Cream Cheese Brownies

I had such a craving for cream cheese brownies the other day, but they had to have one thing...tons and tons of cream cheese mixed in!  Not those weak ones where it's just a little bit of cream cheese swirled throughout.  These had to be decadent and moist and that's exactly what these are.  Quite please with myself actually! 

And one other thing they needed:  a little bit of crunch.  Not nuts, because I'm not a huge fan of nuts in anything, but something to really bite into.  Chocolate chips!  Mixed in with the cream cheese mixture.  Ahhh....

Layers of  brownie (straight from a box - hey they're the best, right??), then the cream cheese filling (and tons of it!), then more brownie mix.  Then you swirl, but the way these bake, the brownies turn into pure awesome fudginess.  DO NOT overbake!!  In fact, you'll almost want to under bake these.  When the top stops being jiggly, and a toothpick comes out with some crumbs, you're done.   

Makes about 16 brownies

Cream Cheese Brownies 

1 box of your favorite brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker Original Supreme) and everything needed to prepare the brownies (usually oil, eggs, water)
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and pour half of the batter into a greased 9" x 9" pan.  Meanwhile, cream together the butter and cream cheese with a electric mixer.  Add sugar, eggs and flour and blend well.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour cream cheese mixture over the brownie mixture in the pan, then top with the remaining batter (easiest to drop it by clumps all over - don't try to completely cover the cream cheese, it won't really work).  Swirl with a knife.  Bake 30-35 minutes (start checking at around 25 minutes).