Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies with Kahlúa Peppermint Mocha

These dense fudgy brownies with minty cheesecake swirled into them are a perfect balance of chocolate, mint and rich cheesecake. If you like your brownies super minty, consider adding an additional 1/2 teaspoon to the cheesecake batter but I prefer to have a more subtle mint so it doesn’t overpower the brownie. The secret to the balance of deep flavors is using the limited edition Kahlúa Peppermint Mocha in the brownie part. I used a little bit of food coloring in the cheesecake to get the red and green swirls but if you are food coloring adverse, skip that part as it’s purely decorative. If you can’t find the limited edition Kahlúa Peppermint Mocha, just use regular Kahlúa and add a 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the brownie mix instead. Note that the cheesecake batter calls for cream cheese at room temperature. If you use cold cream cheese the batter will be lumpy so plan accordingly or place the still foil wrapped cream cheese in warm water for a few minutes to help bring it up to room temperature.