Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies

Monday, September 28, 2009

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 – from Cara’s Cravings – makes 16 bars
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 cocoa powder – I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

Cheesecake Batter
6 oz cream cheese, softened - I used 8oz
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar - I used 1/2 cup
2 tbsp flour - I used 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp
1/2 cup pumpkin puree - I used 2/3 cup
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract - I used 1/3 tsp
1/2 tsp cinnamon – I used 2/3 tsp
1/4 tsp each ground ginger and ground cloves - I used 1/3 tsp

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8×8″ 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.

Bars and Brownies, Dessert

42 comments »

42 Responses to “Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies”

#
1

Becca — September 28, 2009 at 2:25 pm

These look fantastic and are so festive!
#
2

The Woman — September 28, 2009 at 2:48 pm

Oh my, these look divine! I recently made something similar, but with no chocolate – just a pumpkin batter with cream cheese topping. But I definitely think I must try these too.
#
3

ABowlOfMush — September 28, 2009 at 3:15 pm

These are absolutely beautiful!
#
4

Carrie — September 28, 2009 at 3:41 pm

Look wonderful!
#
5

oneordinaryday — September 28, 2009 at 4:54 pm

These look awesome. I just wish it made a bigger pan!
#
6

Jen — September 28, 2009 at 4:56 pm

They’re pretty rich, but I would imagine you could just double it and make it in a 9×13 pan if you wanted!
#
7

Ingrid — September 28, 2009 at 5:14 pm

I made pumpkin spice brownies on Friday and they were delish so I bet these are EVEN BETTER! Thanks for sharing and I’ll be following your tweaks!
~ingrid
#
8

Justin — September 28, 2009 at 5:41 pm

i always make a pumpkin cheesecake in the fall with a ginger cookie crumb crust, but i’m liking the chocolate component in your recipe even more.
#
9

Mia — September 28, 2009 at 5:49 pm

oh yum – love pumpkin, and the chocolate/pumpkin combo looks wonderful!
#
10

Heather@BFM — September 28, 2009 at 6:03 pm

These look great! Is there a way I can make them non-dairy? Something I can sub the cream cheese for? Thanks!
#
11

Jen — September 28, 2009 at 6:12 pm

Heather – I’ve had great luck subbing Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese in cheesecake recipes in the past. I think that would definitely work and you could use Earth Balance in the brownie portion. Let me know how it turns out if you try it.
#
12

Jennifer — September 28, 2009 at 7:41 pm

Hi Jenn! I just wanted to let you know that you won the giveaway on my blog last week. I emailed you, but never got a response. Could you email me your mailing address to jennharton@paducah.com. I have to pass it along to myblogspark so they can send you your prize package!
#
13

Heather@BFM — September 28, 2009 at 8:11 pm

Thanks, Jen…I’ll let you know how they come out!
#
14

nutmegnanny — September 28, 2009 at 9:01 pm

OH wow these do look delicious! I love all that swirled pumpkin…yum!
#
15

Nina — September 29, 2009 at 4:29 am

Those look amazing!
#
16

Irene — September 29, 2009 at 7:14 am

Wow, I love these! My husband would die of happiness of I made these for him – pumpkin cheesecake is his favorite thing for fall.
#
17

thereddeer — September 29, 2009 at 12:25 pm

They look like tiger fur – very cool! What an interesting flavour combination.
#
18

Colleen — September 29, 2009 at 6:26 pm

We love these at my house! I like your idea of dark chocolate – I will have to try that next time.
#
19

stephchows — September 29, 2009 at 7:16 pm

beautiful! And they look so delicious!! I agree I don’t normally think of pumpkin with chocolate… but you have me convinced!
#
20

Stephanie Wagner — September 29, 2009 at 11:55 pm

The tops of these are a work of art! Love it!
#
21

Nancy @ Live love laugh — September 30, 2009 at 12:34 am

Three of my favorite thi ngs in one dessert! Chocolate and pumpkin and cheesecake! How perfect…
~Nancy
#
22

Nancy @ Live love laugh — September 30, 2009 at 12:34 am

Three of my favorite thi ngs in one dessert! Chocolate and pumpkin and cheesecake! How perfect…
~Nancy
#
23

tagskie — October 1, 2009 at 8:00 am

hi.. just dropping by here… have a nice day! http://kantahanan.blogspot.com/
#
24

Pantry Raid Blog — October 6, 2009 at 2:58 am

The side-view shot totally won me over. These look delicious!
#
25

bakingsimplicity — October 6, 2009 at 2:21 pm

This looks so yummy.
I now know what to make for the office potluck!
#
26

Skylar Wolfe — October 12, 2009 at 7:39 pm

Those look amazing. I love pumpkin with chocolate, I plan on making these soon.
#
27

fawkes — October 14, 2009 at 5:14 am

Your brownies look delicious! I am curious since I would like mine to taste more like pumpkin pie than plain pumpkin should i add pumpkin pie spices or follow your recipe for the spices?
Thanks!
#
28

Jen — October 14, 2009 at 12:03 pm

fawkes – There are a decent amount of spices in the pumpkin portion of the batter. I would recommend making is as the recipe states, then taste it before you pour it into the pan. Maybe then add some pumpkin pie spice if you’d like.
#
29

lifeoftheparty — October 20, 2009 at 1:42 pm

I made these over the weekend and they were scrumptious!! I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin but this recipe is now a fall staple. I plan on making them for the family on Thanksgiving…thanks for sharing this!
#
30

strmywthr3 — October 21, 2009 at 1:06 pm

I made these the other day and they were great! a hit at work! yum! thanks!
#
31

malelanie — October 29, 2009 at 2:21 pm

I stumbled across your blog from a Facebook friend and made these brownies last night. DELICIOUS!! I doubled the recipe and it does just fit in a 9×13 pan and took about 60 mins to bake. It’s worth the wait for them to be chilled in the fridge. The flavors are even more delicious that way.
#
32

Dorothy — October 29, 2009 at 8:00 pm

Oh YUM! And gorgeous, to boot. I never thought pumpkin and chocolate go together either, until I tried it! Now I’m hooked. Good idea to double up on the cheesecake layer…you can never have enough pumpkin cheesecake after all!
#
33

nutmegnanny — October 30, 2009 at 3:10 pm

Thank you so much for participating in our event! These brownies look amazing. They say Halloween to me for sure!
#
34

Shortcake — November 2, 2009 at 4:52 pm

I made these– now I love them! Will be repeated each fall
#
35

Lexi — January 4, 2010 at 3:54 pm

Amazing! I loved these so much I played with them a bit and made cranberry cheesecake brownies for my christmas baking.(I didn’t stumble on to these till christmas.) I’ll let you know when I put those up on my blog! With credit to you of course!
#
36

Jen — January 4, 2010 at 3:59 pm

Lexi – cranberry cheesecake brownies sound very intriguing. Can’t wait to see them.
#
37

Kasey — March 3, 2010 at 1:37 am

Hi Jen! I made these for Heather@BFM’s (comment listed above) birthday and she loved them! Unfortunately I could not find the Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder (I tried 3 stores) so I had to make them with the regular cocoa powder. Can you tell me where you found the Hershey’s Special Dark??
#
38

Jen — March 3, 2010 at 1:57 am

Kasey – I have actually had a hard time finding it as well. I had actually all but given up on it until one day it caught my eye at the grocery store. I proceeded to buy all three containers. I would say just keep an eye out for it and good luck!
#
39

Pup Wanna Be — September 28, 2010 at 12:35 am

1/2 cup of flour seems like very little. Is that correct?
#
40

Jen — September 28, 2010 at 12:50 am

Pup – Yes, that is the correct amount of flour. Most brownie batters have very little flour in them.
#
41

rachellehcar — September 29, 2010 at 1:39 am

Just made these- delicious! I only had the milk chocolate powder, so I’m excited to try it again with the special dark powder.
#
42

Courtney — September 13, 2012 at 6:35 am

I doubled the recipe and it perfectly filled a 13×9 pan so you might try it. And they are amazing. Also I used margerine not butter and found they were more moist. Happy Baking!