I'm so happy to be posting again! Today's treat for Sweet Melissa Sundays is a giant pan of Black Bottom Brownies, picked for us to try by Cynthia of Bakingtherapist’s Blog, thank you Cynthia! The pan isn't really that giant, just a 9 by 13, but anytime I make brownies or bars in anything bigger than a 8 by 8 pan it seems like a giant batch to me.
Here are the brownies before going into the oven, notice that there aren't quite 2 cups of chocolate chips sprinkled over the top as called for in the recipe. I had measured out 2 cups and after sprinkling only about 1/2 cup I decided that would be plenty of chocolate chips on top. When I got started baking these I knew I would need quite a few eggs since the brownie layer and cheesecake layer both have eggs in them but I neglected to count out my eggs and only had 9 left when the recipe calls for 10 eggs and 2 yolks. Yikes, that's a lot of eggs! So I skipped the two yolks that were called for in the brownie layer (4 eggs plus 2 yolks were what the recipe requested) and in the cheesecake layer I used only 5 eggs instead of the 6 called for. I don't think these brownies suffered any adverse effects because I was short 3 eggs. One other change I made was to bake these at 350 instead of the 325 called for because I was using an insulated 9 by 13 pan and that bakes best at 350. Total baking time was around 50 minutes.
The kids really enjoyed these a little warm, after the cooling off period but before refrigeration overnight. I personally liked the better from the fridge. Husband was a no try because he hates cheesecake. They are very rich so be sure to cut them small if you give these a try. The recipe can be found in the Sweet Melissa Baking Book and I think it will also be posted at Cynthia's blog.