Guiltless Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownie Cupcakes

For the brownie layer:

1. Line your cupcake pans with foil lined cupcake liners. This will ensure that you don’t lose any of the brownie base to the liner! Recipe makes roughly 20 cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Using a food processor (I’ve never tried it with a blender but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work just as well) puree the beans. Again, be sure to not just drain them but rinse them as well.
3. Add the cocoa, baking soda, salt, sugar, egg, applesauce, vanilla and flour and blend thoroughly. It should be nice and smooth—there shouldn’t be any lumps.
4. Evenly distribute among the cupcake liners. I used approximately 2 tablespoons of batter per liner.

For the cheesecake layer:

1. Using a food processor (or blender) puree the cottage cheese until smooth.
2. Add the cream cheese and yogurt and blend until smooth.
3. Add egg, vanilla, sugar and cornstarch and blend well. Again, there should be no lumps.
4. Stir in 4 tablespoons of the chocolate chips, setting aside the rest as topping.
5. Pour the cream cheese batter over the unbaked brownie batter. The cupcake liners will be pretty full.
6. Sprinkle the leftover chocolate chips on top.
7. Bake at 350 F for 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Remove from oven.
8. Allow to completely cool before serving. Refrigerate if not serving right away.

Recipe makes 20 cupcakes; 130 calories per cupcake.