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. 
this is such a fantastic idea!! I would make cookie dough batter with my friends in middle school… leave out the eggs, and just eat it with a spoon LOL so good!
This looks awesome! Since I’m a huge fan of cookie dough I know I will love this recipe 🙂
Ha – my husband loves the dough more than the cookie as well. I starred these – DEFINITELY making them soon.
Oooh these look delicious!! And combine the best of 2 worlds 🙂
Sues
holy cow! cookie dough + brownie? I think I’m in heaven
what a cool idea for the cookie dough layer. i used to make raw cookie dough (with egg beaters) and keep it in the freezer just for snacking
Yum. I made a similar recipe but I put a thin chocolate ganache on top. It’s one of the best recipes I’ve posted, but I’m a sucker for that raw dough.
I think I might have to agree with your bro and hubby. I love chocolate chip cookies, but it’s the dough that makes me weak in the knees! This recipe is right up my alley.
These look great! I also let my husband lick the beaters, but occasionally I slink behind the counter beside the sink and keep all the batter for myself. He’s usually too involved with TV to even notice.
LOL, oh my gosh! I just noticed this had a anti-Weight Watchers label. How funny!
Those look insanely good!!Thanks for sharing the recipe!
~ingrid
My high school made cookie dough covered brownies back in the day. They had a cult following and always sold out before the last lunch period. I never understood why you needed the brownie when a spoon works just fine.
Oh man. So sinful. Reminds me of the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream “Half Baked. Half brownie, half cookie dough. I can’t say no to that stuff.
Yummmm!! Oh my goodnessIsao adore cookie dough… This combination is beautiful!
sounds delicious!
these brownies looked so good I tried to make them myself! I love cookie dough AND brownies – perfect combo! Yours look much better of course. Here are mine: http://foodiesatworkdotcom.blogspot.com/2009/12/cookie-dough-brownies.html
YUM! These sound great!
AHHHH these look amaaazzzinnngggg. A little late in finding these but yeah I’m gonna need to make them.
-Whitney
AHHHH these look amaaazzzinnngggg. A little late in finding these but yeah I’m gonna need to make them.
-Whitney
I just made these and they got rave reviews at work! Definitely a keeper – thanks, as always, for sharing a great recipe and photos!
The best of both worlds!! These look awesome.
AWESOME,,,,,,,,,,,,Thank you.