Hershey’s Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Hershey, Pennsylvania. For some reason, I’d just never been, despite hearing great things, despite loving theme parks, and despite my deep infatuation with, well, chocolate. In anticipation of the trek, I made brownies.

Brownies with deep ribbons of cream cheese.  Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies.

Brownies with a full on Hershey bar melted right on top.

I know you’re drooling now, so I won’t make it any worse on you. Let’s just leave it at Holy Amazing. Try them, and let me know what you think!

Hershey’s Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Yield: 16-20 Brownies

Ingredients

10 Tablespoons butter
3 ounces Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Chips
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Unsweetened Hershey’s Cocoa Powder
For the Cream Cheese Swirl
8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
Full Sized Hershey Bars, to top

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper long enough to hang over on two sides, making it easier to remove from pan once baked. Spray pan and paper.
2. In small saucepot over medium heat, or in the microwave, melt chocolate and butter until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, vanilla with the sugar. Slowly add in chocolate mixture until well combined.
4. In small bowl, sift together cocoa, salt and flour. Add mixture to rest of batter. Do not overmix.
5. Pour batter into prepared baking pan.

For the Cream Cheese Swirl
Beat ingredients together until smooth. Pour over brownie batter. Use sharp knife to swirl together.
Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, or until just set and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Top with full sized hershey Bars and return to still warm (but off) oven until lightly melted. Allow to cool. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired. Enjoy!

HersheyPark

So…Hershey.

It just so happens I managed to visit on the hottest day on the millenium, and lucky for me, HersheyPark is made of asphault. Plus, I had a four year old in tow, plus my sister, plus her three year old. Yeah, there were more of us, but my sister and I were left to tend the little guys while the big guys all rode fun rides. There were so many great looking coasters that I didn’t get to experience! (Like Fahrenheit and Skyrush – wow!)

I did love that there were so many things for the little boys to ride, though. And ride they did. The Frontier Flyers. The Reese’s XTreme Cup Challenge (We loved the guns and all the shooting!). The Scrambler. The Howler. Bizzy Bees. The Mini Pirate Ship. (Look at those faces!)

The Hotel Hershey

After a few hours, we’d had about all the heat we could take, so we headed over to the most incredible hotel ever – The Hotel Hershey.

Sweet Mother of Chocolate.

Absolutely gorgeous. Four Star, Four Diamond. They gave me chocolate bars at check in…so I couldn’t have cared less how many diamonds they had after that. I died on the mountain of pillows and soft duvets upon entering the room. And there was more chocolate in the room. There was even cocoa in some of the luxurious bath products! I loved the color scheme of the hotel as much as anything – pale blues and teals with cream and brown – so elegant and tasteful.

Chocolatey.

Delicious.

The Hershey Grill

But – not as delicious as some of the meals I had. For dinner, we had Pork Belly at the Hershey Grill (I can’t even discuss it with you for fear I may go into DTs) and then lunch the following day at Harvest, located behind the Hotel Hershey. (Thanks to my friend Anna who heads up the PR for Hershey.) The desserts here? Incredible little shot glasses of mixed candy awesomeness.

Hershey’s Chocolate World

Of all the things we did though, I have to say my favorite was the Chocolate World. Here we watched a fun 4D movie on Hershey – Seven loved it, and I did too), but the highlight of the day was making our own chocolate bars. Aprons and hairnets led to personalized candy. We could choose what we wanted IN our chocolate (I chose raspberry and nuts, Seven chose extra chocolate and sprinkles), and then we even got to design our box. Such a cute and fun souvenir from the visit!

I hope to return again when it’s cooler – I have so much more to eat! Plus, those rides are still calling my name.

Have you been? If not, you should!

(Take me with you. Please?)

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for my review of anything Hershey related, but was provided tickets to the parks and lodging. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.