Well, yesterday in my flutter of activity, I got housework done, laundry done, and all the prep for swim lessons done and then we went swimming and came home and I was EXHAUSTED. Seriously. I was Completely Worthless for anything other than stumbling around getting the kiddos lunch and then getting Miss O and then myself down for a nap. Ohhhhhholycow. What a mess I was.
When I woke up, we got dinner done but I still felt like I was walking with cement shoes on so I asked my sweet little family, what do you want: Lime Coconut Cake or this other recipe I found: Cheesecake Topped Brownies (with my own variation, of course). The latter would be easier, at least a little, but I believe the former would taste better (and is what I've actually wanted for days). Miss A was all about Lime Coconut Cake, but immediately changed her mind when she learned that she'd have to wait until...well...today to eat it. So, everyone settled on the brownies, so that's what we did. We actually ate them a bit warm, in fact. I thought they were good, but since I've been really wanting the Lime Coconut Cake, they probably weren't as super fabulous as I'd have wanted them to be. Still...yum. So, I'm sharing.
Cheesecake Topped Brownies:
INGREDIENTS
1 (21.5 ounce) package brownie mix
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (16 ounce) container prepared chocolate frosting**
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
Prepare brownie mix according to the directions on the package. Spread into prepared baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and cornstarch until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk, egg and vanilla until smooth. Pour cream cheese mixture evenly over brownie batter.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is lightly browned. Allow to cool, spread with frosting**, and cut into bars. Store covered in refrigerator, or freeze in a single layer for up to 2 weeks.
**I made a dark chocolate ganache instead of the frosting, because it just seemed like it would be better AND I happened to have some heavy cream on hand. I think I like the ganache idea better anyway. If you ever make this and end up using canned frosting, let me know how it is, would you? :)
This is my basic Ganache recipe I use most of the time (for *this* particular recipe, I cut it by a third so it wouldn't overwhelm everything):
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
1/2 Tbsp light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
1. In heatproof bowl, place the chocolate chips and corn syrup.
2. Bring heavy cream to a full boil
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate and whisk it until smooth and then pour ganache over cake
4. With spatula, smooth the top of cake and allow ganache to spill over the sides.
5. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or longer (we did NOT do this with the brownies and it turned out fine)
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