this gets complicated

Remember how I said my sis's recipes were usually pretty easy? This one isn't. You'd think anything starting with a box mix might not have this many ingredients, but you'd be wrong!

By the way, I haven't made this one yet. It's just that I got some tacky glue on the recipe and I keep sticking it to things I don't really want to stick it to: the kitchen counter, the laptop screen, so on, so forth. I can't get the glue off and it can't go into my recipe box this way, so for your reading and baking pleasure:

Peanut Butter - Toffee Cheesecake Brownies

By the way? Generally my opinion is that the more flavors you have going on, the less likely it is to be spectacular. But as I said, haven't made it yet. One of you can do it and tell me. Okay? 

1 19.5 oz pkg chocolate fudge brownie mix

1/2 c canola oil

1/4 c water

2 eggs

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 c creamy peanut butter

1 oz pkg milk chocolate toffee bits (like Heath)

1 c milk chocolate chips

3 T whipping cream

You know, I just did some math. I know groceries are expensive in AK, but this looks like a substantial upfront commitment of funds to a recipe I'm not sure is going to be spectacular. My baklava might be cheaper to make than this. (And no, I'm not sharing that recipe, I promised I wouldn't). Big Sis better be right when she says this is really, really good. Oh, by the way, she says you can use the low-fat versions of the cream cheese and condensed milk, but c'mon, what is the point once you look at the rest of the ingredients?

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9X13 pan.

Stir brownie mix, oil, water, and eggs 50 strokes. (? Dare ya to do 49 and pick out the difference.) Spread in pan. Beat cream cheese on medium til fluffy. Add milk and peanut butter, beat until smooth. Stir in 1 cup of the toffee bits (not all!) Spoon over the batter and spread out evenly. Bake 30-40 minutes or until cheesecake layer is set and edges are light golden-brown. Cool on rack 30 minutes, refrigerate 40 minutes.

In small bowl, microwave chocolate chips and cream uncovered on high 40-60 seconds or until melted. (Note: be really really sure of the power of your microwave before you do this. Microwave-burned chocolate is a smell you can never quite rid your brain of.) Stir til smooth. Spread over cheesecake layer. Sprinkle with remaining toffee bits. Cool 1 hour before serving.

Big Sis is a nurse. I know that well, I call her every time I do something stupid and injure myself. She's pretty free with the advice. (and pretty rude about family members who don't call for free medical advice. Insists it shows a lack of trust or some such thing.) At any rate, I think this is quite possibly the first recipe I've ever gotten from her where the fact that she's a nurse came through. I'd just made it through transcribing the part of the recipe partly covered by glue when I came across the "beat cream cheese" part and stared at the next word, if that's what you want to call it.  A few moments later some part of my undergraduate Latin class along with some high school science kicked in and I remembered that a c with a line over it translated to with in medical jargon. (c with line=Latin "cum"=with).  

Me? I just tend to use the w/ abbreviation for with, but hey, I'm not a nurse. I also don't usually feel the need to tell people to beat cream cheese with a mixer: to me the mixer is self-evident (just like the fact that in the frosting step the bowl you use to melt the chocolate should be microwaveable), but then again, that's why she's a better recipe transcriber than I am. So if you're struggling in that middle step with getting the cream cheese fluffy, go ahead and pull out the mixer. Sorry. But that's why you should read a recipe all the way through before you start to make it.  If your bowl exploded in the microwave? Serves you right, not sorry about that one.