I’ve been missing from all social media and even this website for a while, posting maybe a recipe a week or so. But if you’ve been thinking I’ve quit: You’re wrong!
I’m still baking and making and creating, and photographing and editing and writing.
Just a lot less than before.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock at this point you must have heard at least about ChatGPT. We’re living through an era of artificial intelligence renaissance of sorts y’all (in fact we have been for at least 5 years or so) and as a person who have been in AI research for 20 years, I’m fascinated. Work has consumed everything.
In fact at this point, I’m not sure if I should keep making recipes or just let an LLM (large language model) spit them out :’)
Well, hopefully there’s still some human touch that’s necessary and I sure love to meditate on this creative process.
Well, of all the baking adventures of late, here’s the one I’m most proud of. I made these brownie “cheesecake” bars, (mini-batch of course) and I made them with no cream cheese, whaaaat.
Yep I made them with greek yogurt and they were somehow indistinguishable from regular cheesecake. Creamy, thick, full of flavor.
Now I want you all to experience the same. Let me know how it goes!
PS. I haven’t tried this but I’m 99% sure you can make these with plant-based dairy-free yogurt alternatives. Just make sure it’s greek style (thick and strained) and you should be good. Maybe we should ask ChatGPT š
Mini-batch Brownie Yogurt Cheesecake
Equipment
- Small baking pan or muffin pan
Ingredients
Brownie layer
- 2 tbsp (plant) butter, melted (28 g)
- 2 tbsp sugar (24 g)
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder (12 g)
- pinch of salt
- drop of vanilla
- 1/8 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp flour (15 g) gf all purpose if desired
- 1 tbsp (optional) chocolate chips (15 g)
Yogurt "cheesecake" layer
- 1/3 cup thick greek yogurt, or plant-based alternative (85 g) has to be thick and strained, or use the cashew base in the recipe notes below
- 1 tbsp nut/seed butter (16 g) the flavor is mild but use almond/cashew butter for a more neutral taste
- 2 tbsp sugar (24 g)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch (7 g) flour might also work
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a small baking pan with parchment (or use muffin liners). I'll link to the pans I use in the recipe notes.
- In a bowl add your butter and microwave 30 sec to melt, let it cool a minute.
- Add sugar, cocoa, vanilla, salt and whisk (or fork) until blended smooth. Add flour and baking powder and stir to combine. (Optional) stir in chocolate chips. If your batter ends up being too thick (it should be like chocolate cookie dough) add a tsp of water. Spread the batter into the pan, set aside. We will bake the two layers together at once.
- In a bowl add all cheesecake ingredients and whisk (or fork) to combine until very smooth. You can use a hand mixer too.
- Pour the cheesecake batter on top the unbaked brownie layer and bake 20-30 minutes until mostly set around the corners with a slight wobbly center.
- Let this cool completely, cover and refrigerate a few hours, ideally overnight.
- Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- I used Fage 0% for this recipe, but it should work with any greek or greek-style yogurt such as coconut or almond. In fact I might give this a try today and let you know.
- Here are the 3.75 x 5 inch pans I like to use for my mini-batch bar recipes. You can use any small pan and slice differently, or use muffin tins and make 4 single-serving cups.
- You can use cashews instead of the dairy-free cheese in this recipe. Soak 1 cup raw cashews (120 g) in hot water about 1 hour, drain and blend with 1/4 cup or so nut milk (or soaking water) until smooth. This will make about 1 cup dairy-free cheese substitute.
Eva
Is there a step missing between baking the brownie layer and adding the cheesecake layer?
Elif
Hi Eva – No! both layers will be baked together at once for simplicity! Is that what you meant? I emphasized this in the instructions. Let me know how this turns out for you!