Cream Cheese Brownies

February ice storm took the power for sixteen hours. We had the generator and the fireplace and we were fine. Worked at the construction company in Lexington this week. The body holds. Most days.

Connie at the vet clinic, four shifts this week. Her back is tired. She does not say so. I see it. Mama is 85. She is the toughest person I have ever known. She still cooks every day in the company house in Evarts.

Chicken and dumplings Sunday. Connie's recipe. Drop dumplings, not rolled. Comfort food in three steps.

Travis called Tuesday. The landscaping company is busy. He sounds tired in a good way. Amber called from Louisville. Hospital is busy. Floor nurse to charge nurse to nurse manager — she is the most successful Hensley alive.

I sat on the porch with a bourbon at sundown. The fog was already settling in the hollow.

My back was tight after the wood-splitting Saturday. Took an Aleve. Slept eight hours. Got up.

Amber sent the kids' school photos this week. Nadia is taller every year. Marcus has Amber's serious face. Little Betty has Mama's eyes.

Connie made jam Saturday afternoon. Wild blackberries from the patch up the hollow. Twelve jars. The pantry is filling for winter.

I sat at the kitchen table Tuesday night working on the recipe project. Mama's soup beans. I cannot get the words right yet.

Read the paper at breakfast Tuesday. The county news is not great. The mines have not come back and they will not come back. The young people leave. The hollows empty. We stay.

Travis sent a photo of Earl Thomas riding on the mower with him at a job site. The boy is wearing a Hensley Landscaping T-shirt that's too big. Three generations on a mower. I saved the photo.

The creek was running clear Sunday afternoon. I watched a kingfisher work the riffle. Did not move for an hour. Some Sundays the watching is the worship.

Connie read aloud from a novel Tuesday evening while I worked on the bench. Some Appalachian writer she had picked up at the library in Whitesburg. The voice was the voice of where we live. We listened together.

The dog — old Beau, fifteen years old — slept by the wood stove all afternoon Tuesday. He used to be a hunting dog. Now he is a heating pad with opinions.

I split a half-cord of wood Saturday. Slowly. The back does not let me work fast anymore. It got done. The wood was for the smokehouse.

Drove the truck to the dump Saturday afternoon. Saw three deer crossing the road on the way back. The mountains have been giving back this year.

Drove to Pineville for parts Wednesday. The hardware store man knew me. We talked about the weather and the price of feed. Forty minutes for a five-minute errand. That is rural Kentucky.

Sunday service at Harlan First Baptist when we go. Pastor preached about Ruth and Boaz. The choir sang. Connie wore her gray dress.

Connie cut my hair on the porch Tuesday afternoon. She has been cutting my hair for forty years. The barber in Pineville cannot do what Connie does, which is also love.

Worked on a basement remodel job in Lexington. The work was good. The pay was good. The body is tired.

I sat on the porch with bourbon at sundown Friday. The fog rolled into the hollow the way it has every fog of every year. The porch was the porch. The bourbon was the bourbon.

I went up to Earl's grave at the Evarts cemetery Saturday. Brought a beer. Drank half. Poured the rest on the dirt. Some traditions are mine alone.

The chicken and dumplings were Sunday’s work, and Connie owned that stove that afternoon the way she owns most things — quietly and completely. But it was later in the week, with the jam jars lined up in the pantry and the wood split and stacked and old Beau snoring by the stove, that she made the brownies. Cream cheese brownies. She has been making them since before Travis was born. After the kind of week where the body holds but only barely, you want something from the oven that is worth the waiting — something that smells like the house is still yours.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 16

Ingredients

Brownie Layer
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Cream Cheese Layer
8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper, leaving overhang on two sides for easy lifting.
Make the brownie batter. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat or in a microwave-safe bowl. Remove from heat and stir in sugar until combined. Add eggs one at a time, stirring well after each. Stir in vanilla. Add cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder and mix until just combined — do not overmix.
Make the cream cheese layer. In a separate bowl, beat softened cream cheese with sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add egg and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated.
Layer and swirl. Spread about three-quarters of the brownie batter evenly into the prepared pan. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the top and spread gently to the edges. Drop remaining brownie batter by small spoonfuls over the cream cheese layer. Use a butter knife or skewer to swirl the two batters together in a figure-eight motion — four or five passes is enough.
Bake. Bake for 33–37 minutes, until the center is just set and a toothpick inserted in the brownie portion comes out with moist crumbs but not wet batter. Do not overbake.
Cool and cut. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack — at least one hour. Lift out using the parchment overhang and cut into 16 squares with a sharp knife, wiping the blade clean between cuts for neat edges.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cream Cheese Brownies — The Kind of Thing You Bake When the Hollow Gets Cold and the Week Was Long