Marguerites Cookbook

A cooking blog all about making vintage recipes from a cookbook we inherited from our grandmother

Cream Cheese Brownies

cream cheese brownies header

I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear enough (although I think I have), but I love desserts. Chocolate desserts might be my favorite, and brownies are near the top of the list. Since its been a few weeks since our last dessert, the Southern Lane Cake, I think it’s time to do another. These cream cheese brownies were a great treat.

Cream Cheese Brownies

Here’s what Marguerite’s friend Susie Matha had to say:

cream cheese brownies recipe

Susie also gave us the Coffee Cake recipe, which is one of my favorite recipes I think we’ve done on Marguerite’s Cookbook. So when it came time to make these brownies, I was hopeful they would be as much of a success as the coffee cake. To be honest, these brownies didn’t quite live up to the coffee cake, but they were still tasty. It was fun to make brownies completely from scratch, and we enjoyed working on making each of the layers for this interesting brownie recipe.

Brownies Cream Cheese

The cream cheese brownies turned out really nice. They were soft and moist and had great flavor. Both the chocolate layers and cream cheese layers were delicious, and the two mixed together well to make a wonderful brownie. We both enjoyed these brownies, and they disappeared pretty fast. I’m sure we’ll be making these again!

Marble Brownies

Cream Cheese Brownies
Print Recipe
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Cream Cheese Brownies
Print Recipe
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Ingredients
Chocolate Layer
Cheese Layer
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Melt chocolate and 3 tablespoons of butter over very low heat. Stir frequently. Cool.
  3. To make cheese layer, cream 3 ounces of cream cheese with 2 tablespoons of butter. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, creaming until fluffy. Blend in 1 egg, 1 tablespoon flour, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside.
  4. To make chocolate layer, beat 2 eggs until lightly colored. Slowly add 3/4 cups sugar; beat until thickened. Add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup flour.
  5. Blend in chocolate mixture, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.
  6. Spread half the chocolate batter in a greased 8 or 9 inch square pan. Top with cheese mixture. Spoon remaining chocolate patter over top. Zigzag knife through batter to marble. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
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Homemade Meatballs

Homemade Meatballs

As you may recall, my Italian heritage requires me to love all things pasta related, that includes spaghetti and meatballs. These homemade meatballs were very easy and I liked how plain they were (a real “shock” to those of you that know me personally.) But honestly, the nice plain flavor is not too overpowering, making these a great candidate for being added to any pasta dish, sauce, and the like.

Homemade Meatballs

Here is what Marguerite had to say:

Homemade Meatballs Recipe

You may have noticed, Marguerite’s original recipe called for a quarter pound of veal. We decided we did not want to go through the hassle of finding or paying for veal. As you may recall, we had issues with this earlier. Also, while some may think veal has a discernibly better flavor, both Aaron and I felt it was not necessary to include in this recipe. Veal-Schmeal! We just edited the amounts of each remaining meat to keep a decent ratio of beef to pork, as well as making sure to keep the total amount of ground meat to one pound. Make sense? If not just read the recipe below.

Homemade Meatballs

Marguerite’s recipe says that this amount of ingredients will make 16 meatballs. Our cooking of this recipe did not yield that many, however, we made some of ours way too large! Most of the ones in these photographs are an average size, but we (Aaron) did make a few monster meatballs that ended up larger than desired.

Homemade Meatballs

As mentioned above, they were a little plain. Not something I would serve on their own as an appetizer, but something to add to some pasta and sauce. Perhaps with her meatless spaghetti sauce, which we previously made? We will have to try them together sometime and get back to you.

The meatballs also reminded me of my mother’s meatloaf, and some insight into this recipe from Aaron’s mom proved that to be a valid thought. She told us that her dad, and Marguerite’s husband, Jim, liked meatloaf. The ingredients in this recipe were incredibly similar to the meatloaf that Marguerite would make for Jim, particularly the three different kinds of meat.

Homemade Meatballs

Aaron liked making these meatballs because they reminded him of making homemade meatballs with his mom. She had a different meatball recipe of her own, and if you want to hear about that recipe in the future, you should subscribe to our monthly newsletter! In contrast to these homemade meatballs, it’s very much an “eat on their own as an appetizer” recipe. Aaron thought these meatballs were yummy, but he is getting increasingly tired of all the finely chopped onion in these recipes, particularly because the Marguerite he remembered couldn’t stomach onions anymore and didn’t but them in anything she was planning on eating! I also make him do all the onion chopping…

 

Homemade Meatballs
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
16 Meatballs 30 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Servings Prep Time
16 Meatballs 30 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Homemade Meatballs
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
16 Meatballs 30 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Servings Prep Time
16 Meatballs 30 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: Meatballs
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Form into balls.
  2. TIP: If meatballs tend to stick to hands as they are formed, add more breadcrumbs.
  3. Place in a shallow baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.
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Sesame Bread

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SesameBreadheader

There are a few things that Aaron and the rest of Marguerite’s family can remember as a constant during Sunday dinners. One of them was fresh Mancini’s bread and the other was Pillsbury crescent rolls. While Aaron doesn’t remember this exactly, the twist (pun intended) on the standard Pillsbury Crescents Rolls is a great change of pace.

 

Sesame Bread

Here is what Marguerite had to say:

SesameBread

Making these sesame bread twists was very simple. Some of the directions seemed strange, however. Neither of us had ever beaten an egg in a pie pan and then used the pie pan as prep space. For two still relatively unexperienced cooks, twisting the dough and rolling it through the egg was difficult. The beauty of sprinkling sesame seeds is that the randomness has a sort of perfection to it, so no need to be a master chef.

Sesame Bread

The one thing we had trouble with was the length of time we took to bake the sesame bread. Its unclear whether or not we baked them too long, which is likely, or that the issues had to do with the small and inexpensive electric oven we have. Either way, they turned out beautifully and were delicious to boot. Aaron liked them as well, and is eager to make them again sometime. We hope you enjoy them, too.

Sesame Bread

 

 

 

Sesame Bread
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
12 Twists 20 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Servings Prep Time
12 Twists 20 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Sesame Bread
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
12 Twists 20 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Servings Prep Time
12 Twists 20 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: Twists
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Beat egg slightly in pie pan.
  3. Unroll dough in four rectangles. Press two rectangles together.
  4. Cut into six strips lengthwise. Twist each strip. Repeat.
  5. Roll in egg, then in seeds on wax paper.
  6. Place 1 1/2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.
  7. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown.
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Stuffed French Toast

Stuffed French Toast

 

I am not a fan of breakfast food. Ron Swanson, if he were a real person and not a character, would not like me. I generally find breakfast food to be way too heavy to consume that early in the morning and it makes me feel all kinds of sluggish. However, this stuffed french toast might inspire me to make an exception to my dislike of breakfast food.

Stuffed French Toast

Here is what Marguerite had to say:

Stuffed French Toast

It is very convenient that Marguerite wrote the dipping mixture in simple amounts so they can be multiplied for each serving you’re making.  While crushing the corn flakes was a little tedious, this whole recipe was simple to make.  Putting the layers of bread, cream cheese, jam, and corn flakes together took almost no time at all and then it was time for a delicious breakfast!

Stuffed French Toast

And a delicious breakfast it was!  Delicious and sweet, although sweet does not even begin to describe this stuffed french toast recipe. Seriously, it was like eating cake for breakfast.  I really enjoyed that the flavors of the french toast, the sweetness of the cream cheese and the jam, and the crunch of the corn flakes mixed together so well.

Stuffed French Toast

Aaron also really liked the stuffed french toast.  While he also thought they were sweet and were a nice combination of flavors, he enjoys sweet things more than I do.  He gobbled them up with his coffee and was very content afterwards.  If you would prefer a more simple french toast, you could just go for the plain dipped kind, it’s good on its own too!  Happy Breakfast-ing!

Stuffed French Toast

Stuffed French Toast
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 (2 slices of bread per serving) 10 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 (2 slices of bread per serving) 10 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Stuffed French Toast
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 (2 slices of bread per serving) 10 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 (2 slices of bread per serving) 10 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: (2 slices of bread per serving)
Instructions
  1. Whisk egg, cream, vanilla, and sugar together to make dip mixture.
  2. Spread cream cheese on one slice of bread. Add Jam. Close Sandwich.
  3. Dip in mixture.
  4. Cover with crushed cornflakes.
  5. Put 1 Tbsp of butter on griddle. Put Sandwich on low heat. Brown and turn.
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Basil Burgers

Basil Burgers

A flavorful burger in the middle of winter? Why not!

As excited as we are to try these again in the summer, these basil burgers were a great meal to enjoy on a cold, Chicago night. We also live in an apartment and have no outdoor space to grill, so trying these in the summer won’t make a huge difference.

Here is what Marguerite had to say:

Basil Burgers Original

Last week I mentioned we hosted our parents for a “try our blog food” dinner. Technically, my mother hosted and we cooked because we live 500ish miles away from our parents and needed a place to host while we were in town. In addition to the zucchini bread, the basil burgers were on the menu for the main course. Again, total hit. That was a huge compliment especially from my dad who is the grill master.

Basil Burgers

These burgers have a nice hint of basil which compliments the onion flavor. Neither Aaron nor myself is a huge fan of heavy onion, but paired with the ground beef and turkey it packed a positive punch.

The addition of parmesan cheese “made it” for Aaron. He loved how that flavor worked with the basil and felt like it added that something special to the burgers.

I loved how the basil burgers were 50% beef and 50% turkey, making them just a little leaner and  healthier.

Basil Burgers

When we made these for ourselves, we cooked them in a skillet on the stove. For our parents, we used my mother’s George Foreman grill. We also have one at our place, but forgot to use it until after dinner was ready. Both methods of cooking worked well and there wasn’t a noticeable difference in the flavor, however the grilled burgers had a more consistent texture. Which is to say they were less charred on the outside. If you prefer a more blackened burger, go for the skillet!

Basil Burger

Again, I have a feeling we’ll be throwing this recipe into the regular dinner rotation.

Basil Burgers
Print Recipe
A simple yet flavorful burger recipe.
Servings Prep Time
8 Burgers 20 minutes
Cook Time
10-15 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 Burgers 20 minutes
Cook Time
10-15 minutes
Basil Burgers
Print Recipe
A simple yet flavorful burger recipe.
Servings Prep Time
8 Burgers 20 minutes
Cook Time
10-15 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 Burgers 20 minutes
Cook Time
10-15 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: Burgers
Instructions
  1. Combine and mix well the following ingredients: Egg, onion, parmesan cheese, basil, ketchup, garlic, salt, and pepper.
  2. Add the ground beef and ground turkey and mix well.
  3. Cook.
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