Seven Fabulous Brownie Desserts from a Mix or a Recipe

Nathan Hawkes

This article arms you with seven fabulous desserts you can make with your brownie mix or recipe. This article, How to Customize Your Brownies, tells you how to customize your brownies, make them sweeter or more chocolatey so they are the perfect brownies for you and your family.

Here you will find directions for:

Swirled Cream Cheese Brownies
Cream Cheese Brownies
Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies
Nutella Brownies with Salted Snack Nuts
Brownies in an Ice Cream Cone
Brownie Pizza
Banana Split Brownies

1. Swirled Cream Cheese Brownie Recipe

You can add a cream cheese filling to any brownie mix or recipe. There are two ways to do this: either swirling the cream cheese filling through the brownie batter or putting a cream cheese layer over the brownie batter to make a layered dessert. We'll describe both ways.

This is the swirled cheesecake brownie, a scrumptious marriage of cheesecake and brownie. Because you are starting with a mix and cheesecake filling is simple, this is an easy recipe. It's shown above and to the right.

1 brownie mix
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Dust with flour or line with parchment paper.

Mix the brownie batter according to mix instructions. Set aside.
For the cream cheese filling, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat in. Add the egg yolks and beat until smooth. Set aside.
Pour half of the chocolate batter into the prepared pan. Spoon half of the cream cheese filling onto the batter in pools. Pour the rest of the chocolate batter over the cream cheese pools. Spread smooth. Spoon the remaining cream cheese filling in pools over the top of the brownie batter.
Hold a table knife or spatula vertically and cut through the batters just until the two batters are swirled together. Do not over mix.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the brownies test done by sticking a toothpick or knife into the center of the pan. The brownies will be done when moist crumbs cling to the toothpick or knife. Let the brownies cool completely before removing them from the pan.

2. Layered Cream Cheese Brownies

Reference the swirled cream cheese but make twice as much cream cheese filling. Just double the cream cheese portion of the recipe above.

Instead of swirling the cream cheese through the brownie batter, spoon all of the cream cheese filling on top.

The result will be a layered, double-decker brownie: chocolate on the bottom and cream cheese on top as seen here.

Bake it as directed for the brownies But make sure the cream cheese portion is set. A table knife inserted into the cream cheese portion two-inches from the center should come out clean.

3. Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies

This is different. This is the only recipe in this set that you can't build with a brownie mix. Instead, you're going to build a brownie-like peanut butter cake and then swirl chocolate through it.

If you like peanut butter and chocolate together, you're going to like this.

This recipe calls for chocolate syrup. It really doesn't matter what kind. Commercial syrup works fine but so does homemade. At the bottom of this recipe, you'll find directions for a homemade chocolate syrup.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 cup all-purpose or bread flour

1/2 cup chocolate syrup

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Dust with flour or line with parchment paper.

With your stand-type mixer, beat the butter and peanut butter together until soft and combined. Add the brown sugar and salt. Add the extract.
Beat in the eggs one at a time until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the milk. Add the baking powder and flour and beat until well combined.
Scrape the peanut butter batter into the prepared pan. Spread smooth. Pour the chocolate syrup onto the batter in pools.
Hold a table knife or spatula vertically and cut through the batters just until the two batters are swirled together. Do not over mix.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the brownies test done by sticking a toothpick or knife into the center of the pan. The brownies will be done when moist crumbs cling to the toothpick or knife. Let the brownies cool completely before removing them from the pan.

Better-than-the-Store Chocolate Syrup

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup hot water
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mix the granulated sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium saucepan. Add the water.
2. Cook, stirring frequently, until it boils. Boil for about one minute stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.
3. Add the butter. After the butter melts, add the vanilla. Stir until smooth.

4. Nutella Brownies with Salted Snack Nuts

These are really good brownies—different and sophisticated. We love them.

Nutella is a sweetened mixture of ground hazelnuts and chocolate usually with dairy or oil added. It is used as a spread or in baking.

Nutella Brownie Recipe

Nutella brownies are made with nutella mixed into the batter, swirled through the batter, and placed in dollops on top of the batter.. We have not made it with the nutella mixed into the batter. Swirls within the batter is marvelous.

To make swirls in the batter, place pools of nutella on top of the batter and just before baking, drag a spatula held vertically through the depth of the batter. Do it just enough to swirl the batter but not enough to mix it.

One brownie mix for a 9×13-inch pan
3/4 cup Nutella
3/4 cup salted snack nuts coarsely chopped

Place little pools of Nutella on top of the batter in the pan. If desired, create nutella swirls by holding a spatula vertically and slicing through the pockets of Nutella.

Sprinkle the nuts over the swirled batter. Bake per the recipe instructions. With the added nutella, baking may take a couple minutes longer.

Note: For a 9×9-inch pan, use 1/2 cup Nutella and 1/2 cup nuts.

5. Brownies in an Ice Cream Cone

You can buy ice cream with brownie chunks. Or you can pile ice cream on top of a brownie–a brownie sundae. But you probably haven't thought of baking the brownies inside ice cream cones.

How to Bake Brownies inside ice cream cones!

Stand flat-bottomed ice cream cones upright in a muffin pan.
Spoon two to three inches of brownie batter into each ice cream cone.
Bake the brownies in the ice cream cones in the muffin pan.
Spoon ice cream onto the brownies in the cones.

Choose whatever brownies you prefer, use a mix or your favorite recipe. We used a peanut butter brownie recipe for the chocolate ice cream cone you see here. It worked perfectly. We think this would be a great idea for a birthday party or for the kids at the next family reunion.

6. A Brownie Pizza

If you are going to have a party, make it a brownie pizza party. Pick what you want to top your pizzas with. Our Uncle Bob's Extra Moist Brownie Mix makes thick brownies and works well in a 14-inch pizza pan.

7. Banana Split Brownies

Make it a banana split with sliced bananas, ice cream, whipped cream, nuts, and a syrup.

We recommend French Vanilla Whipped Cream. French vanilla is the "birthday cake" flavor that we know.

French Vanilla Whipped Cream

1/3 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese
2 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon French Vanilla flavor

Place the sugar and cream cheese in the bowl of your stand-type mixer. Beat until the sugar is creamed through the cream cheese into a soft, consistent mixture.
Add the cream, color, and flavor. Beat until soft peaks form.

Learn more about our brownie mixes:

___________________________________

The Continental Divide Trail begins at the Canadian border and goes to Mexico. Here, it weaves back and forth over the continental divide from Idaho to Montana. (Image by Merri Ann Weaver)