Monday, September 28, 2009
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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.

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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

Bars and Brownies, Dessert
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12 Responses to “Chewy Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies”

  1. #
    1
    Fun and Fearless in Beantown — January 3, 2011 at 5:40 pm

    I love, love, love how serious your distinction is between chewy puffy vs. chewy thin vs. crispy thin cookies. It makes me smile.

  2. #
    2
    Jen — January 3, 2011 at 5:57 pm

    Like I said, I’m weird about cookies 🙂

  3. #
    3
    Cupcake Activist — January 3, 2011 at 6:02 pm

    I love molasses and chocolate chip cookies. Great idea to put them together. I like chewy thin cookies.

  4. #
    4
    Blog is the New Black — January 3, 2011 at 6:27 pm

    I don’t like flat cookies, either! i like fat, soft ones! (TWSS)

  5. #
    5
    Daisy — January 3, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    If f anyone is entitled to be weird abotu cookies it is you. these look yummy, I’m all about flat and chewy!

  6. #
    6
    Megan — January 3, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    One of my co-workers makes a ginger chocolate chip cookie that I was surprised to find I liked. These seem like they’d be similar.

  7. #
    7
    Shannon — January 4, 2011 at 12:13 am

    sometimes responses from friends and family is all you need! there’s always the next batch for you to love 🙂

  8. #
    8
    innochkaskitchen — January 4, 2011 at 2:39 am

    Hmmm so I love chocolate chip cookies…and my husband LOVES molasses cookies…I wonder if this is our perfect compromise…
    Great recipe!

  9. #
    9
    cookingwhims — January 4, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    These look and sound amazing–I’ll have to try these 🙂

  10. #
    10
    ann — January 4, 2011 at 4:11 pm

    These look great. It’s hard to find a good Molasses Cookie.

  11. #
    11
    Jo — January 15, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    I love these cookies because I am the worst person at remembering to take butter out to soften and with these I don’t have to worry about that. I made my first batch with milk chocolate chips and my second with butterscotch chips (since my FIL can’t have chocolate) and they were both wonderful. The 8 year old finds them too tangy – so more for me 🙂

  12. #
    12
    Julsey — January 27, 2011 at 4:09 pm

    Best. Cookies. Ever. Making them for a 2nd time today and mailing half to my friend in Colorado who desperately needs a pick me up 🙂

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