Berry Cheesecake Blondies

Ingredients

½ C. melted Butter

2 C. Brown Sugar

2 C. all-purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

2 tsp Vanilla

2 Eggs, lightly beaten

Cheesecake Filling:

2 pkgs Cream Cheese

1 C. Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

2 Eggs

Berry Syrup:

4 C. frozen Mixed Berry Blend

½ C. Sugar

¼ C. Water

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Whisk the melted butter and sugar together until creamy and sugar dissolves- about 5 minutes. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry stuff. That’s the flour, baking soda and salt. We whisk them because we can, but also because it removes all the little lumpies.

To the butter and sugar bowl, add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. 

Stir the wet stuff into the dry stuff just until moistened. It should still be lumpy. 

Yes, now we want lumps. 

The reason is, the more you mix flour with water or anything else wet, the more gluten starts to form. Gluten is protein so it transforms the dough into a tight ball of awesomeness. Well, it’s awesome for a loaf of bread you want to hold together for sandwich slices. For blondies, we want a chewy texture. So – as little gluten as possible.

The lumps will cook themselves out, just make sure there aren’t any dry floury spots when you’re mixing it as little as possible.

Pat the dough into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake part way, about 10 minutes.

Next, mix the cream cheese filling ingredients. You don’t have to do anything fancy, just mix until smooth. 

Drop the cream cheese mixture onto the warm blondies in small clumps so they are easy to coat most of the top. Return to the oven and bake about 20 more minutes. But check at 15. We want the cheesecake to be dry and springy to the touch. Let cool. 

While the baking and cooling is going down to Chinatown, it’s a good time to make the berry syrup. COmbine all the ingredients into a saucepan and heat on medium/low. Let cook until simmering for about 30 minutes. This gives the awesome sugar and gel from the fruit time to come forth and thicken the sauce up. Let it cool about 15 minutes off the heat to thicken even more before spooning it over the top of the blondies. 

Yummy!