Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Ingredients:
2 eggs, at room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
3 oz unsweetened chocolate

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour or spray with baking spray one 8×8 inch baking dish. In a small pan, melt the chocolate and 2 tablespoons of butter together, stirring occasionally. Set aside. In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs and sugars until fluffy. Add the vanilla and melted butter, mix thoroughly. Add in the baking powder and flour. Beat to combine. Divide the batter into two bowls. Add the melted chocolate to one bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the cream cheese, nutmeg and pumpkin to the second bowl of batter and mix thoroughly. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared pan. Drop large spoonfuls of the chocolate batter on top and swirl throughly with a knife for a marbled look. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out nearly clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Slice and serve.

My thoughts:

I’ve had luck with cheesecake brownies in the past but wanted to make something a little more seasonal. These are really moist and flavorful brownies. Keep in mind when you make this recipe that it is pumpkin cheesecake flavored and not pumpkin pie flavored. Pumpkin has a subtle squash flavor that the tang of cheesecake compliments, but if you’ve only ever eaten pumpkin in pie form, it might not taste quite the way you expect. I hadn’t thought of making that distinction, but that’s the reaction that I’ve been getting from people who tried them, the brownies were great, but tasted nothing like pumpkin pie! Which, of course, they weren’t supposed to-it’s the spices that give pumpkin pie that distinctive taste and aroma, not the pumpkin.

24 Comments

  1. Ooh what a great idea. These look so yummy, and you are right about the spices flavouring pumpkin stuff and not the pumpkin. Still, pumpkin flavour is one of my faves!

  2. This reminds me of my mom’s pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Also, I wonder how it might turn out if you went with a more “pumpkin pie” taste (with all the traditional spices, rather than the “pumpkin cheesecake” route…

  3. Pumpkin, chocolate and cheesecake…I think I’m in heaven! 😉

  4. I wanted to make something similar this past weekend for our Thanksgiving. No one would let me, they all wanted pumpkin pie. I’m going to show them how good yours look so they can see what they missed out on!

  5. Those look delicious – I can’t wait to try them. Like Larissa, I too wonder about going with traditional pumpkin pie spices. I might try them both ways.

  6. I really dislike pumpkin pie-the smell alone makes me nausous, but if you are into that sort of thing, adding those spices to the cheesecake filling would probably be okay. I do think it would compete with the chocolate more-right now the flavor balance is near perfect.

  7. Yum! Scott would love these.

    I have a recipe for chocolate pumpkin cheese cake which I think is the best thing ever, but he claims it’s too rich to eat more than a small bite. I think he’s crazy and could eat the entire thing in an hour 😉 I’ll have to try these and see if he likes them better.

  8. i’ve always shied away from making cheesecake brownies, but these look way better with the pumpkin. yum!

  9. These would be delicious for Thankgiving, as I’m not a fan of pumpkin pie.

  10. What the heck do you do with the rest of the can of pumpkin?

  11. Make something else. There are hundreds of recipes that call for canned pumpkin.

  12. It seems like the fruity-squash flavor of pumpkin would go really well with chocolate and cheesecake. I wish I could have sampled!

  13. My, these sound great! I love pumpkin
    cheesecake, and I know what you mean about the distinction from pie–when
    I first brought pumpkin cheesecake to my family for Thanksgiving, they were a little weirded out… but they loved it anyway!

  14. These look delicious! I am so excited fall is here…I love all these flavors. 🙂

  15. Holy cow! That is genius

  16. Oh Rachel, these are absolutely heavenly. I made a batch Saturday evening & we really enjoyed them. Thanks for the great recipe.

    toniacooks.blogspot.com/2007/10/pumpkin-cheesecake-swirl-brownies.html

  17. hi! i found your blog via tastespotting. your recipes look great. i actually tried these out last night and they were pretty tasty. 🙂 i think i may have done something wrong with the chocolate part, but it was still pretty good. and i loved the texture of the pumpkin layer.

    mrsjkimcheese.blogspot.com/2007/11/tastastic-tuesday.html

  18. Mrs. J: I wonder if you might have over melted (slightly scorched) the chocolate? Some times that makes the texture go off.

  19. I made these tonight! It was my first time making anything cheesecake related and they turned out great. We are starting a “Treat Friday” at work, and I’m the first one to bring in anything. I kept it a big secret though 😉

  20. hi rachael,
    i just made your brownies! they look great, i sprinkles them with chocolate chips on top. although most my my brownies turned into chocolate brownies, i guessed on 3 oz and thing i did more, since i have no idea what 3 oz is. but more chocolate is never a bad thing!!!

    Ive been addicted to the Au Bon Pain soup….do you have a pumpkin soup recipe?

  21. I have no idea why I would read this when I am hungry. Now, I am starving! Looks like this recipe is in my (immediate) future! Thanks for sharing.

  22. Anything with pumpkin & chocolate makes me happy!

  23. Can I use egg replacer in this recipe. It substitutes nicely in some recipes but not in all. Any ideas about this for non-egg eaters?
    Thanks!
    Karen

  24. Hi Karen-
    I really wouldn't know, I've never used egg replacers but I think it would be worth a try. I don't think anything else would work.