Healthy brownies baked with a raspberry-cream cheese swirl. These oat flour based treats are naturally gluten- and refined-sugar free. Vegan option.

This might be somewhat of a surprising thing to see here, considering I’m not a fan of goat cheese. But Jack is (that’s an understatement)… and literally this is all of his favorite things packed into one decadent dessert. Months ago, I saw this recipe on The Kitchn, and I immediately knew I’d surprise him with it for his birthday.

Of course I’m not going to sit by and watch him eat a pan of brownies all by himself. So I made two versions, a (non-dairy) cream cheese version for me, and this goat cheese version for him. (This was easy to split up without much extra work).

I made a few other healthier alterations – I used maple syrup instead of sugar, oat flour instead of all-purpose, and I used vegan versions of butter and cream cheese. I used a couple of eggs, but you could easily sub those out and this would be vegan. And this happens to already be gluten free!

adapted from The Kitchn

Raspberry & Goat Cheese Brownies

  PrintPrep time 20 minsCook time 25 minsTotal time 45 mins Author: Jeanine DonofrioServes: 16Ingredients

• 1 cup raspberries (I used frozen), lightly mashed

For the brownies:

• 5 tablespoons butter (I use vegan Earth Balance butter)
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• ¼ cup almond milk
• ½ cup oat flour
• ⅛ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup maple syrup
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs or flax eggs, beaten

For the cheese swirl*:

• 4 ounces room-temperature tofutti cream cheese or regular cream cheese
• 1-2 ounces room-temperature goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon room-temperature butter
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350.

Set the raspberries aside (especially if they’re frozen) to thaw at room temperature while you assemble everything else.

Make a make-shift double boiler by placing a glass bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t actually touch the water. Melt the butter and chocolate, stirring so the chocolate doesn’t burn on the bottom. When the chocolate is melted, remove from heat. Stir in the milk. Let the mixture cool to almost room temperature before adding the eggs (unless you’re not adding the eggs, then proceed).

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Into the chocolate bowl, stir in the maple syrup and vanilla. Stir in (already beaten) eggs. Then add in the dry mixture, stirring until just combined.

Make the raspberry cheese swirl: Whisk (strongly by hand or with a mixer) together the ingredients for the cheese layer – cream cheese, goat cheese, butter, maple syrup, and vanilla - until smooth. As I mentioned above, I stirred this up without the goat cheese, divided it in half, and only added goat cheese to one half.

Into an 8×8 greased pan (or 2 smaller pans – I used two 5×7 pans), pour the brownie batter. Spoon the cheese mixture on top (doesn’t have to be an even layer). Gently crush the raspberries with your hands and add them (with juice) on top of the cheese layer. Take a knife and swirl the layers in the pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on the size of your pan and thickness of your brownies.

Notes*I mixed this without goat cheese, divided it in half, and then added the goat cheese to only one half.3.4.3177
 

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