National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

Wow! National Cream Cheese Brownie Day? Have we all died and gone to heaven? Certainly there’s no reason to complain at having a justifiable day to indulge in such a delectable treat!

When thinking of cheesecake, most people’s thoughts go to that creamy colored, tangy bite of feathery goodness with a graham cracker crust. How on earth could that be paired with the fudgy, gooey sweetness of a brownie, without creating a culinary war on the taste buds? Quite easily, in fact!

And that wonderful person who was the first to think of it? Well, they may just need to be named as a hero!

How to Celebrate National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

How to celebrate this very important day of the year? There are certainly many ways to choose from! Sometimes called “Cheesecake Brownies”, this delicious treat is sure to delight the taste buds. Consider these ways to celebrate National Cream Cheese Brownie Day:

Enjoy a National Cream Cheese Brownie Day Gathering

It’s certainly a day to celebrate, which can be better with friends! So that means you can make more than one recipe to sample and share with your loved ones, right? In fact, bring a little life and pep into the middle of dreary February by getting some friends or family together to enjoy some cream cheese brownies with you. (For those friends who don’t particularly prefer the taste of cream cheese or who don’t eat dairy, it’s simple to mix up a plain batch!)

Host a Brownie Bakeoff

For those who don’t have time to make the treats in advance, holding a National Cream Cheese Brownie Day Bake Off is a great way to get friends together to celebrate the day–and do the baking for you! Have each guest bring a different recipe and host a blind taste test to see whose is the best!

Best Pairings for Brownies

While they certainly make a lovely treat all on their own, many people like to pair their brownies with other things as a complete ensemble. Try these pairings on National Cream Cheese Brownie Day:

• Milk. Nothing beats enjoying a warm brownie with a tall glass of milk! For those who are dairy free, an almond, soy or other non-dairy substitute works just as well.
• Ice Cream. A big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of a warm brownie is perfect. Because almost any dessert can be made even better when it’s “al a mode”.

Whip Up Some Yummy Cream Cheese Brownies

Head into to your kitchen and find your favorite brownie recipe. Got it? Great! Now, grab your favorite brand of cream cheese to add to your brownies.

There are so many on the market now that it is up to you which you use, but Philadelphia Brand (by Kraft) is a popular brand that can be found all around the world. Those who want to make this a bit less calorie-filled can choose a “light” or “low-fat” version of cream cheese to mix into their brownies.

Other ingredients that will likely be needed to make these brownies from scratch might include butter, sugar, eggs, cocoa powder, flour, salt and vanilla extract.

Now that you have these things, it’s time to get going. Mix up the brownies, then fold the cream cheese mixture into the batter to create an appealing swirled texture. Bake as the recipe instructs, allow them to cool, and then get down to some serious celebrating!

Don’t have a favorite recipe? Try typing “cream cheese brownie” into a search engine and don’t be shocked at the number of options at your fingertips.

This is actually a great day even for those who don’t possess strong culinary skills. Instead of making brownies from scratch, a boxed mix will do just fine for those who aren’t prolific bakers. Once the cream cheese is folded in, no one will even guess that it was prepared using a pre-made box!

Excuse me while I leave you here so that I can go make my own batch… Happy National Cream Cheese Brownie Day!

History of National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

In order to completely understand National Cream Cheese Brownie Day, it is important to get a handle on the parts that go into making it – cream cheese and brownies!

Cream cheese, or at least certain forms of it, have been found in culinary records in Europe for hundreds of years. This delicious ingredient was mentioned in England as early as 1583! In France, the earliest records show up about 1651. So clearly, at least in Europe, they have a head start on enjoying that morning cream cheese fix.

Made from a combination of milk and cream, what is now recognized today as cream cheese didn’t make its first appearance on the market in the United States until 1873, when it was first mass produced. The product that eventually led to the Philadelphia Brand was introduced by William A. Lawrence. From Chester, New York, he was the dairyman who took this yummy cheese from the farms to the tabletops – and eventually into brownies!

Speaking of brownies – the fudgy, decadent and sinful vice that most people absolutely love shows up in American culinary records in 1906. However, something called “brownies” had been around through most of the 1800s.

Legend has it that Bertha Palmer, of Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, asked a pastry chef to create something new that would fit into a boxed lunch for the ladies attending the Chicago World’s Colombian Expo in 1893.

The modern day version of brownies first appeared in a cookbook published by the Boston Cooking School. This recipe is not quite the gooey goodness that many people expect today since it only calls for two squares of baking chocolate, but it can be credited with starting what has now become a true passion.

The combination of yummy brownies and delicious cream cheese seems like a great reason to celebrate–and so National Cream Cheese Brownie Day was placed on the calendar!