Ooey, Gooey Chocolate Butter Brownies
Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter melted (separately)
1 (18.25 oz) package chocolate cake mix (I used Devil's)
3 eggs
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
3 to 4 TB cocoa powder
1 (16 oz) box powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Lightly grease a 9x13 pan. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 egg, and 8 TB (1 stick) of melted butter, and stir until well blended. Pat mixture into prepared pan and set aside. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the remaining 2 eggs, and the cocoa powder. Lower the speed of the mixer, and add the powdered sugar. Continue beating until ingredients are well mixed. Slowly add the remaining 8 TB (1 stick) of melted butter, and the vanilla, continuing to beat the mixture until smooth. Stir in nuts, if using, with a rubber spatula. Spread filling over cake mixture in pan.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Be careful not to overcook; the center should still be a little gooey when finished baking. Let cake partially cool on a wire rack before cutting into pieces.
The cake mixture is going to be thick enough that it will stick together like this.
Just something I like to do, before turning on the mixer, I move the beaters around to partially mix in the powdered sugar. I don't really want it looking like Christmas in my kitchen :)
When these brownies are finished baking is "debateable." It really depends on how gooey you'd like them to be :) I bake mine for 40 minutes and it looks like this. Just so you know, there's 3 layers to these brownies: the bottom cake layer, the very gooey middle, and the thin crust that bakes on top.
While it cools, the top will sink down, but that is okay. One of my favorite things about this brownie is the crumbly top.
Here they are finished :) These two were still relatively warm so they were just ooey gooey all over the place. The longer they sit, the more they set up.