American food.

To be honest, I'm really not a fan.

When I think of American food I think of loads of fat and carbs, lots of cheese, fried food, and salt, salt and more salt.

(Although, I do have to add that when I was in New York last year I ate some of the best meals of my life).

However, I have fallen head over heels in love with this American cookbook....

At Home With Magnolia

- classic American recipes from the lady who gave us the Magnolia Bakery.

So my contribution to this fortnight's theme is from this little baby....

Cream Cheese and Pecan Brownies

Cookbook:  At Home with Magnolia

Author:  Alyssa Torey

Cream Cheese Filling | 227g cream cheese, not softened | 1/3 cup sugar | 1 large egg, room temperature | 2 tbsp flour | 

brownies | 1 1/4 cups flour | 1 tsp baking powder | 1/4 tsp salt | 3/4 cup unsalted butter | 113g unsweetened chocolate | 2 cups sugar | 3 large eggs, room temperature | 2 tbsp whole milk | 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract | 3/4 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. grease and lightly flour a baking pan.

Cream Cheese Filling

- In a medium size bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. Add the egg and flour and beat well. Set aside.

Brownie

- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a medium size saucepan over low heat, melt the butter with the chocolate, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from the heat, transfer to a large bowl, and allow to cool to lukewarm, about 5 minutes. Stir in the sugar. add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and half the pecans and mix thoroughly.

Pour half the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Drop the cream cheese mixture by tablespoonfuls over the batter. Next, drop the reserved brownie batter by teaspoonfuls in between the cream cheese filling. Using a small knife, swirl the two batters together forming a decorative patter. Sprinkle the remaining pecans over the top, and using a spatula, gently press into the batter.

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the pan comes out with moist crumbs attached. Do not over bake. Allow to cool overnight before cutting and serving.

One of the things Alyssa (my new BFF) mentions is that this brownie is not too fudgy and not too cakey.

If you know me you know I'm not a huge chocolate dessert fan, so when I read this (along with the addition of the cream cheese and pecans), I thought this would be the perfect brownie recipe for me.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that the lack of fudginess was a bit of a disappointment.

I also felt the cream cheese didn't make any impact at all. It seemed to just add colour to the brownie rather than any taste.

Would I make again - probably not. I have other brownie recipes that I much prefer so will stick with them from now on. Although, my friends loved them and ate them all up - so you never can tell, can you.

To view my fellow challengers, click here

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