Monday, September 28, 2009
45 comments »

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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10 Responses to “Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins”

  1. #
    1
    Molly Jean — October 26, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    Mmm those sound great. And they would go PERFECTLY with my coffee this morning 🙂

    Looking forward to the next installment of Pumpkin Week!

  2. #
    2
    Lindsey — October 26, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    So glad you enjoyed them!! Your pictures are great!!

  3. #
    3
    stephchows — October 26, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    a whole week of pumpkin! i’m in heaven 🙂

  4. #
    4
    Jelli Bean — October 26, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    Looks yummy. I love muffins, and Husband loves finding them in his “snack” containers at lunchtime too! Mmm.

  5. #
    5
    Andrea — October 27, 2009 at 2:53 am

    OT

    Hi! Congratulations for your blog! I’m Andrea, an Italian guy who created and managed a Food&Drink blog.
    What do you think about a link exchange? 🙂

    Sorry for my bad English! 😉

    Ricette Blog

  6. #
    6
    nutmegnanny — October 27, 2009 at 2:56 am

    Pumpkin is the best! It always says fall to me:) I ended up making my own puree this year and I really think it tasted better.

  7. #
    7
    Andrea — October 27, 2009 at 3:02 am

    OT

    Hi! Congratulations for your blog! I’m Andrea, an Italian guy who created and managed a Food&Drinks blog.
    What do you think about a link exchange? 🙂

    Sorry for my bad English! 😉

    Ricette Blog

  8. #
    8
    Sweet and Savory — October 28, 2009 at 4:06 am

    I love this recipe also. I think, I should stop looking at your blog. You will keep me baking for weeks. I am not really complaining.

  9. #
    9
    bridget {bake at 350} — October 31, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    Mmmm…pumpkin AND cranberries! I could totally use one (or 3) of these this morning!!!

  10. #
    10
    SnoWhite — October 31, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    pumpkin and cranberry are delicious together. thanks for another wonderful recipe.

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