Cream Cheese Swirl Nutella Brownies

Europe thinks of Nutella like America thinks of peanut butter, namely that it makes pretty much anything about a thousand times better. I'm not willing to give up my peanut butter obsession, but I'm willing to concede that nutella brownies are both tasty and incredibly easy. Since I'm here in Eastern Europe and in a house with three other females all as happy to eat sweets as I am, I made a test run of nutella brownies to appease the chocolate-hazelnut obsession. When I made them the first time, though, I felt like they could have more character. I tend to like brownies with lots of different textures, so I add nuts and chocolate chips and layers, which is what I did with the nutella brownies the second time around. I added a cheesecake swirl layer to the top, and the brownies turned out moist and beautiful and so much better than the original. 

I did not take photos because I fail at life sometimes, but it is a combination
of this:and this:

Enjoy!

Cheesecake Swirl Nutella Brownies
For the brownies:
1 heaping cup Nutella
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
For the swirl:
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Prep: Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF/180C. Grease an 8x10 (or 8x8) pan or line it with foil.   
Make the brownies: Combine the nutella, eggs and flour in a large bowl and mix until smooth, then pour it into your prepared pan and smooth it out. In a separate bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla and beat until very smooth. Dollop it on top of your brownie batter as evenly as possible, then swirl them together with a knife. Don't let your knife go all the way to the bottom of the pan (you don't want to rip your foil), but do a lot of swirling so the two layers have a good mix. It's pretty easy to pull up some batter over the cream cheese with the tip of your knife to make the marbling more apparent.
Bake: Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean of brownie batter. I always err on the side of cooking less, because when these are overcooked they are dry and cakey and not good at all, but gooey brownies are delicious.