which I think did the same job. I used a large fork to break up the cream cheese and then used a whisk to mix it up well and make it smooth.

Before putting it into the oven, pour the cream cheese spread over the nutty mixture and spread so it’s evenly disbursed. Then put It in the oven for 30 minutes. Once the cheesecake is set in the middle let is cool and then put it in the fridge overnight.

Before cutting and serving dust with cocoa powder and enjoy. Keep in fridge.

Although I am not the biggest brownie fan, I have to say these are amazing and the best ones I have every eaten. They are well worth the effort to make.