Mascarpone cake brownies

While I'm off in France this week eating and drinking through the glories of fermented things in the Jura and Alsace, I’m featuring some of my favorite spring cheese recipes to hold you over until I get back. I know, I know, it's tough, but hopefully last week's post of strawberries and fromage blanc over butter-brushed crostini helped to hinder your craving.

If you want to follow my travels or track my cheese or wine consumption levels while I’m gone, check me out onTwitter or Facebook. I’ll be updating somewhat frequently, on some days, if there’s internet. I’ll also be writing about the trip on this blog and on my (new!) newsletter upon my return.

Also, just shortly after I get back I'll be co-teaching a class at the Cheese School of San Francisco with Waldemar Albrecht on July 9th called: East Coast vs. West Coast Cheese Smackdown. Very excited! First time teaching with this amazingly energetic cheesemonger-fromager/ping-pong player extraordinaire, and I expect it to be fabulous. Here's a little bit from write up on the listing. "Harvard vs. Stanford, Wall Street vs. Silicon Valley, Biggie vs. 2Pac. Between the East and West coasts there is no shortage of beef. But the real question is: Who has the best cheese? "  Like it? Read more here.

 

Now, Chocolate mascarpone brownies.

An Italian-style cream cheese, mascarpone lends a richness to these decadent, cake-like brownies. The cheese has a natural hazelnut-nutty sweetness that softly melds with the chocolate’s flavors, and though the mascarpone lends a brightness to the brownies, they're much more mellow and low acidity than your standard American cream cheese brownies. Want a little more tang? Top with an American cream cheese frosting too. Want more chocolate punch? Add a cup or so of semi-sweet chocolate chunks to the finished batter. Then, send me some. I'll let you know how they turned out.

Because the chocolate, and not the subtle cheese, is the highlight of these sweet snacks, make sure to choose a high quality semi-sweet chocolate. I chop 60-75% cocoa semi-sweet chocolate bars into pieces.

Mascarpone Brownies Makes 28 brownies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick), plus 1 tablespoon salted butter 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped 5 ounces Mascarpone, room temperature 1 1/3 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 egg yolks 3 whole eggs 1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.

Melt 1/2 cup butter and chocolate together in a medium sized bowl over a double broiler or bain-marie. Once melted, remove the bowl from heat and whisk in the Mascarpone, then sugar, salt and vanilla. Next, whisk in the egg yolks. Then, whisk the whole eggs in one at a time. After the mixture is well blended, add the flour to the chocolate mix with a rubber spatula, stirring only until incorporated.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean, and the brownie top is shiny and slightly crinkly. Let cool to room temperature.