Ribbon Brownies

Recently, I was looking for a recipe that used cream cheese. When I found this recipe in Mom's recipe box, I knew I had to try it. Cream cheese swirl brownies are quite common, but what exactly are "ribbon" brownies? Reading through the recipe, the chocolate brownie batter is layered above and below a cream cheese batter layer creating a ribbon layer as you can see by this photo. They are as delicious as they look.

Because the recipe is an older recipe, it calls for two three-ounce packages of cream cheese. I don't think I have ever seen a three-ounce package of cream cheese, so I used one eight-ounce package. Perhaps using a little too much cream cheese made my batter a bit thicker than it should have been, as the picture below shows the spreading in process. But these rich brownies seemed to cook up just fine despite the extra thick batter. And I really liked the addition of almond extract to this recipe. You could leave it out, but give it a try because the almond flavor gives these brownies a unique taste.

Ribbon Brownies 

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 4 ounces bakers chocolate
• 8 ounce package cream cheese
• one cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Melt the chocolate over very low heat; cool. In a separate bowl, cream the cheese. Add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and almond extract. Measure out about one half cup of the batter and set aside. Blend the cooled chocolate and vanilla into the batter. Spread about half the chocolate batter into a greased eight-inch square pan. Spoon the measured cheese batter into the pan, spreading carefully to cover the chocolate batter. Spread the remaining chocolate batter over the cream cheese batter. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly pressed. Cool. Enjoy!