These Cherry Cheesecake Brownies start with fudgy homemade brownies, topped with cheesecake and cherry pie filling. They are the BEST brownies! Includes step by step recipe video
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When I came up with these brownies, I thought I was a complete genius.
I ate a lot of cheesecake in my University days.
When we lived in the city while I attended, we had a weekly “tradition”, if you will, with friends of ours: the guys went for wings and the girls went for cheesecake.
Kind of the best tradition ever, right?!?
Now that we have kids and don’t live in the city anymore, we don’t eat nearly as much cheesecake. It’s pretty sad, but luckily there are quite a few treats that are coming out of this kitchen.
These Cherry Cheesecake Brownies are one of my favorites (and I don’t make them nearly enough!), but this No Bake Oreo Cheesecake or even this classic Easy Cheesecake Recipe will do the trick just fine!
Luckily though, my good friend and cheesecake-eating partner was out for a visit the day that I made these the first time, so I had someone to share them with. She approved, and so here we are today!
Variations on these Cherry Cheesecake Brownies:
- You can swap the cherry pie filling for any flavor of pie filling — strawberry, blueberry or mixed berry would also be great!
- For a holiday twist, color the cheesecake filling with green food coloring (don’t add any mint flavoring though, I’m not sure mint and cherry are a good idea!)
- Make individual cherry cheesecake brownies in a muffin pan or mini muffin pan — use paper liners for easy removal
Tips and Tricks for Making the Cherry Cheesecake Brownies:
- The batter will be thick, so you won’t be able to spread the top layer well. That’s okay! It will just give you a peek of what’s inside.
- I use whole wheat flour because in this recipe you really can’t tell the difference. All purpose works perfectly as well!
- You can healthify the recipe slightly by using light cream cheese (which I usually do) and reduced sugar pie filling or making your own.
Cherry Cheesecake Brownies
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
Brownies:
- 1 cup butter melted, cooled slightly
- 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar 500g
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or sub all-purpose) 190g
- 1 cup cocoa 95g
- 1/2 tsp salt
Cherry Cheesecake filling
- 1 8 oz package cream cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 can cherry pie filling
Instructions
- Line a 9×13″ pan with tin foil and spray with cooking spray — this makes for easy clean up. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- BrowniesIn a large bowl, whisk together melted butter and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla and eggs and whisk until combined.
- Add flour, cocoa and salt and stir until combined. Batter will be thick.
- Spread half (or just over half) of the batter into the bottom of the pan.
- Cherry Cheesecake filling:With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, egg, vanilla and sugar until smooth.
- Spread the cream cheese mixture over the brownie batter. Top with spoonfuls of cherry pie filling and spread slightly.
- Drop spoonfuls of remaining brownie batter on top of the pie filling. You won’t be able to spread the brownie batter easily, you will just try to cover a good amount (but certainly all) of the filling with the batter. Smooth out the batter the best that you can.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes, until center appears set. Note that your brownies might still have a little jiggle to them — this is because of all of that gooey deliciousness below. I baked mine for 35 minutes in a dark non-stick pan.
- Let cool to room temperature before cutting. They will cut more easily if refrigerated for a few hours, but I couldn’t wait, so I didn’t!
Nutrition Information
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Tag @thereciperebelPost and recipe updated from February 3, 2015
Karen says
I was wondering if you can use more than a half can of the cherry pie filling, and maybe more of the other ingredients in the cherry cheesecake filling.
Ashley Fehr says
You can, but the mixture would be very thick and it wouldn’t bake quite right. It would be too wet and too thick. If you want to use a full can, I would double the entire recipe and bake in two pans
Taylor says
How long would you bake it in the muffin tins?
Ashley Fehr says
I’ve never tried, sorry! I would start at 20 minutes and adjust as you think necessary
Valerie says
Great Recipe. Could you use silicone brownie molds for this recipe?
Ashley Fehr says
I would think that would work great!
Debra says
Do they need to be refrigerated?
Ashley Fehr says
They are best refrigerated after a few hours
Sarah Loyd says
But do they need to be refrigerated after baking? Are they okay if they sit out completely??
Ashley Fehr says
They can sit out for several hours but I would refrigerate them after them. Refrigerating will also help them to slice better.
Mildred Creasy says
If I use a box brownie mix is it just one box?
Ashley Fehr says
You will want a brownie mix to fit a 9×13″ pan
Pam says
Can a box brownie mix work with this?
Ashley Fehr says
Yes absolutely!
Lori says
A delectable dessert! The only modifications I made since I ran out of sugar, I used 1/3 cup of brown sugar when making the cream cheese mixture and after refrigerating overnight, topped with chocolate frosting from the can.
Ashley Fehr says
Thanks Lori!
Liz says
Can you make it with fresh cherries?
Ashley Fehr says
Yes, I think that would work great! I would just chop and add them in place of the filling
anne-marie toothill says
I altered this recipe a little bit because the husband does not like fruit. After I put the brownie mix in the pan, I put scor toffee chips on it. I then put chocolate chips in my cream cheese mixture and put that on top. Everyone loved them.
Ashley Fehr says
That’s a great idea!
Johanne Thompson says
This is truly an amazing desert!! It is now a family requested favorite!!! Thank you for sharing your recipe with thae world!!!
Ashley Fehr says
I’m glad you liked them!
Dana Gilberg says
I have made this with yellow cake in place of the brownie, and then topped the cherry filling and cheesecake with spoonfulls of sugar cookie dough. Yum. Cannot wait to try it with brownie!
Ashley Fehr says
That’s such a great idea!