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. 
Oo those look amazing! I haven’t been to your website in awhile. I love the new look! I actually said Mmmmmm out loud as I clicked on the link. LOL
beantownbaker — January 8th, 2013 @ 12:14 pm
Welcome back! Glad you enjoy the new look. These cookies are definitely MMMmmm! In fact, I brought one in my lunch today 🙂
I just subscribed by email. I use your recipes all of the time!
beantownbaker — January 8th, 2013 @ 8:43 pm
What a great idea. I always forget about that feature 🙂
I can’t get enough peppermint, even after the holidays! I make a similar cookie, but love that you added white chocolate in for these 🙂
beantownbaker — January 8th, 2013 @ 8:44 pm
Peppermint is definitely one of my favorite flavors. I loved the candy pieces that were on the edges of these cookies and got all crispy!
I didn’t get to decorate the house or get a tree… I have a feeling I may go overboard next Christmas. Hope you guys are settling in!
beantownbaker — January 8th, 2013 @ 8:44 pm
I already got Hubby agree to two trees next year! hope the new house is going well for you guys.
Kind of sad that I have to wait another 9-10 months before it becomes socially acceptable to make these….
beantownbaker — January 8th, 2013 @ 8:45 pm
It’s still winter, so it’s definitely still acceptable in my book!
great tip on the candy canes! what a fabulous way to break in the new oven 🙂
These cookies look so yummy, what a great idea with candy canes