Father’s Day is coming. That probably means you should be stocking up on beef, and beer, and brats, and everything else men in sitcoms and Super Bowl commercials appear to love. Me, I’ll just be over here shoving goat cheese into brownies and calling it a day.
See, my man doesn’t like beer. He doesn’t eat much red meat, and he’s not even that fond of bacon. (Which fact did not prevent me from including it in my Dude Food Magic Bars from last Father’s Day.) What he does like is really intense chocolate desserts, and salty goodness.What I like is making mild-mannered brownies a little bit weird, so when you combine those two passions, you get these Goat Cheese Brownies. Like a marriage, this dessert is built on compromise, mutual respect, and lots of chocolate and butter.
I’m ready to make goat cheese desserts A Thing, are you with me? My girl Danguole over at 10th Kitchen is already hard at work fighting the good fight and pairing it with shortcakes and strawberries. The Kitchn had a great goat cheese cheesecake they featured a few months ago. But I can’t help but feeling we could be doing so much more with goat cheese! Its mild, slightly tangy flavor and soft texture makes it the perfect replacement for cream cheese in so many desserts, and with summer berries all around us, I think now is the time to get adventurous. Let’s stuff it in cakes! Let’s put it in tarts! Let’s pipe it on cupcakes! C’mon, let’s get wild.
I took my own advice and added goat cheese to two layers of these brownies. Soft chevre is mixed into the dark, fudgy brownie base, and then used to make the light and fluffy goat cheese frosting that’s sandwiched between the brownies and chocolate glaze. My original intention was to just make the brownies and glaze, but after I tasted the baked brownies, I was concerned. The goat cheese gave the brownies a wonderfully rich and decadent texture, but the flavor was subtle and hidden underneath the chocolate. “This is no good!” I cried. “I need more goat. BRING ME MORE GOAT!!”
So, the goat cheese frosting was born, and it’s one of my favorite elements in the finished bars. It helps lighten the otherwise heavy brownies, and it’s the perfect blend of sweet and tangy. And even thought I’ve written the word “goat” about fifty times in this post, thisis truly not a goaty dessert. If you gave it to someone and didn’t tell them what it was, they would probably just think it was an amazing cream cheese frosting! Pinky swear. Don’t fear the goat.
Oh, and the salt! One quick plug for this really fun pyramid salt I picked up at Trader Joe’s. I bought it on a whim (story of my TJs life) and was delighted to find that the flakes were really and truly shaped like pyramids. I may have an uninformed palate but I don’t think it tastes much different from my other flaked sea salt. However, I love the giant crystals and may or may not have hummed “Walk Like An Egyptian” as I crumbled them atop the brownies. You don’t need a fancy geometric salt to make these, but I do recommend a pinch of a crunchy, flaked salt on top—it makes all the difference and really provides the perfect finish.
Now go out there and get goaty!
⇒ Click Here for the Recipe - Goat Cheese Brownies
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