Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies
Fall has definitely arrived! With all the delicious soups, chili, and baking with apples and pumpkin, it’s by far the most fun food season. These bars have popped up all over the Internet after showing up in Cara’s blog two years ago. Hubby has been asking for these bars for about two weeks now. With the shortage of canned pumpkin going on right now, I couldn’t make these until now because I just couldn’t find canned pumpkin!
I made these when we had some overnight guests and everyone loved them. We got impatient and cut them after they had cooled for about a hour. They hadn’t been chilled so they were still a bit gooey and warm. They’re delicious at this point and also after they’ve been chilled (the pumpkin flavor really shines once they’ve chilled).
I made a few adjustments to Cara’s recipe. One of the bloggers who made these said she wished there was more of the pumpkin mixture, so I upped that part of the recipe. Cara’s original recipe called for 6 oz of cream cheese and since a block of cream cheese is 8 oz, I just adjusted the other ingredients of the cheesecake portion so that it would use a full block of cream cheese. My adjustments are shown below.
I also don’t tend to think of pumpkin and chocolate together. It seems to me that white chocolate or cream cheese frosting are natural partners with pumpkin. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that dark chocolate would pair with pumpkin better than milk chocolate. So in the brownie portion of these bars, I used some dark cocoa.
Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies
Yield: 16 bars
Ingredients:
For the Brownie Batter
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
For the Cheesecake Batter
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp flour
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 tsp pure vanilla
2/3 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp ground ginger
1/3 tsp ground cloves
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8x8" square metal baking pan.
Beat together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time. Combine dry ingredients and then gradually stir into butter mixture with a wooden spoon. In separate bowl, beat together cheesecake batter ingredients.
Spread about 2/3 of chocolate batter into prepared pan, and spoon cheesecake batter over. Dollop remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. Swirl the batters together by running a butter knife back and forth through the pan.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is set. Cool completely on wire rack and chill before cutting and serving.
Original Beantown Baker Recipe, inspired by Cara's Cravings
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Mmmm amazing! I love all of the different flavors in each part of the recipe! Perfect for the 17th…maybe even with a drop of green food coloring =)
I’ve been wanting to make a version of htis for awhile and almost did this weekend. Now my plan is tackle them for St. Pat’s. Thanks for reminding me to do this.
My husband and his Army buddies LOVE these cupcakes! I get requests for them almost weekly!
sounds so good!! I could go for one now 🙂
Well I love Irish Car Bombs so in dessert form I know I would love it even more!
Wow – I am dying to try these. They look amazing!
Wow these look amazing. That looks like the perfect amount of frosting, too.
I made these for a friend’s birthday last month and absolutely fell in love with them. They are the perfect St. Patty’s day cupcake. Or any day really. My friends proclaimed them the best they had ever tasted. Yours look fantastic!
What a wonderful recipe! And just in time for St Pats 😀
BB
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http://www.brisbanebaker.blogspot.com
Mmm, they look amazing and are so perfect for St. Patty’s Day – yum!
Wow these are some fancy looking cupcakes! Great job 🙂
I’m still in the process of making these…(Have yet to Ice and taste) But My ganache didn’t come out right…I stayed runny even when completely cooled and I can’t figure out what I did wrong 🙁
Shayna – So sorry to hear the ganache didn’t set up. Did you try putting it in the fridge? I’ve never had that issue…
I am ready to make these but I do not have enough bittersweet chocolate for the ganache. Can I use semi-sweet or unsweetened chocolate? Will it still taste okay?
beantownbaker — March 16th, 2013 @ 2:49 pm
Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. Semisweet would work ok, I wouldn’t use unsweetened.
Have you ever made these into a cake? I have made them multiple times and love them but was hoping to make this into a cake for a birthday. Any thoughts?