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 these Strawberry Cheesecake Bars, 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 granulated 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
Lyle Watkins says
Can I utilize Monk Fruit sweetener instead of sugar?
Can I utilize Greek Yogurt instead of Cream Cheese?
What would change in the nutritional content?
Ashley Fehr says
Sorry, I have not tried so I cannot answer those questions.
Sarah Relka says
Can almond or coconut flour be used instead of wheat & all purpose flour?
Ashley Fehr says
I haven’t tried, sorry.
Jim says
I don’t know how you keep the cheesecake filling in between the brownie layers since the brownie batter is so heavy it pushes the cheesecake filling to the top I have made it twice and both times the same result
Ashley Fehr says
Hi Jim! I haven’t had that problem before — it may sink a little but not so much that I don’t get some nice marbling on top.
Melanie Teeters says
I have had the same issue. So I just drop small tsp of the brownie mix over the cheesecake layer and then lightly swirl.
Kellie says
How do I store this after it’s baked? Refrigerator or counter top?