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. 
I love this simple recipe, and it will be a great idea for my sister-in-law’s bridal shower (both she and her fiance have M names). You mention in your other posts about using a squeeze bottle – is this any particular type of squeeze bottle? I’m not sure how to find one that would work for this purpose. What do you use? Thanks!
Awww, totally cute! It came up in my google reader and my stomach growled!!! YUM!
Yum! I’m making these this weekend for birthday treats. Can’t believe you can’t find almond bark. There are stacks of it at our small-town grocery store in Iowa.
Sarah – I use squeeze bottles from Michaels. They look like this.
Teresa – yes, it’s crazy that they don’t have almond bark out East. In the Midwest you can get it anywhere!
Thanks Jen! These are awesome. I have so many new pages bookmarked since finding your blog. P.S. I was in TJ Maxx tonight and found a jar of polka dot sprinkles, like true big polka dots, and I thought of you!
Do you have any Super WalMarts near you? I get them there all the time in Massachusetts. They are carried year round in the baking aisle. I’m not sure if regular WalMarts have them too.
These look yummy and I think that my college-age nephews would love them…how whould they travel? Have you got suggestions for things that will travel well in the mail? Thank you
mrs. c – these would travel really well. I like them straight from the fridge or freezer. I would freeze them for a few days prior to mailing. That’s what I do with anything I ship. I have great luck with cookies and brownies going in the mail.
have you tried coloring almond bark before? I tried a couple months ago and it was a disaster, so just curious
KV – I have not tried to color almond bark. The Wilton’s candy melts do come in a variety of colors though, so you could use those. They are sold at Michaels or Hobby Lobby.
Just wanted to clarify that I meant I find almond bark at Super WalMart here in MA. I went back to see if you had responded, and I realized my comment didn’t really make much sense!
Thanks. I don’t shop much at Walmart… It’s probably better that I can’t find this stuff anywhere, otherwise I’d be making these all the time!
Retirer en discernement en visitant cette d?mes plaisanteries tel cette contradictoire localité.
OBAT LUKA BAKAR