Chocolate Chip Cookie for "One"

Yesterday I had a craving for a chocolate chip cookie so strong I could barely see straight. Does that ever happen to you? Probably not. I had also been cooped up all day in stormy Texas weather and found myself doing a lot of standing around in the kitchen. Reaching for a cheese curd, eating a cracker, looking through the freezer. But nothing was quite doing it for me so I decided to make myself a cookie. You guys, it really improved the overall quality of my day.

Recipe

• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon flour
• 1/3 cup sugar (1/2 brown and 1/2 white)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon corn starch
• 1 egg yolk
• Dash vanilla
• Dash salt
• Handful chocolate chips

Melt the butter in a bowl, then mix in all other ingredients except the chocolate chips.  Set the oven to 350. While it's preheating, place the cookie dough in the freezer to cool it down (otherwise the cookie will turn out really flat since the butter is already warm and will spread in the oven).  Cool for at least 15 minutes. Mix in the chocolate chips, then place in a flattened ball on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 14-15 minutes.

Patriotic Fruit Pizza

Don’t be fooled by my artistic ability.  I was fooled momentarily when I finished this, but then I remembered how easy it was. You can do it, too. I promise.

We had my husband’s family over for a Memorial Day BBQ, and this dessert was my token of appreciation to all that have served our country.  It was also a mini token of appreciation to myself, I suppose, because I LOVE FRUIT PIZZA.

Historically I have always made my own sugar cookie crust, but this year I have turned over a new leaf: I like easy.  I bought the sugar cookie dough (gasp!!). And you know what? I’m going to do it again.

Recipe

·       2 Pillsbury sugar cookie dough packages (the roll size)

·       1.5 packages light cream cheese (the type that comes in the box)

·       2 cups powdered sugar

·       1 tablespoon vanilla

·       4 tablespoons butter

·       Blueberries and raspberries or strawberries for topping

Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with parchment paper.  Unwrap the sugar cookie dough, and work with your hands for a little bit to soften it up.  Press it into the pan, using a rolling pin to flatten it out.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown.  Let cool.

Using a hand mixer, mix the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a bowl.  Remove the cooled sugar cookie bar from the dish, and use a serrated knife to cut off the edges into a nice, even flag. Frost with cream cheese frosting, then use the berries to decorate. 

I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend and are recovering from your food hangover!

Applesauce Bread with Cinnamon Swirl

I have had a life long obsession with these applesauce muffins that my mom used to make, and I find most Sunday mornings I wake up wanting one.  But, making the same thing every weekend doesn't make for good blogging material, now does it? I added a few twists this past weekend, and %$%^ $$%#. Pardon my language, but this was good.  So moist, great flavor, loved the cinnamon swirl. In fact next time I might add two swirls.

Recipe

• 1 egg
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 cup original applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves

Cinnamon Swirl

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a mixing bowl, beat the egg and sugars together. Add the buttermilk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix into the sugar mixture, just until combined.  Prepare the cinnamon swirl in a separate bowl.

Grease a 5x9 bread pan, and pour in half of the batter. Sprinkle the cinnamon swirl on top, then add  the rest of the bread batter. Loosely cover with aluminum foil (the bread rises quite a bit, so make sure you tent it). Bake for 45 minutes, then uncover the foil and bake for 10-15 more.  If your bread rises into you aluminum foil like mine did and ripped off the top when you removed it - don't panic. Baking uncovered the last 10 minutes will undo most of the damage. Mine is gone already, shoot.

Chewy Granola Bars

My husband eats a granola bar every day.  When I first met him they were cinnamon raisin, he now favors a peanut butter chocolate chip.  He challenged me to try to make them. I did. He tasted them.  He loved them.  He actually said 'they're almost too good to be true.'

YES!! I love when something is such a success. And so practical.  We're practically a sustainable household now that we don't need store bought granola bars.

I made two variations: cinnamon raisin and peanut butter with a butterscotch drizzle.  If I had to pick which one was better I say the peanut butter, because I love peanut butter and I love butterscotch (you could easily switch up with chocolate). Plus, they turned out a little softer and less chewy than the cinnamon raisin.  The cinnamon raisin are delicious if you love cinnamon and raisin.  They are a bit firmer and perhaps less dessert-tasting than the PB.

Recipe: Peanut Butter with Butterscotch Drizzle

• 2 1/4 cups rolled oats (oatmeal)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 cup honey crunch wheat germ (or toasted)
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (don't use natural, I don't think)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Glaze

• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Preheat the oven to 350.  Toss the oatmeal with the canola oil, and toast on a baking sheet for 10 minutes in the oven.  Pour into a bowl, and add the wheat germ (you can find this in the cereal aisle).  Reduce the oven to 300 degrees.  In a saucepan, melt the butter; whisk in the honey, peanut butter, brown sugar, and salt. Bring to a very low boil, remove from heat and add the vanilla.  Stir the sauce into the toasted oats.

Line an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking dish with parchment paper and spray with nonstick spray.  Press the granola into the dish, and bake at 300 for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Let cool completely.

To make the glaze, melt the chips over low heat in a double boiler with the butter and corn syrup, and whisk until it comes together (it doesn't look like it's going to but it does).   It doesn't melt very easy and is a little sticky once it does, but if you can drizzle (I just used the whisk I was stirring with), I promise you it dries perfectly. Doesn't smear, doesn't stick, it's just a perfect consistency.  Drizzle it over the bars and let cool. Cut into rectangle or squares.

Recipe: Cinnamon Raisin
Simply reduce the oats to 2 cups, replace the 1/3 cup peanut butter with another cup of honey.  Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon into the oat/wheat germ mixture, along with 1/2 cup raisins. Omit the glaze.

Then you can wrap them up for mobility purposes:

 

**Note:  I recently made a vegan version of this recipe, where I replaced the 1/4 cup butter with 3 tablespoons of canola oil, and oil for butter in the glaze. They turned out almost the same!

Beer Bread

This recipe may not necessarily fit in with your 2014 weight loss goals, but let me tell you it most definitely fits in with all your other goals. Want to have more fun? Fits. Want to become more popular? Fits. Want to eat more carbs? Drink more beer? Fits. Fits.

My mom used to make beer bread, and I loved it. Her recipe called for self-rising flour, but I didn't have any. So I added baking powder, and it turned out just scrumptious.  Next time I might add some sharp cheddar cheese to the top, just to stick with the Wisconsin theme.

Recipe

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 can beer
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Sea salt (optional)

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and beer together in a bowl.  Pour into a greased 5x8 bread pan.  Bake at 375 for 45 minutes; brush with melted butter and bake for 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with sea salt and serve warm.

Easy Homemade AMAZING Funfetti Cake

I've spoken before about my fondness for Sally's Baking Addiction, and this cake couldn't be a better example. I will make this forever, for the rest of my life, every day.  Actually probably not every day because those sprinkles are very expensive.

Luckily, when we were in NYC last weekend, we got to see John's cousin AND celebrate her birthday. I love celebrating birthdays! And a birthday without cake is no celebration at all.  So my sister and I spent one baby-holding afternoon baking this cake on the side, and I have never been so pleased with a recipe. It's very easy, doesn't require layering, doesn't have 5 million ingredients, and it's flavorful and moist beyond belief.   Thanks Vee for turning a year older that day so we could all eat Funfetti cake on your behalf.  You can find the recipe here. 

 

Brownie Oatmeal Cookies

I make brownies from a mix. I used to be ashamed to admit that, but now I embrace it. In fact I'll say it again: I make brownies from a mix.

How did you do it, Mr. Hines? I don't even care, keep the secrets for yourself. Whatever you did to the modern day brownie mix is magical. I hope you are sunning yourself on a chair made of gold in some exotic tropical location, enjoying the earnings of your genius contribution to society.

So, I can't very well put brownies on my blog (as clearly all the work is not my own), but I can put brownie oatmeal cookies on here. These remind me of cookies my mom made when I was a kid, but I used a brownie mix because I had one at home. And they took 3.4 seconds to make. And I wanted some chocolate cookie dough as a snack.

Recipe

• 1 package brownie mix(DUNCAN HINES!!)
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all ingredients, then refrigerate for 5-10 minutes. Bake for 10-11 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet, and top with ice cream immediately.  HURRY.

Butterfinger Blondies

Similar to my challenge every Sunday of what I can do with our ripened bananas, after Halloween I love thinking about all the things I can do with leftover candy. I spent a good portion of my weekend googling ideas for what to do with leftover candy.  Turns out, there is a whole community out there that specializes in Butterfinger recipes.  Things like that make me happy. I have never met a Butterfinger-related item that I haven't liked.  And these were no exception...recipe here.

Gooey, chocolate-y, and butterfinger-y.  Highly recommend. 

Brown Butter Pumpkin Creep Cakes

My goal was to accomplish two things this weekend: make something that involved canned pumpkin, and make cupcakes that I could call Creep Cakes. Done and done.  Do you see that mummy towards the back? Yes that's a mummy.  We are all ready for Halloween at the Braley household.

 

Why Creep Cakes, you ask? Two reasons: 1) the name makes me giggle, and 2) a 'creep' isn't really defined as anything other than something that's creepy. So really there are no standards or expectations of what a Creep Cake should look like (i.e., you can get away with sub-par decorating skills).

Onto the recipe...these have to be the best pumpkin cupcakes ever. I modified the recipe from this site, to include applesauce, more spices, and some extra flour. I also used a maple cream cheese frosting rather than the salted caramel.  The browned butter in here provides a wonderfully nutty flavor that complements the pumpkin and spices perfectly.  I think. I don't really have any formal training that allows me to say that with total authority.

Cupcake Recipe

• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room temp
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon all spice
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 

Frosting Recipe

• 1 package cream cheese
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 325. Brown the butter by melting it in a fry pan over medium-low heat until golden brown. Skim off some of the foam on top, then add to a large mixing bowl. Cream with the sugars, then add in the eggs and vanilla. Beat several minutes. Add the pumpkin and applesauce.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.  Incorporate into the butter mixture.  Fill a muffin tin with liners, then pour in the batter so each one is about 3/4 full.  Bake for about 20 minutes.  Let cool.

To make the frosting, beat all ingredients until smooth. For a thicker frosting, add more powdered sugar.  If you want to turn them into Creep Cakes (and why wouldn't you),  you can use a variety of candies/decorators to turn them into witches, ghosts, bats, and unidentifiable creatures. I found that I excelled in the unidentifiable creature category.  Colored sprinkles, M&Ms, black licorice, and colored gel pens were my key tools.  Oh and I used the white mystery Airhead for the mummy.  Which, now that I think of it, probably tastes really horrific on a pumpkin cupcake. Oh well, the future eater can remove them.

If Creep Cakes aren't your style, or perhaps you are serving these somewhere that requires a bit more class, a simple dusting of sugary sprinkles will do the trick.

Banana Spice Cookies

Do I have too many banana-related recipes on this blog? Sorry. I easily fall into banana, corn, and potato ruts. They really suck me in. And I always have ripe bananas on Sundays that are calling my name, literally. I don't know how they do it.

These are soft, fluffy, and puffy cookies. I am in love with them.  They taste like banana bread in the form of a cookie, with a hint of fall spice.  I modified the recipe from Simply Recipes, a cooking website that has yet to lead me astray. I think because she sometimes uses the term 'test kitchen.'  Test kitchen??? My test kitchen is my kitchen. And now that I've said kitchen 4 times I'm realizing what a funny word that is. Kitchen.

 Recipe

• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large mashed ripe bananas
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
• pinch salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350.  Cream the butter and sugars together, then beat in the egg, vanilla, and bananas. In a separate bowl mix the flour, spices, and baking soda. Mix into the sugar mixture just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop onto a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for about 11 minutes.

Vanilla Cream Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars

If gooey is your thing, you will love these. If gooey is not your thing, you won’t. But who isn’t in to gooey baked goods?  Nobody that I associate with.

These are rich, chocolate-y, oatmeal-y, caramel-y goodness. There actually is no caramel involved, but the sweetened condensed milk has that effect on things.

Recipe

·       2 cans (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

·       1 ½ tablespoons vanilla

·       1 cup chocolate chips

·       2 sticks butter

·       1 cup brown sugar

·       2 eggs

·       1 teaspoon vanilla

·       2 ½ cups flour

·       2 cups old fashioned oats

·       ½ teaspoon baking soda

·       ½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 375.  Mix the milk, vanilla, and chocolate chips in a bowl. Set aside.  In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the vanilla and eggs.  Slowly mix in the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt.  Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan. Spread about half of the oat mixture into the bowl, and press down. Bake for about 8-10 minutes.  Pour the milk mixture over it (adding more chocolate chips if your heart desires), then drop the remaining oat mixture in clumps on top. It should be scattered-looking so the milk seeps on top and creates a delicious-looking effect.  Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing. Actually, I refrigerated mine a bit to help fully set the condensed milk mixture. I don't have that kind of time when I'm baking and sampling. 

 

Banana Bread for One

Do you love banana bread so much you could eat it every day? Do you live with someone who does not necessarily share that same sentiment? Can you not justify making an entire loaf for just one person? Do you live with someone who is Gluten Free?

If you've answered 'yes' to any of the questions above, help is on the way. Below, you will find a step-by-step process for creating a single serving of banana bread in under a minute.  Now you can make banana bread every day and no one else has to eat it.

Recipe

• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 mashed ripe banana
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• Dash salt
• Handful of chocolate chips or nuts

Mix the butter and sugar together in a mug or small bowl. Beat in the egg, then add the vanilla and mashed banana.  Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips. Microwave for 45 seconds, and EAT. Preferably with milk or ice cream.

For further support on single-serving desserts, you can contact me through this blog. 

Soft-Baked Funfetti Cookies

Well, if this isn't a fun way to start your weekend I don't know what is.  I love funfetti cake, and I love the cookies you can make out of the mix, and I had a craving for both.  I didn't have the mix, but luckily I ran into this recipe. And luckily, I had lots o' sprinkles. THEY ARE SO GOOD. My husband practically ate the whole batch, and he never does that. I might, but he doesn't. I am making more this weekend. Do it now.

Maple Chocolate Chip Cookies

I haven't forgotten I have a blog. I just haven't been home to cook (or write about it for that matter).  When I finally had a few minutes Sunday morning, I decided to make cookies of course. I was craving pancakes (or syrup, rather), so I decided to add syrup to my cookies. A very logical addition, if you really think about it.

Recipe

• 2 sticks butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup light maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch salt
• Chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. In a mixing bowl combine the butter, brown sugar, syrup, eggs, vanilla, and coffee (I think this is optional - I had it sitting there so threw it in). Mix the dry ingredients together and then incorporate into the sugar mixture. Throw in lots of chocolate chips (white chocolate would be good too).  Drop them in spoonfuls onto a baking sheet, and bake for about 9 minutes.  These are very soft, almost muffin-like cookies. If you want them less puffy, use 2 1/4 cup flour. Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Red Velvet Cookies

Am I the worst blogger ever lately? Yes. Yes I am. But I have been traveling nonstop and have had little to no kitchen access in the last few weeks. I feel incomplete and restless.

I made these for Mother's Day, and what better way to celebrate our wonderful moms than with bright red decadent chocolate cookies?

Recipe (adapted from Duncan Hines)

• 1 box Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix
• 6 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 package cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350.  Mix the cake mix, melted butter, eggs, and 1 tsp. vanilla in a bowl. Add in the chocolate chips. In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Drop the cream cheese mixture into the cookie dough, and give it a couple LIGHT swirls to incorporate. Don't over-mix or you'll end up with pink cookies.  Chill for about 20 minutes (this is optional, but you'll get fuller cookies if you refrigerate).  Drop in tablespoon-fuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake for 9-11 minutes. 

I hope to have more recipes in the coming weeks, but I just looked at my American Airlines account and I have 7 upcoming flights in my queue. SEVEN.   I may have to get back into the flight attendants' quarters and help them mix drinks and warm up the nuts or something.  If I did that I suppose I could give myself all pistachios and cashews, and leave the almonds for everyone else. Hm...

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

The idea here was to add as many delicious ingredients as possible in to one cookie.  I wanted to add Nutella too, but I ran out.

I used this recipe, but I added a ripe mashed banana, and used all chocolate chips rather than Reese's.  If there is a spare ripe banana sitting in my fruit bowl, you can bet that it will make itself into the next thing I bake.  No description necessary here, these were tasty. The addition of the banana made these really moist, they tasted more like banana bread meets cookie. I think they liked each other.

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

MAKE THESE NOW.  I don't care if you're at work, or out with friends, or at the gym. Run home and make these now. Actually if you're at the gym stay for 3 more hours and then run home so you can eat all 12 of them.

I woke up Sunday morning craving a cinnamon roll, but knew I didn't have the ability to wait for anything that had to rise. So I googled 'cinnamon roll muffin,' and ended up making these.  I doubled the icing recipe (why not) and also added 4 tablespoons of melted butter (great decision). I loved absolutely everything about these, that's all I can say.

Best served warm out of the oven, though not so much better that I could stop myself from eating them on Monday and Tuesday as well.

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars

These were a mistake. A wonderful mistake. I was hoping to make these Chocolate Revel Bars, which are amazing and one of my favorite bar cookies. I mixed the oatmeal cookie bar portion, then realized that I didn't have sweetened condensed milk for the chocolate filling. I thought I could make my own, but it turns out that is a 2 hour process of reducing milk and sugar. No thank you. So, I made a cream cheese filling to replace the chocolate filling, and added lots o' chocolate chips. So good.

All you do is make the oatmeal bar mixture here (mix ingredients up to the sweetened condensed milk), plus add about a cup of chocolate chips (I added a mix of white and chocolate). Then, make the cream cheese filling:

Recipe

• 1 package cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon flour

Preheat the oven to 350, and grease a baking pan. Spread 2/3 of the oatmeal bar mixture into the pan. In a bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together. Add in the egg, then stir in the flour to combine.  Pour the cream cheese mixture over the cookie dough. Drop the remaining dough over the cream cheese in small pieces. 

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until top is lightly browned.

Chocolate Swirled Cheesecake with Oatmeal Crust (GF!)

I like the challenge of baking gluten free. My dad and sister are restricted by the diet, so when my parents were here last weekend I loved brainstorming dessert ideas.

I don’t love the flavor of gluten free flour, so I typically choose to bake things that don’t require flour at all. A couple weeks ago I made this brownie bottom cheesecake, and I loved the cheesecake part so much I decided to make it again, but with an oatmeal crust…with lots of brown sugar and honey! And chocolate swirled and mixed in!

I developed the crust recipe based on a few assumptions:

1.       Oatmeal tastes really good with brown sugar in it

2.       Honey couldn’t be a bad addition

3.       A cookie-like crust is fun, so let’s add an egg and some baking powder

4.       Everything should include butter

And it was a success! Add in a chocolate chip layer and a chocolate swirled-cheesecake, and you’re in business. The delicious dessert business.

Crust

• 3 cups Rolled Oats (buy GF to make sure, if required)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Chocolate chips (optional)

Cheesecake

• 3 packages cream cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups chocolate chips, melted

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and line a 9-inch spring form pan with parchment paper. Mix all the crust ingredients except the chocolate chips, then bake 350 for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle crust with layer of chocolate chips. Let cool.

Reduce the oven to 325. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl. Pour over the oatmeal crust. Melt the chocolate chips and then drop into glops on the cheesecake. Is glop a word? It seemed like the perfect description, but spell checker isn't buying it.

Finally, swirl the chocolate in with a toothpick. Bake for about an hour to an hour ten, then let cool and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Brownie Bottom Cheesecake with Toffee Bits

After taking a short hiatus from blogging - I've been traveling for work - I'd like to dive back in with a dessert, because that's where my heart is.  I was craving cheesecake, but also chocolate - so what better than to combine the two? Plus I was really dying to use my spring form pan. I don't know why, other than that I was organizing the cupboards the other day and realized I had never used mine. No time like the present. Easy peasy dessert recipe that is delicious and a little bit fancy (I think?)

Recipe

• 1 recipe Duncan Hines fudgy brownies + associated ingredients (2 eggs + oil + water)
• 3 packages light cream cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Heath toffee bits

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare the brownies as directed, and pour into a greased 9-inch spring form pan. Bake as directed, about 30 minutes.  Set aside to cool, and reduce the oven to 325.  Prepare the cheesecake; beat cream cheese, sugar, and sour cream together. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Pour over the brownie crust, then bake for about 1 hour, or until the center is just about set (barely jiggly).  Remove from the oven and use a knife to slide around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan.  Let cool 5 minutes, then sprinkle toffee bits (or any topping of your choice) around the edge.  Let cool completely, then refrigerate for at least four hours (I did overnight) before removing the top of the pan and serving.